Whiteley: Lockheed Martin to create up to 300 new jobs

Up to 300 jobs could be created in Hampshire thanks to the expansion of defence giant, Lockheed Martin UK.

The company, which already employs around 200 people at its Whiteley base, is looking to take on hundreds more staff over the next two years. They would work at the firm’s Solent Business Park base mainly in software systems engineering and integration.

Recruits would be a mix of workers already experienced in those areas along with people the company could train.

In the past year, the business has grown extensively, partly due to the acquisition of business technology solutions company Amor Group, which employs 550 people.

Mark Cooper, managing director, said that although the company has been very defence orientated in the past and its IT services were “a well-kept secret”, he was planning to expand that side of the business.

In the next few years the company, which currently employs around 600 people in Hampshire, hopes to become more focused on commercial projects to the point where it is 45% commercial and 55% defence.

Cooper said, with defence budgets being cut, it was more prudent for them to look at IT and air traffic management systems.

The company is currently growing 15% year on year and turns over around £1 billion a year.

It is looking to double the size of the business in the next four to five years.

Primarily a global security and aerospace company with business activities which cover both defence and commercial business sectors, Lockheed Martin employs more than 3,000 people in the UK. It has bases in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dubai and Houston.