26 November 2025
NDA group graduate, Erica shares her experience presenting at CIISec Nuclear Hub Conference
Last Tuesday, NDA Digital and IT group graduate, Erica Hill, presented at the CIISec Nuclear Hub Conference, which took place in Warrington.
The event brought together industry leaders and experts for a day packed with insights from top speakers, interactive discussions and networking opportunities.
Reflecting on her experience at the event, Erica says:
"My presentation centred around Artificial Intelligence in Security Operations - I looked at two areas specifically. Starting with AI in GSOC (my area of work in the NDA), and how it could improve some of the problems that we face in our workflow from day-to-day, then I considered why we haven't adopted it yet. The second area focused on whether we were ready to adopt AI into our workflow (both in terms of the GSOC and general Cybersecurity).
The second section involved getting opinions from the rest of my team, this showed that cybersecurity generally seems to be behind the curve for AI adoption and is not yet at its ideal. We also highlighted that the team was split on adoption.
There were two quotes that I wanted people to take away from the speech more so than anything else. One was a quote given by one of my team, stating that "Readiness is a constant, ongoing process rather than a fixed state,", which challenged the notion of being "ready" and whether we ever would reach that state. The other was that "AI needs to AUGMENT humans, not AUTOMATE them,", to emphasise that AI can never be fully autonomous as it'll never be perfect and lacks some human cognition.
This event helped me gain a lot of confidence, as I was not confident with public speaking beforehand and the success of the speech helped me with my confidence a lot. The speech itself came a lot more natural to me than I expected and I'd be looking for other opportunities to do the same again. It also helped with my communication skills and how to concisely get points across and in a professional environment. I'd also prompt any other graduates to do so!"
About the NDA group graduate programme
Delivered by Energus on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) group, the graduate programme offers a two-year structured route into one of the UK’s most vital sectors. Graduates can build careers across a range of disciplines, including engineering, radiological protection, cybersecurity, procurement and project management.
Participants take part in secondments, specialist training and real-world project delivery at over 30 locations across the UK, forming part of a wider 17,000-strong workforce focused on safely, securely and sustainably decommissioning the UK’s nuclear legacy.
With over £45 million invested annually in early careers, the programme offers:
- A competitive starting salary
- Professional institute membership
- Generous annual leave and study days
- Travel and relocation support
- A dedicated mentor and expert-led guidance
- A supportive and inclusive environment with employee-led networks and wellbeing initiatives
