National Engineering Day 2026: Now Hiring the Engineers of 2076

Today is National Engineering Day, and the Royal Academy of Engineering is recruiting for jobs that do not exist yet.^[1]

The Academy turns 50 this year. Rather than looking back, it is marking the anniversary by looking fifty years ahead, to 2076, and asking what engineers’ lives on Earth and in space will need by then.^[1] A panel of engineering experts has sketched out everyday life in 2076, from the homes we live in to the food we eat and the games we play, and that vision has been turned into a set of nine job adverts for the engineers of the future.^[2]

Not just rocket scientists

Space is the headline, but the Academy is clear that it will not only need aerospace specialists. It expects to need structural engineers, nuclear engineers and biomedical engineers too: the people who make sure life on another planet, and back on Earth, does not just survive but thrives.^[1]

Take homes. Living structures in space today provide only the bare essentials. By 2076, the expert panel imagines homes in orbit with lighting that follows our body clocks, artwork, plants and even pets. The same thinking could make homes on Earth more comfortable and sustainable where space is tight.^[2] Building them will take multi-disciplinary engineers, architects who design for wellbeing and structural experts who can work with unfamiliar materials in harsh conditions.^[2]

The jobs of 2076 start with the jobs of today

Every future role has a real one underneath it. Our own entry is an Orbital Habitat Engineer: someone who turns space stations into places where people can live well, not just get by. The closest job today is a structural or mechanical engineer, and the route in starts with maths and physics, followed by a degree or an engineering apprenticeship.

Not sure which branch fits you? Our guide to which engineering discipline suits you is a good place to start, and our beginner’s guide to finding an engineering apprenticeship covers the earn-while-you-learn route. If you want to know what the work pays, see engineering salaries in the UK, from apprentice to chartered engineer.

How to join in

• Look through the 2076 job adverts, which the Academy is sharing on its resources page and social channels today.^[3]
• Teachers and club leaders can use the free toolkit, including an editable job advert template, to have students invent their own 2076 role and pair it with a real engineering job that exists today.^[4]
• Share what you come up with using #NationalEngineeringDay.^[2]

It makes a good warm-up for Tomorrow’s Engineers Week, which runs from 9 to 13 November.^[2] Dates and links are on our National Engineering Day listing.