Principal Systems Engineer

Job Description

Job Purpose

The Principal Systems Engineer provides senior technical leadership, governance, and assurance across defence projects to ensure system solutions meet operational, safety, regulatory, cost, and schedule requirements.
The role serves as the principal technical authority and interface between customers, project management, engineering disciplines, certification authorities, and suppliers, ensuring disciplined application of systems engineering and MBSE best practices across the full lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the end‑to‑end systems engineering lifecycle from concept through disposal in accordance with ISO/IEC 15288 and EDGE MBSE policies.
• Act as the principal technical authority for assigned projects, approving system architectures, requirements baselines, and key technical decisions.
• Define, maintain, and govern functional, physical, and logical system architectures.
• Own and control system requirements, ensuring traceability, verification, validation, and managed change through formal configuration processes.
• Lead and chair major technical reviews including SRR, SFR, PDR, CDR, TRR, SVR, and PRR.
• Define and oversee verification, validation, qualification, and certification strategies, supporting test planning and anomaly resolution.
• Ensure compliance with applicable defence, safety, airworthiness, and regulatory standards (e.g., MIL‑STD, DEF STAN, STANAG).
• Lead or oversee system safety, reliability, maintainability, and human factors activities.Identify, assess, and manage technical risks and opportunities, providing independent technical challenge and governance.
• Serve as the primary technical interface with customers, partners, suppliers, and certification authorities.Support bids, proposals, and technical evaluations, clearly communicating complex technical concepts.
• Mentor systems engineers and discipline leads, promoting best practice and contributing to organisational capability development.

Requirements

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (essential).
• Chartered Engineer status or INCOSE CSEP / ESEP certification (highly desirable).

Experience

• 15+ years’ experience in systems engineering within defence, aerospace, or similarly regulated industries.
• Proven experience leading multi‑disciplinary systems through the full lifecycle.
• Strong background in regulated and safety‑critical environments.
• Experience with airworthiness, weapons systems, or other high‑integrity platforms.
• Exposure to Model‑Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tools and practices.

Key Competencies

• Expert knowledge of systems engineering principles, standards, and lifecycle processes (ISO/IEC 15288, INCOSE).
• Strong capability in requirements management and configuration control.
• In‑depth understanding of product development processes and project management.
• Excellent decision‑making, analytical, and problem‑solving abilities.
• Strong customer focus with advanced negotiation and influencing skills.
• Results‑driven mindset with a proactive and structured approach to delivery.
• High ethical standards, accountability, and professional integrity.
• Excellent communication and ability to work collaboratively across diverse teams.

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