Now hiring: the engineers of 2076
Now hiring: the engineers of 2076 celebrates the Academy's 50th anniversary not by looking back, but by looking fifty years ahead and considerably further up.
What will life look like on Earth, and in space, in 2076? What engineering and engineers will be needed to make that life possible? As well as aerospace specialists, they'll be structural engineers, nuclear engineers, biomedical engineers. They'll be the people who will make sure that life on another planet, as well as on Earth, doesn't just survive, it thrives.
And we need to be recruiting them now.
We are launching a campaign with a twist for engineering jobs that don't exist yet. We are imagining the engineering careers that will build all aspects of our lives - from the homes we live in and the food we eat, to the games we play, and more - in 2076.
To understand the skills we’ll need for on- and off-world living in 2076, we’ve assembled a panel of experts, each contributing their own vision of everyday life across several different categories.
From these insights we created nine imaginative job descriptions for roles that could exist in 2076. These range from designing future habitats and life-support systems to developing new technologies and innovations that will shape everyday life.
Toolkit available on the resources page.
AI will make engineering skills more valuable, not less, say Britain’s leading innovators and technologists
- 92% of Britain’s leading engineers think systems thinking, problem solving and critical thinking – core engineering skills - will become more valuable in an age of AI.
- 77% expect a new generation of engineering roles and specialisms to emerge thanks to AI.
A new survey of Fellows, research grant holders and prize winners of the Royal Academy of Engineering finds Britain’s leading engineers optimistic about the future of their profession.
At a time when public fears about AI and jobs are widely reported, they believe AI will make engineering skills more valuable, not less. More than nine in ten (92%) of those surveyed agree that systems thinking, problem solving and critical thinking, the habits of mind at the core of engineering, will become even more valuable in the age of AI. Three quarters (75%) agree strongly, and just 2% disagree.
Over three quarters (77%) also expect AI to create a new generation of engineering roles and specialisms that barely exist today and only 26% think we will lose more jobs than we gain.
A look back at National Engineering Day
National Engineering Day impact by year
National Engineering Day 2025: AI-Z of Engineering
In 2025, National Engineering Day focused on the future of engineering, encouraging the public to re-engineer what it means to be an engineer and picture today’s engineers shaping the technologies, industries and systems that will define the future.
We designed the AI-Z of Engineering, to show just how broad, dynamic and essential engineering is today – and where it’s going next. The guide was crowd-sourced by engineers working across every sector, and showed what engineers were doing today and how their roles could evolve to shape an even better future. The guide continues to evolve as a living compendium of engineering roles.
We launched the AI-Z of engineering because perceptions of engineering are narrow and outdated, and these perceptions are stopping young people from choosing engineering as a career. We created this guide to show the variety of engineering roles today, and forecast what these roles could be doing in 25 years time.
An engineering vision for the future
Leading futurologist Tracey Follows, who has been recognised among Forbes’ top 50 Female Futurists, looked at how engineering could shape the world of a very distant tomorrow, by delving into the AI-Z guide and weaving this together with societal and technological trends to predict what roles would be available in 2050.
Throughout the Day, thanks to our incredible community of partners and supports we achieved:
- Over 200 submissions for current and future roles in engineering
- Generated over 32,000 engagements and over 1,500 posts across LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, X and Facebook
- News reached 954 million people across the UK
- We achieved 9 national pieces, 2 consumer pieces and 5 regional pieces (including 4 syndicated pieces)
- We held a parliamentary reception at the House of Lords encouraging over 140 MPs and Peers to discover the spectrum of engineering through the AI-Z of Engineering, and pledge to champion engineering and engineers in the future
- Over 140 people from the engineering community joined in Parliament. At this event we launched the Engineers 2030 final report, along with its ten recommendations to develop engineers fit for the future
- We attended No.10 Downing St for a roundtable focused on how we create engineers for the future, hosted by Secretary of State Liz Kendall and Science Minister Lord Vallance
- HM the King presented the 2024 and 2025 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Laureates with their trophies, followed by a dinner at St James’ Palace
- Over 100 people attended Innovation Late in Liverpool gaining an entirely different understanding of what 'innovation' means. 82% of people’s understanding of engineering changed due to this event.
