Southamptonruns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
Ports, cruise & shipping
ABP Port of Southampton, DP World Southampton, Carnival UK (P&O Cruises and Cunard) at Carnival House, Red Funnel
Southampton is Britain's cruise capital and its principal vehicle-handling port, with four cruise terminals and a container terminal alongside. Carnival UK runs P&O Cruises and Cunard from an office on the waterfront, which means a large white-collar maritime employer sits next to a large blue-collar one — an unusual combination for a British city this size.
Marine science, engineering & ocean research
National Oceanography Centre, the University of Southampton's Waterfront Campus, the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, marine surveyors and yacht designers across the Solent
The National Oceanography Centre and the university's marine science school share the Waterfront Campus at Empress Dock — it is one of the largest concentrations of ocean and earth science in Europe, and it exists here because the deep water and the double tide made this a port in the first place.
Geospatial, data & mapping
Ordnance Survey at Adanac Park, the Geospatial Commission's partners, a cluster of location-data startups around the university
Ordnance Survey — Great Britain's national mapping agency, and the reason every OS grid reference exists — has been headquartered in Southampton since 1841 and moved to a purpose-built campus at Adanac Park in 2011. If you work in geospatial data anywhere in Britain, the reference dataset is made here.
Health, life sciences & universities
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, the Centre for Cancer Immunology, the University of Southampton, Solent University
University Hospital Southampton is the regional major trauma centre and a national specialist centre for cardiac, paediatric and transplant work. The university's Centre for Cancer Immunology, opened in 2018, was the UK's first building dedicated entirely to cancer immunology research and is a genuine reason specialists move to the city.
Aerospace & advanced engineering heritage
Solent Sky's Supermarine collection, GE Aerospace and Collins at Eastleigh and Fareham, marine and motorsport engineering across the Solent
The Spitfire was designed by R. J. Mitchell at Supermarine's works in Woolston and first flew from Eastleigh aerodrome — now Southampton Airport — on 5 March 1936. The works were bombed in 1940 and production dispersed across the region; the engineering base that survived is why the Solent is still an advanced-manufacturing corridor.
Energy & industrial Solent
ExxonMobil's Fawley refinery and petrochemical complex, Marchwood, Solent Gateway, the offshore wind supply chain
Fawley, directly across Southampton Water, is the largest oil refinery in the United Kingdom and one of the biggest petrochemical complexes in Europe. It is a major employer for the whole western side of the city and it is why the Waterside towns exist in the form they do.
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