What It's Like to Work at Arup

Arup is a global consultancy of designers, engineers, and consultants, and its own careers material describes it as "a diverse and growing community of tenacious problem-solvers, daring designers, creative coders, imaginative engineers, insightful economists, inventive acousticians, and experts in many other disciplines." If you're considering a role there, the picture that emerges from Arup's own staff profiles is one of cross-disciplinary, project-based work with a strong emphasis on sustainability and global collaboration. What follows is what the company says about itself, plus what that likely means for a candidate.

What kind of work you'd be doing

Arup's stated focus is planning, designing, delivering, and maintaining transportation networks, buildings, energy, and water infrastructure. The projects highlighted on its site span a wide range:

• La Sagrada Família — Arup was brought in in 2014, when the building was 60% complete, to help with the remaining structural design.
• Little Island (New York City) — an urban green space and open-air venue.
• A digital twin for plastic pollution — an AI tool used to identify pollution sources in one of the world's most polluted rivers, target cleanup resources, and develop interventions to stop waste entering the river.
• Modular sidewalk sheds in New York City — designs aimed at improving safety, accessibility, and the pedestrian experience.
• Decarbonization of inter-island ferries in the Philippines.

The through-line is problem-solving on large, often public-facing infrastructure, with sustainability and decarbonization as recurring themes (the site also features work on converting hospitals to clean energy and decarbonizing shipping).

How the culture is described

Arup's own framing emphasizes a "borderless approach" and global opportunities. Two staff quotes on the careers page illustrate this:

"I love diving into global projects where I can try new ideas, witness innovation, and actively contribute to building a brighter future for people." — Paula Acosta, Engineer

"Arup's borderless approach opens real global opportunities. I'm based in Auckland, but I work with data centre clients across Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand." — Martin Swaffield, Management Consulting Lead

Other profiles point to the range of day-to-day work and its impact:

"As a structural engineer, I love the satisfaction of solving a problem! Sometimes it's quietly working through a design and sometimes it's phone calls across the multidisciplinary team to resolve an issue." — Chandan Joshi, Structural Engineer

"As project manager, I recently worked on a building which achieved net zero carbon in operation — a huge step forward for the industry in helping reduce emissions." — Alex Price, Project Manager

Two things stand out: multidisciplinary collaboration is treated as normal, and staff are encouraged to connect their work to environmental outcomes.

What this means if you're applying

• Disciplines are broad. Arup hires engineers, designers, coders, economists, acousticians, project managers, and management consultants — not just one technical track.
• Expect cross-office work. The "borderless" framing suggests you may collaborate with teams in other countries rather than staying within a single local office.
• Sustainability is a selling point, not a side project. Decarbonization appears across the project examples and in how staff describe their work.
• Project scale varies. Some work is quiet, focused design; some involves coordinating large multidisciplinary teams.

What the source material doesn't tell you

Arup's site describes its people, projects, and culture, but it does not publish salary ranges, hiring timelines, visa or relocation policies, or application requirements on the pages referenced here. For those specifics, you'd need to check Arup's actual job listings and careers process directly. Treat the profiles above as a sense of the work and culture, not as a guide to compensation or hiring logistics.