National Engineering Day 2024: Engineering Role Models
In 2024 we unveiled a modern statue of a living engineer and a digital artwork of five engineering role models, in a bid to inspire a new generation into the profession.
Our research showed that engineering-specific role models are a strong influencing factor on young people to choose engineering. In the summer of 2024 we launched a public call for nominations of engineering role models. Our judging panel selected a group of these whose stories we shared on National Engineering Day.
Specially designed by visual artist Kelly Anna, the striking new statue is of Macclesfield-based engineer Alice Kan. The statue encapsulates Alice’s remarkable journey, achievements, and personal resilience in engineering and vaccine production. The central, dynamic figure of Alice stands strong with an empowered posture, symbolising her resilience, leadership, and unwavering determination. Alice is shown looking upward, representing hope, optimism, and her visionary approach to the future.
Throughout the Day, thanks to our incredible community of partners and supports we achieved:
- 158 nominations for 96 individuals
- Generated over 42 million impressions and more than 78,000 engagements across social media.
- High profile engineers and engineering champions such as Ferrari UK and Dame Stephanie Shirley, other influential accounts such as Lewis Hamilton, Sadiq Khan, Ferrari UK, Sir Patrick Vallance, EasyJet and many more posted about the Day on social media.
- Baroness Brown FREng, Chair of the Lords Science and Technology Committee, Chi Onwurah MP, Labour MP for Newcastle Central, Chair of the Science, Innovation, and Technology Committee and MPs from South West, Sutton and Cheam and Northampton South joined us to unveil the statue.
- Over 200 people attended Innovation Late to a hear a series of talks from extraordinary engineers and inspiring innovators. We showcased the best of British inventions tackling the world’s greatest challenges, from transforming robots, through to driving simulators, and even brain scanners.
- 267 people attended, gaining an entirely different understanding of what 'innovation' means. 76% of people’s understanding of engineering changed due to this event.
National Engineering Day 2023: Everyday Engineering
In 2023, we held a national competition: Everyday Engineering, which was open to all the UK’s kitchen table engineers, with ideas and innovations that could make or are making our daily life more sustainable. A public vote was held on National Engineering Day, 1 November 2023, which decided the nation's favourite sustainable idea or innovation.
Our news story on the day highlighted how outdated perceptions of engineering could hold the UK back from its net zero goals.
Our partnership with Transport for London, TfL, saw 274 engineering icons celebrated with a reimagined tube map. This drove the conversation on the day, as the community celebrated engineers from every sector of the procession.
The Academy organised the first ever public event in celebration of National Engineering Day. Innovation Late featured a series of TED-style 10-minute talks from speakers about their work which either improves the planet or improves people’s lives. The talks were accompanied by exhibitions featuring chocolate welding, robotic dancing dogs, ergonomic chairs for disabled users, and eco-friendly plastic alternatives. 87.5% of the audience hadn’t been to an event hosted by the Academy before.
Over the course of the Day, and thanks to an incredible community of partners and supporters we achieved:
- Nearly 100 pieces of UK news coverage mentioned National Engineering Day or the Everyday Engineering Competition
- Trended at #6 on Twitter in the UK, with #NationalEngineeringDay generating 76 million impressions and more than 56 million engagements
- High profile engineers and engineering champions such as Sir Tim Peake, other influential accounts such as the Mayor of London, as well as Dragons’ Den ambassador Deborah Meaden all posted on the day
- The tube map generated great conversation on LinkedIn with over 300 posts, including from Google UK MD Debbie Weinstein, George Imafidon MBE, Ella Podmore MBE, Elena Rodriguez FREng, Penelope Endersby FREng and more.
- The first ever Innovation Late event received 780 registrations with 352 people attending. The event was featured in news outlets including Skint London, Cheapskate London, Southwark News, the Londonist and BBC Radio London. 92.5% of the audience rated the event ‘very satisfactory’ and ‘outstanding’.
National Engineering Day 2022: improving lives through engineering
In 2022 National Engineering Day had a focus on showcasing how engineering improves lives.
We produced a video featuring Great British Bake Off stars, Andrew Smyth, Giuseppe Dell'Anno and Rahul Mandal showcasing how engineering and baking are interlinked. We also launched the #EngineeringCakes social media challenge which encouraged the public to bake a vegan chocolate with an inspirational engineering decoration.
