Nissan will be looking for a “diverse” range of skills to fill 200 engineer and maintenance technician posts at its Sunderland plant, according to a spokesperson for the automotive giant.

The new recruits will support production and development of two new models — the Nissan LEAF and the next generation Nissan Qashqai to be assembled at the Sunderland plant.

Nissan has launched a new careers website — careersatnissan.co.uk— detailing all the new jobs, as well as information about the plant and a section on the benefits of living and working in Sunderland and North-East England.

As one of the founding companies in the UK’s new Talent Retention Solution (TRS), Nissan will seek to match a number of its forthcoming job opportunities with skilled engineers facing redundancy from the defence sector.

The TRS was launched last week by UK minister for business and enterprise Mark Prisk, and will match these employees to UK companies in growing sectors of advanced manufacturing and engineering.

Posts currently being advertised include production engineers, facility engineers, QA engineers, press die maintenance technicians, battery tooling technicians and facilities maintenance technicians.

A spokesperson told Recruiter: “We’re looking for a diverse skillset. The new talent retention system will let us look at individuals and see which skillsets they have got.

“It is a collaboration between the skills and jobs creation group, and SEMTA the sector skills council. They will make the database fully operational by January next year, when employers like ourselves can go and look at CVs and see if there is anyone there that suits what we’re looking for.”