What we’re known for

GHD is a global professional services company that leads through engineering and architectural skills and experience. Our forward-looking, innovative approach connects and sustains communities in Australia and around the world, delivering extraordinary social and economic outcomes.

In Australia there are more than 4000 diverse and skilled individuals connected by 44 offices across the country, many in regional locations. The company has been involved in iconic, community changing projects such as North East Link, Level Crossing Removal Project, Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro, Western Sydney Airport and Snowy 2.0.

Globally, we span five continents – Asia, Australia, Europe, North, South America and the Pacific region, employing more than 10,000 employees across more than 200 offices.

Find out more about us at ghd.com

What makes us different

GHD is an employee-owned company with a stated vision and a determination to address humanity’s most urgent needs: to ensure water, energy and urbanisation are made sustainable for generations to come.

Kick-start your career with us

If you're ready to kick start your career as a change-maker, GHD is the answer. We commit to encouraging your curiosity, fostering your ideas, and creating meaningful change together.

Start a conversation with us today and discover a culture that nurtures and rewards brilliant minds.

Our people are at the very heart of our success. That's why we are committed to developing and supporting talented, motivated graduates who are eager to launch their professional careers delivering to clients on varied and challenging projects. 

As a Graduate, your development happens in a number of ways, including:

• Graduate Development Program
• GHD Business School
• Career Pathways
• Project experience
• Community and networking
• Talent Exchange

As a Graduate, you will learn how to transform complex challenges into imaginative solutions.

The GHD Graduate Development Program is an integrated, holistic approach to developing future leaders and technical specialists. Over the two-year program, you will learn about our business and our values, your team and most importantly, yourself. You will develop your decision-making, communication, technical and critical leadership skills, access personal mentoring, and participate in a variety of development activities. Alongside invaluable on-the-job experience is the chance to build networks that will last a lifetime.

It is a structured, balanced development program with a blend of experience and exposure across GHD designed to develop your skillsets and keep you constantly challenged.

The program highlights are:

• An intensive, informative and fun induction and orientation session
• Formal and informal learning opportunities
• Regular coaching and feedback
• Various opportunities to build your network within the business
• The opportunity to participate in our mentoring program
• A variety of assignments through different groups, projects and locations
• Involvement in local community projects
• The creation of your own graduate peer community
• Preparation for attaining professional accreditation.

GHD uses a variety of ways to build your skillset and knowledge including: coaching and mentoring, talent exchanges, e-learning modules, opportunities for self-study, structured workshops and courses and through our Career Pathways program.

Career Pathways is our global approach to career planning at GHD which encourages you to develop a portfolio of skills and experiences, providing the capability for a variety of future roles.

On the job learning includes exposure to a variety of projects, disciplines, and regional locations. This will give provide you the opportunity to work with and learn from a variety of different people.

The GHD Business School is the branded name for learning and development within GHD. The GHD Business School provides diverse learning opportunities for you to acquire the experience and knowledge you need to be a truly effective member of our team and to strengthen our global network.

Sadia Abdullah

"I protect people from fires by designing fire alarm systems, analyzing egress routes and identifying construction types in new and existing buildings. I also design sprinkler systems to save lives and to protect property from fire and smoke damage."

Jeyson Ventura, Engineer, Chantilly, USA

"A Graduate role at GHDWoodhead is an amazing head start into learning how an architect works in a multi-disciplinary environment."

Claire Audley, Architect, Melbourne

“I never expected so early in my career that I would have completed field investigation (drilling and seismic MASW) and then performed liquefaction analysis to find out if a dam is susceptible to liquefaction or not.”

Hassan Ali, Engineer/Project Coordinator, Waterloo, Canada

"My advice for new graduates applying is to not be afraid of applying for a role in a field that you feel you lack prior knowledge and experience in. If a job description interests you, and you want to learn more, show that passion during the interview process. Hiring staff do not expect graduates to have multiple years of experience under their belt, what they're in search for is a motivated individual who is eager to learn and grow. "

Dilshad Mondegarian, Environmental Engineer-In-Training, Waterloo, Canada

“I've progressed so much in terms of role and geography. I started in Adelaide as a graduate civil engineer and moved to the UK, where I am now Aviation Service Line Coordinator for the Europe and Middle East region.”

Jarred Williams, Civil Engineer, London, UK

"In my first year as a Graduate, I contributed to a large proposal for a wastewater treatment plant project which I never expected to and our team won it! I enjoyed the challenge of being thrown in the deep end and the responsibility. It demonstrated that my team leader trusts me to ask questions and deliver something of real value."

Flavia Steinauer, Graduate Chemical Engineer, Perth, Australia

Our Corporate Social Responsibility program, GHD in the Community (GITC), is designed to have a positive social and environmental impact on the communities in which we operate.

GHD people are actively involved in community and partner with many not-for-profit organisations. This includes the provision of pro-bono services and the support of a range of community-based enterprises for fundraising, volunteering, workplace support and engagement. Our people proudly consider, formally apply and then nurture GITC partnerships, making this program one of deep interest and personal pride amongst our workforce.