The Academy published new research revealing that the UK is an engineering powerhouse, with the profession generating up to an estimated £645bn gross value added (GVA) to the UK’s economy annually – equivalent to 32% of the country’s economic output. A map was produced highlighting that hotspots of engineering appear all over the UK, with a high proportion of local populations of Mid Ulster, West Cumbria, and Flintshire and Wrexham working in the profession.
Over the course of the Day, and thanks to an incredible community of partners and supporters we:
- Achieved over 77 million potential impressions this year across social media, more than double last year's equivalent number.
- Trended at #3 on Twitter in the UK
- Amassed more than 200,000 video views for National Engineering Day activities
- Organised a parliamentary reception and panel hosted by Lord Mair. The event was attended by over 70 people including nine Parliamentarians, industry partners, professional engineering institutions, Fellows and representatives from the This is Engineering campaign.
- Secured widespread media coverage including in the Metro, the Express, Daily Mirror, The Times. As well as mentions on BBC Radio 2 and a dedicated slot from Steph McGovern on her show Steph’s Packed Lunch on Channel 4
This is Engineering Day 2021
In 2021, This is Engineering Day landed at the start of COP26, when public conversations were focused on what we need to do to tackle climate change and become net zero by 2050. Through reimagined artworks, we envisioned what landscapes, seascapes, and cityscapes would look like in a net zero world in 2050. From agriculture to travel and energy to housing, we shared how engineers can mitigate the effects of climate change and help us live a more sustainable life tomorrow.
The Academy worked with a digital artist who reworked masterpieces by Monet, Van Gogh, Constable and Pissarro to inspire a conversation about the engineering advances that could help to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Innovations such as agricultural robots, smart thermochromic windows, vertical farms and flying taxis have been woven into the reimagined impressionist masterpieces to depict what a more sustainable world may look like in the future.
Over the course of the Day, and thanks to an incredible community of partners and supporters we:
- Achieved a total media reach of 33 million
- Hashtags from the day were seen over 30 million times
- Set up a pop-up art installation at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, the host city for COP26
- Hosted a special Green Skills themed panel discussion as part of our COP26-linked Ask the Engineers event series
- Secured widespread media coverage including in The Mirror, The Sun, Channel 4, Radio 4, The Times, and on Steph’s Packed Lunch with engineers who feature in This is Engineering and the Great British Bake Off.
This is Engineering Day 2020
In 2020, 'This is Engineering Day' (now called National Engineering Day) saw the Academy’s plans to launch a new, pandemic-proof, virtual museum: the Museum of Engineering Innovation on Google Arts and Culture, with an inaugural collection showcasing the engineering behind Paralympian Jonnie Peacock’s blade, vaccine manufacturing and Shakespearean theatre.
We also hosted five online Q&A sessions for students, attracting over 420 registrations from schools and the engineering community. The discussions were recorded and are available to view here.
Media highlights included features on BBC World Service and Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch, and articles in the FT, The Metro, Daily Express, and Forbes.
Engineers and engineering organisations across the country got involved in the day both online and offline. Highlights included:
- Transport for Greater Manchester provided over 170 poster sites around their network featuring the Museum QR code
- Network Rail shared campaign content on over 50 screens in stations across the UK
- Amazon re-programmed Alexa to answer questions about engineers and This is Engineering Day and created an Alexa engineering quiz, and special engineering book list.
- The Mercedes F1 Team and Lewis Hamilton created a bespoke new video for their social media accounts, which generated over 836K views and 316K likes
This is Engineering Day 2019
In 2019, we hosted our very first This is Engineering Day on 6 November 2019, in the middle of Tomorrow’s Engineers Week, a day to raise awareness of what engineers really do and celebrate those who are shaping the world we live in.
To challenge the narrow public perception of engineers and engineering, we launched a new public image library of more representative images of engineers, a new Instagram channel @ThisisEngineering, and a challenge to help us change image search results for the word ‘engineer’.
