Working in Sheffield

Public sector employers

The biggest employers in the region are in the public sector.

NHS

Over 25 000 people are employed by the NHS in Sheffield alone. In Sheffield the NHS is made up of 5 adult teaching hospitals, the children’s hospital, health and social care services including mental health services, and GP practices. Similar services can be found across the region including the Derbyshire NHS Trust, Rotherham NHS Trust and Doncaster and Bassetlaw NHS Trust.

Alongside health and medical roles, a wide range of non-clinical roles can be found including in administration, data, HR, finance and management. For information about the different roles in the NHS, go to Healthcareers. To find job vacancies, go to NHS Jobs.

Access to volunteering opportunities with the NHS in Sheffield is managed on this webpage.

Local councils and combined authorities

Local councils in the region include Sheffield City Council, Barnsley Council, City of Doncaster Council, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

A wide range of roles can be found relating to providing services to the public, in areas such as social care, housing, planning, and education. Examples of “behind the scenes” roles include administrative support, project manager roles, strategic planning, data and information analytics, finance, and HR. Other roles involve more face to face interaction with service users, such as youth work roles, support work, and social work assistants.

More information about the types of roles available in local government can be found on Prospects.

For job vacancies, go to individual councils’ websites. Many have a separate section for jobs in schools including non-teaching roles. Other jobs sites include LGjobs and LocalGovJobs.

Civil Service

Civil servants work for the government, primarily developing and implementing policies, and providing services to the public. The service is divided into a number of departments. As well as roles relating to research, strategy and policy, jobs provided within the Civil Service include jobs in prisons and the probation service.

Sheffield is a major hub for the Civil Service, with approximately 8000 people employed here. Departments with a presence in the city include the Department for Work and Pensions, the Home Office, The Department for Education, and the Ministry of Justice. The recently established Sheffield Policy Campus has resulted in a major concentration of policy roles in the city.

There are different ways to enter the Civil Service. The Fast Stream graduate programme is one option. However, many graduates enter the Civil Service by applying directly for a job (sometimes called direct entry). Depending on the skills and experience stipulated in a role, new graduates could consider applying for roles at Administrative Officer/Assistant grade, Executive Officer, and Higher Executive Officer grade.

Find out more about careers in the Civil Service, together with information about Civil Service grades.

Universities and further education

The University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University are big employers in Sheffield. Roles are very varied, with many options in addition to teaching/academic and research roles. Options include behind-the-scenes roles such as HR, finance, marketing and communications, governance and data analytics. Student-facing roles include student support roles, international student support, student wellbeing, and careers and employability roles.

Further education colleges with a range of professional services roles alongside teaching and student support roles include Sheffield College, UTC Sheffield, Barnsley College, Chesterfield College and Wakefield College.

For vacancies, see the University or college websites. For vacancies more generally, see jobs.ac.uk and FEjobs.

Careers information about the variety of roles within all levels of education can be found on Prospects.

Other employers

Other public sector employers include the police forces in the region: South Yorkshire Police, Derbyshire Constabulary and West Yorkshire Police. The Environment Agency has offices in Sheffield and Rotherham.

Private sector employers

Employers in Sheffield and the surrounding region fall into the areas described below. Some of these are big employers, many others are small and medium-sized employers (SMEs). The Sheffield economy is dominated by SMEs, with approximately 60% of all those employed in the private sector working for SMEs. If you are considering staying in Sheffield and the region, think about working for an SME as well as some of the bigger organisations.

Consider the full range of employers when thinking about looking for vacancies. If you are looking for an HR, marketing, digital or finance role for instance, don’t forget that an Engineering company will have these and other business-related roles as well as technical engineering roles.

Advanced manufacturing and engineering

This sector employs approx 50,000 people across 3000 companies in the region, with large numbers employed in the aerospace and automotive industries.

Major employers include:

Professional services

A wide range of organisations providing professional services can be found in Sheffield and the local region. Key areas of activity with examples of the most prominent companies include:

Legal services: Taylor Emmet, DLA Piper, Irwin Mitchell and CMS.

