Job Title: Painter
Location: Plymouth, Devon
Compensation: £32,478 - £36,951 + Benefits
Role Type: Full time / Permanent
Role ID: SF67440
Help protect the future of the Royal Navy
At Babcock, we’re working to create a safe and secure world, together. If you join us, you can play your part as a Painter at Devonport Royal Dockyard, near Plymouth, Devon.
The Role
As a Painter, you’ll be at the heart of maintaining and protecting the surfaces of submarines critical assets in the UK’s defence strategy. From expert surface preparation to precision coating techniques, your work will directly contribute to the operational readiness and longevity of naval vessels. This is a hands-on role where your craftsmanship will make a visible impact, and your career will benefit from continuous development in a dynamic and supportive environment.
Day-to-day, you’ll carry out surface preparation and apply protective coatings to submarines using various techniques.
- Preparing bare substrates and existing coatings using a systematic approach
- Providing technical guidance to colleagues on painting techniques and procedures
- Maintaining clean and organised working areas and protecting equipment
- Applying coatings using brush, roller, conventional spray, and airless spray
- Instating damage control markings on raised tallies
You’ll need to be prepared to work in radiological areas, confined spaces, be clean shaven, working at height and on scaffolding.
This role is full time, hours per week and is based on site at Devonport Royal Dockyard. There is an opportunity for Optimised Working Patterns (OWP) within this role. Whilst OWP is not guaranteed; it involves a 4-week shift cycle consisting of either day/back shift or day/night shift. If you would like to know more about OWP please contact the Recruitment Team.
Essential experience of the Painter
- Extensive experience in a marine, industrial, or commercial environment
- Strong understanding of surface preparation quality standards
- Familiarity with paint manufacturers’ technical and safety data sheets
- Skilled in applying coatings in marine environments using various methods
Qualifications for the Painter
Essential:
- NVQ Level 3 in Industrial / Marine / Painting / Decorating
- OR NVQ Level 2 with a willingness to undertake further training
- ICATS certification
Preferred:
- Train the Painter qualification
Security Clearance
The successful candidate must be able to achieve and maintain Security Check (SC) security clearance for this role.
Many of the positions within our company are subject to national security clearance and Trade Control restrictions. This means that your eligibility for certain roles may be affected by your place of birth, nationality, current or former citizenship, and any residency you hold or have held. Further details are available at United Kingdom Security Vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
What we offer
- Generous holiday allowance
- Matched contribution pension scheme, with life assurance
- Access to a Digital GP, annual health check, and nutritional consultations through Aviva DigiCare+
- Employee share scheme
- Employee shopping savings portal
- Payment of Professional Fees
- Reservists in the armed forces receive 10-days special paid leave
- Holiday Trading is a benefit that allows UK Babcock employees to buy additional leave or to sell up to one working week of annual leave from their annual entitlement. This Window opens February through to March annually.
- ‘Be Kind Day’ enables employees to take one working day's paid leave a year (or equivalent hours) to undertake volunteering work with their chosen organisation or registered charity
- Excellent development opportunities and benefits package including an employee assistance programme supporting physical, mental and financial wellbeing.
Babcock
We’re Babcock — a global FTSE 100 organisation with over 26,000 people working together to make a difference.
Here, you’ll be part of something bigger. From initial design to final decommissioning, your work will contribute to products and services that are essential to national security and public infrastructure. Together, we’re building a future that lasts — not just through the impact we make, but through meaningful careers that respect your work-life balance.
We call that lifetime engineering.
Join us and see how far we can go, together.
We are a disability confident committed employer. If you have a disability or need any reasonable adjustments during the application and selection stages, please email careers@babcockinternational.com with the subject header ‘Reasonable adjustments requirement’. We’re committed to building an inclusive culture where everyone’s free to thrive. We are happy to talk about flexible working – please ask about alternative patterns of work at interview.
Closing date: 23/04/2026
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