Engineers and engineering organisations across the country got involved in the day both online and offline:
- Over 130 organisations signed a pledge to increase the public visibility of more representative images of engineers and engineering
- Over 780 images were dontated to our free engineering photo library by over 40 partner organisations
- Amazon Alexa answered questions about This is Engineering Day and the role of engineers, and Amazon ran engineering-focused tours of Amazon’s fulfilment centres
- Network Rail showcased real images of engineers on 60 screens across 15 stations in the UK, and across the Virgin train network
- Facebook created and promoted new engineering video content featuring their engineers
- Google hosted an engineering takeover at its Portsmouth Digital Garage
- Celebrities including F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton, author and present Konnie Huq, astronaut Tim Peake and Great British Bakeoff finalist Andrew Smyth marked the day on social media, helping #ThisisEngineering reach over 12 million people on 6 November alone
Related content
Looking for images of engineers?
Our This is Engineering image library has contemporary images that represent the diversity of today's engineers across all disciplines. All our photo's are free to use.
More resources
Visit our resources page for ideas for how to get involved with National Engineering Day and assets to use on your own channels.
This is Engineering
National Engineering Day is part of the This is Engineering campaign which aims to bring engineering to life for young people, and give more people the opportunity to pursue a career that is rewarding, future-shaping, varied, well-paid and in-demand.
National Engineering Day – Competition with National Space Centre Terms and conditions
- Entry into the competition will be deemed as acceptance of these terms and conditions.
- The competition is run by the Royal Academy of Engineering (the Promoter), whose registered office is Prince Philip House, 3 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5DG.
- The competition is open to UK residents (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) aged 13 or over.
- Entrants aged 13–17 must have permission from a parent or guardian to enter the competition and accept the prize on their behalf.
- The competition is not open to employees of the Royal Academy of Engineering and their close relatives, or anyone directly connected with the organisation or the running of the competition.
- There is no entry fee and no purchase necessary to enter this competition.
- To enter, participants must:
- Follow @Thisisengineering, @Royalacademyofengineering and @SpaceCentre on Instagram.
- Comment on the post tagging a friend who you think would also like to win this.
- Answer the question in the comments: 'If you lived on the Moon, what would you ask engineers to invent to make life feel more like home?'
- Entries must be submitted between [7am 4 November 2026] and [11.45pm 4 November]. Entries submitted outside this period will not be accepted.
- Only entries that complete all the above steps will be considered. Multiple entries are not permitted.
- Any entries considered by the Promoter to be offensive, inappropriate, fraudulent or to infringe the rights of others may be disqualified.
- No responsibility can be accepted for entries not received for any reason.
- There is one prize available, consisting of:
- A family ticket to the National Space Centre consisting of: 2x Adult and 2x Child tickets.
- Entry to a Planetarium Show and the Tetris Experience.
- An exclusive space themed book bundle from the National Space Centre.
- A set of exclusive mission patches and pins.
- Contribution towards hotel (£175) and travel (£150).
- Travel and accommodation expenses will be reimbursed up to the stated maximum, subject to agreement with the Promoter and the provision of valid receipts. Any costs exceeding this amount will be the responsibility of the winner.
- The prize is as stated, is non-transferable and no cash alternative will be offered. Prizes are subject to availability, and the Promoter reserves the right to substitute any prize with another of equivalent value.
- One winner will be selected by the Promoter at random.
- The winner will be contacted via Instagram Direct Message (DM) within 28 days of the competition closing date.
- The winner's first name and/or Instagram handle may be announced on the Promoter's social media channels or other publicity materials, subject to the winner's consent.
- For winners under the age of 18, consent from a parent or legal guardian must be obtained before any personal details, name, image or Instagram handle are shared publicly or used for publicity purposes.
- Agreeing to publicity is not a condition of accepting the prize.
- If the winner cannot be contacted or does not claim the prize within 14 days of notification, the Promoter reserves the right to select an alternative winner.
- It is the responsibility of the winner to provide correct and up-to-date contact details after winning, and to make arrangements to claim their prize.
- Any personal data collected as part of the competition will be used solely for the administration of the competition and in accordance with applicable UK data protection legislation.
- The Promoter's decision in respect of all matters relating to the competition will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- The competition and these terms and conditions will be governed by English law and any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England.
- This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by or associated with Instagram.
- Ticket and bookings are subject to booking and venue availability.
- Must use the family ticket within 12 months of entry (from 4 November 2026).
- Travel and accommodation must be approved in advance.