Banking, accountancy and financial advice: HSBC,  BHP, Hawsons, Hart Shaw, Grant Thornton, Shorts.  Further afield, the big four (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG) have offices in Manchester and Leeds.

Recruitment and HR: Benchmark, Reed, Affecto, and Pro-found.

Property and construction: Henry Boot, Kier Group.

Other companies include Aviva (insurance), Capgemini (consultancy), Capita (business outsourcing), RWS (translation services),and Westfield Health.

Technology, digital and creative

A wide range of employers in this sector can be found in Sheffield and the region.  Many advertise their vacancies on Sheffield Digital. This site also includes information about events, meetups and networking opportunities.

Creative and digital companies include Sumo Digital, Cirata, ZOO Digital, Four, Universal Everything, Kycker, Hive Logic and Razor. Other employers include ARM and Plusnet.

Sheffield is a hub for education technology, with 60% of digital content for schools created in Sheffield. Educational technology companies include Twinkl, Desq, Tes, Tribal, Tutorful, Leo, Sponge, Can and Kineo.

A further speciality of the digital sector in Sheffield is mobility technology - related to transport and movement. Companies include The Floow, velociti, Bossanova, Sport:80.

Health technology, science and wellbeing

There are over 4,000 employers in this field in and around Sheffield, with one of the UK’s largest concentrations of orthopaedic and medical device companies. Companies include Parexel, JRI Orthopaedics, Swann Morton, B.Braun, Sheffield Precision Medical and Orchid. Also see the Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park.

Logistics and  supply chain

The region is well-placed for logistics and supply chain organisations. Employers include Amazon, GXO, DX Logistics, EVRi,  Pricecheck and Royal Mail.

Energy

Companies involved in the energy sector across the region include: Octopus Energy,  ITM Power, Chesterfield Cylinders, CPH2, Magtec and UKAEA.

Business Parks

Sheffield and the region has a number of Business Parks, including Sheffield Technology Park and Sheffield Business Park. Websites may not include vacancies, but provide information on employers who could be approached proactively.

Not-for-profit employers

This sector is also known as the voluntary sector, charity sector or the third sector. A common misconception is that all work in this sector is done voluntarily, however this sector is a significant source of paid employment. There are approximately 3300 voluntary and community organisations in Sheffield, with many more in the wider region.

Prospects provides more information on the nature of careers in this sector. Roles are varied, and many mirror the roles that might be found in the business sector such as finance, policy and research, marketing and fund-raising. Other roles are client-facing, including support worker roles, advice, counselling and education roles.

Sources of job opportunities across the region include Voluntary Action Sheffield, Voluntary Action Rotherham, BarnsleyCVS, and DoingGoodLeeds. Similar sites in Manchester include Manchester Community Central and GM Recruitment Hub. National jobs sites include CharityJob and GuardianJobs.

If you are particularly interested in a particular cause, you may wish to consider making speculative applications to organisations working in that area. The Sheffield Directory is a source of information on local groups and charities.

Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

There are also many smaller organisations in Sheffield that recruit graduates. More than 60% of the UK workforce was employed in an SME in 2024, so it is worth exploring the  benefits of working for an SME if you would like to work in Sheffield.

Recruitment agencies

The following recruitment agencies have offices in Sheffield.

• Adecco (IT & telecoms; sales and retail; finance and insurance; admin support and secretarial)
• Hays (accountancy and finance; business support; education; legal; IT and technology)
• Pertemps (social care / medical; engineering and technical; legal; education)
• Office Angels (office / admin support and secretarial)
• Reed Recruitment (education; admin support and secretarial; sales and retail; legal; engineering)
• Search Consultancy (hospitality, technical, construction)
• Sue Ross Recruitment (legal, HR, finance, marketing, administration, customer service, and management)

Find out more about using recruitment agencies. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation database of agencies can be searched by location and sector. All agencies on the database meet the confederation’s ethical and professional guidelines.

Part-time work

Working while studying has a number of benefits - as well as boosting your finances, student jobs build your skillset and provide you with invaluable work experiences. If you are looking for part-time work in Sheffield, take a look at our advice on working part time during your degree, including guidance on local employers and where to look for roles.