Our clients also play an important part in this program by highlighting their challenges or identifying opportunities for our assistance. We are grateful for their involvement which enables us to add value and a make a real difference to disadvantaged communities or causes.

Projects of national or international significance - that help rebuild communities after disasters, assist with vital infrastructure or simply provide much needed support to affect positive change - are a key part of our approach to GITC.

At GHD, we want our people to feel comfortable to share all aspects of themselves at work.

Our commitment toward diversity in the workplace is driven by a strong conviction that genuine inclusion will deliver greater productivity, creativity and diversity from deeper pools of talent and through fairer processes for all.

Our people are as diverse as the communities we serve across five continents. Embracing diversity of thought, background and experience helps us develop imaginative and responsive solutions for our clients that create lasting community benefit.

GHD’s commitment to inclusion and diversity is embodied within our strategy and includes: championing gender equality, cultural diversity, LGBTI inclusion, adapting work practices to capture the benefits of generational diversity, reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as well as flexible working arrangements for our people. Our actions continue to position us as an industry leader in inclusion and diversity.

With a workplace rich in diversity of thought, background and experience – we’ve got what it takes to deliver amazing outcomes for our clients.

More and more it is how we do business today.

Read GHD's full report on Inclusion and Diversity.

Read GHD's LGBTI+ Action Plan.

At GHD, we strive to be an inclusive community where everyone feels they belong. We want to be an organisation that facilitates more productive and connected teams that value each other's differences. The inclusion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex people as well as those with diverse sex characteristics, gender identities, gender expressions and sexual orientations (LGBTI+) as employees and clients is an important part of that work.

For us, LGBTI+ inclusion means continuing to support and promote a workplace where people feel comfortable and empowered regardless of their sexual orientation. It also means providing a supportive environment for anyone with a direct or indirect connection to the LGBTI+ community, including family, friends and workplace colleagues.

With this vision in mind, in 2016 we established a National LGBTI+ Reference Group, a group that is now supported by a growing network of more than 200 LGBTI+ allies across Australia and an executive sponsor on our Australian Leadership Team (ALT).

In 2018 we participated for the first time in the Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI) a definitive independent national benchmark on LGBTI+ workplace inclusion and we were proud to receive Bronze status.

While we’ve made significant progress in recent years, we want and need to go further, to challenge ourselves and our industry to embrace inclusion. With our people and our culture at the heart of our strategy, we aspire to become an Employer of Choice across all businesses and number one in inclusion and diversity in our industry.

In 2021 we developed an LGBTI+ Action plan which documents our commitments to achieving our aspirations for the LGBTI+ pillar of inclusion in an Australian context. Read our LGBTI+ Action Plan.

GHD is committed to providing a culturally safe and diverse workplace. We have historically employed people from many different cultural backgrounds whilst promoting harmony in the workplace.

GHD employees currently working within the Australia region have told us they were born across 85 countries, with the majority of our people born in Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand, South Africa and India.

Young Professionals

We are focused on recruiting and developing our future leaders, through our graduate and emerging leader programs and Young Professionals (YP) networking groups.

Our YP program provides a strong support network our younger employees and opportunities for them to participate in a range of professional development activities. Active in every state, our YP groups help our people build strong working relationships with their peers and clients. The YP program brings together people with less than 10 years of professional experience from various disciplines to assist in developing skills.

Ageing workforce

As part of our efforts to promote and encourage optimal work practices and policies that support mature employees’ participation, engagement and health at work, GHD has become an inaugural Stakeholder Reference Group member of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research. The Centre is a multidisciplinary research collaboration between University of New South Wales, Australian National University, University of Melbourne, University of Sydney and Curtin University aimed at optimising social and economic outcomes for an ageing world. Our engagement with the centre helps them to translate their research knowledge into practical business applications, it also facilitates our access to data, personnel and other resources that will help us promote successful ageing in our workplace.

At GHD we’re proud to have maintained a strong connection to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities since our foundation more than 90 years ago.

Our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) commitments are a core part of both the way we operate and how we deliver our clients’ projects. Our aim is for reconciliation to be fully embedded into our business to foster a culturally safe environment for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Our vision for reconciliation is an Australia where the cultures, histories and rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are understood, recognised and respected. A nation where we all celebrate that this land and its First Peoples are the oldest continuing cultures on the planet.

We proudly presented our first Reflect RAP in early 2017 as a public commitment to reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Our Reflect RAP focused on developing national strategies related to our business and how we could contribute to reconciliation in Australia.

In November 2018 we launched our second RAP – Innovate, to set the future direction of how GHD and all our people can continue to make a positive difference in a practical way. Since the beginning of our formal reconciliation journey we have continued to look across our business to understand the breadth of our influence and embed an implementation approach that is a blend of national and local. With this in mind, we launched a refreshed Innovate RAP in October 2021 which refreshes our vision and establishes more ambitious and specific actions needed to achieve this vision.

This RAP recognises there is further work for us to do, particularly around facilitating employment opportunities, and improving procurement practices and engagement with the communities impacted by our work.