Almost 70 years after Pennant International was founded in Gloucestershire, its Cheltenham base remains the international technology business’s largest – and the home of around 50 employees working across technical and corporate roles.
Helping shape its future workforce is head of HR Kate Butterworth, who brings more than 35 years of global HR experience to Pennant. She joined as an HR business partner in January 2025 before being promoted to her current role within eight months.
SoGlos speaks to Kate about the changing skills Pennant needs, opening doors for young people and why candidates from outside defence and aerospace can bring valuable new thinking.
How has Pennant’s workforce changed as the business has evolved?
The sectors we’re involved in today include defence, space, nuclear, aerospace, shipping and rail, and the people we employ reflect that.We recruit software developers, project managers, IPS and ILS consultants, for example. In the past, Pennant had quite a large production facility, whereas we now outsource much of our production, so the workforce has become much more engineering and technically focused.
Another big change is our international footprint. We’ve grown both organically and through acquisition and now have our own facilities in Australia, Canada and the US.
What opportunities does that global reach create for people working in Gloucestershire?
For most employees, it means working in a multinational, multicultural environment and being exposed to different cultures and approaches.Some employees also get the opportunity to travel overseas, whether that’s visiting customers, attending exhibitions or supporting projects. That can apply to people working in marketing, finance and commercial roles, as well as engineers.
Cheltenham is still our largest base and it’s where our corporate functions, including marketing, finance, HR and commercial legal, are based.
Do candidates need an engineering or defence background to work at Pennant?
Not necessarily. We’ve recently recruited mechanical and design engineers, a design engineering supervisor and people into commercial legal, finance, marketing and project management roles.For some positions, specific industry experience can be beneficial. But there are lots of roles where skills are transferable from one industry to another – and I think that can actually be an advantage.
If you only recruit people from the same industry, you risk continuing to do things in the same way. People coming from different sectors bring different experiences and ideas.
We’ve recruited design engineers who haven’t worked in defence before. Our onboarding process gets them up to speed and they continue learning on the job.
Which skills are becoming increasingly important to Pennant?
Software development, coding and cyber security are important, but so are project and programme management skills.We need people who can execute contracts and make sure products and services are delivered in the right place, at the right time and to the expected quality. Our larger contracts have dedicated project or programme managers responsible for that delivery.
Pennant has employees who stay for decades. What do you think creates that loyalty?
The thing that has struck me most since joining is the sense of teamwork. People really do work together and there’s a feeling that if one person succeeds, everybody succeeds.I’ve never seen a colleague sitting back waiting for somebody else to fail, and I think that says quite a lot about the culture.
We also listen to employees. We have regular CEO-led town halls and an employee opinion survey which asks what we’re doing well and where we need to improve.
Last year, training, learning and development was the area employees told us we could do better. We responded by redesigning our performance management process to put more focus on development needs, as well as introducing management competency training and finance training for non-finance managers.
We genuinely listen to the feedback and put it into practice.
How is Pennant introducing younger people to the world of work?
We recently had a local pupil complete work experience with us and we currently have three young people aged between 16 and 18 doing paid work at Pennant.One is supporting project work and market research, while two are helping with our annual stock take. It gives them experience of what the world of work actually feels like, so hopefully their first substantive job won’t feel like such a culture shock.
We also recruit recent graduates. Within the last six months, we’ve recruited graduates into engineering and our commercial legal function.
What can career progression look like at Pennant?
Having worked for a very large organisation previously, I think one advantage of an SME is that it’s easier to identify talent. We work closely with people every day, so we can see their strengths and support their development.We have an annual talent planning process where the senior team reviews development needs and succession planning, then we tailor our learning and development around that.
Progression doesn’t always have to follow an obvious route either. One colleague in Australia had worked in marketing for more than 10 years when a customer support position became available. We recognised that she had transferable skills and she moved into a much more customer-facing role.
There can be opportunities to take your career in a completely different direction.
What would you say to someone considering a career with Pennant?
As well as looking at the vacancies on our website, don’t feel you have to wait for a suitable role to be advertised.I’m happy to receive speculative CVs. Sometimes somebody contacts us when we’re not actively recruiting for that position, but you look at their experience and think, that’s interesting – perhaps that’s an area we’ve been considering expanding into and this person could help us do it.
I originally joined Pennant on a nine-month contract and liked the people and culture so much that I stayed. For me, the work is challenging and interesting, but you also feel appreciated. And I genuinely look forward to going to work every day.
To explore current opportunities at Pennant or submit a speculative application, visit pennantplc.com/careers.
