Santos Graduate Programs & Internships

What we do: Safely and sustainably discover, develop and deliver natural gas

Staff stats: Around 2000

Hiring grads with degrees in: All Engineering, Geoscience, Science and Environment, as well as commercial, accountants, economists and graduates in many other areas.

A proudly Australian natural gas company.

Santos is Australia’s leading supplier of natural gas. For more than 65 years, Santos has been working in partnership with local communities to provide jobs and business opportunities, and to safely and sustainably develop Australia’s natural gas resources.

Santos’ origins lie in the Cooper Basin, which spans the borders of northeast South Australia and southwest Queensland, where we made our first commercial natural gas discovery in 1963.

Our operations have expanded to include five core assets: Western Australia, the Cooper Basin, Queensland and New South Wales, Northern Australia and TimorLeste, and Papua New Guinea.

Across these assets, we operate numerous plants, facilities and pipelines to deliver our natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and oil products to customers.

Santos is focussed on being the safest, most reliable and lowest cost developer and operator in Australia and this is reflected everything we do.

From providing jobs and supporting local manufacturers, to heating your home and firing up your barbecue – Santos’ natural gas is part of Australia.

How we operate

Santos is dedicated to being the safest, most reliable and lowest cost operator in Australia, and preventing harm to people and the environment. We work with local businesses and other organisations to listen, support, create jobs and build skills for the future.

A sustainable future depends on Australian natural gas, and Santos is playing an essential role in securing Australia’s economic, environmental and energy security for years to come.

We are committed to being part of the solution to a lower-carbon future by limiting greenhouse gas emissions while providing access to reliable and affordable energy to domestic and global markets.

To that end, we are investing in initiatives such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen technologies.

Our Programs

Vacation Program

Santos offers 12 weeks of paid vacation employment between November and February each year providing opportunities for students to enhance their personal development through hands-on experience, defined and challenging project work, structured performance feedback, and the delivery of a presentation on their project.

Graduate Program 

Our 3-year Graduate Program facilitates rotations aligned to discipline streams, all industry related and future focussed. It is supported by a lifecycle induction, mentoring program, on-the-job experience, plus technical and personal development training.

The program provides a strong technical foundation while offering exposure to innovative projects like solar energy conversion, advanced analytics and drone mapping. 

Our graduates rotate through various teams gaining office and field experience, with opportunities available across the country from our modern capital city offices to the central Australian outback to rigs offshore Western Australia. Santos Graduates are permanent employees and are our future leaders. 

The recruitment process

Santos recognizes the strategic value in recruiting new talent at graduate and student level and provides excellent opportunities for growth and development.

Vacation Program Applications

Applications open each year in April/May and applicants should be in their penultimate year of their university degree.

Graduate Program Applications

Our Vacation Program is the main pathway to the Santos Graduate Program, however, we know the value of investing in new talent, so additional positions may become available through our expressions of interest online application. We are keen to hear from applicants who are striving for high-quality results, are eager to work in a dynamic and challenging environment and can be flexible in their work location. 

We target graduates who demonstrate our values, resonate with our purpose and strive for our vision. Applicants will need to demonstrate effective communication skills and strong problem solving, analytical, time management and organisational abilities. Applicants should be in the final year of their Honours degree. 

Applications and selection

We require all applications to be registered online. Registrations will be received when applications are open – see our website for dates. Applications are then reviewed and shortlisted with our structured selection process. We use a consistent candidate evaluation method to provide all candidates with the same opportunity to demonstrate our required attributes.