Overview

Important: Due to the level of security clearance required, all applicants must as a minimum hold British Nationality as their sole and primary nationality.

Working: The role is office/hybrid based with occasional travel to other company/customer's sites in the UK or abroad. Office site presence, anticipated 2-3 days onsite, depending on project needs.

Want to work for a successful business, who develop advanced specialist systems to deliver warfighting edge in the modern maritime and underwater battlespace?

The company have a number of awards, most recently been named as an Award winner (Gold Award) in MoD Defence Employer Recognition Scheme!

The Senior Chief Engineer is expected to be or to become the definitive technical expert for UK products, understanding all aspects of product design and able to make key decisions concerning new designs and design updates. They may also act as the delegated signatory for company, certifying that the designs continue to be seaworthy, safe and fully compliant to all relevant UK & international regulations.

Responsibilities include:

• To provide inputs, as required, into Bids and Proposals, including, where appropriate, planning the technical programme of work in conjunction with project management, providing input to technical proposals, engineering estimates and work packages. Note that the Capability and Product teams will remain the primary interface to the customer for business development and bid purposes, but the Senior Chief Engineer will want to ensure that different products are using common and modular architectures and components to maximise re-use, so will be consulted on system architectures and delivery methodology.
• To provide technical leadership into projects and product teams as needed, such that the aims of the business to develop strong future product lines whilst maintaining On-Time Delivery (OTD) of contracted work at the target levels for the business are fully met. This is in support of existing project leads such as PEL and SDA, with the Senior Chief Engineer in particular acting as an escalation route for SDAs on issues of design compliance.
• To provide strong technical governance to all sonar projects, such that all designs are compliant, reliable, safe and of a high technical quality while meeting project targets for cost and schedule. This could involve guiding product and project teams, chairing design reviews, inputting into project deliverables or providing independent review.
• Stay up to date with industry trends and technologies, and integrate them into the team's work as appropriate with particular emphasis on compliance and safety standards.
• Provide the necessary support to achieve export permissions for our products and projects, particularly in regard to security architectures and emerging Cyber-security standards. This may require attendance of workshops with ECJU and other export authorities, drawing on other businesses and working with external partners to develop the new technologies required to assure future products.
• To ensure all platform sonar designs consider reliability and design for manufacture throughout their lifecycle, and to liaise closely with the Manufacturing Engineering and production teams to ensure products can be manufactured to the required UPC and through life cost targets.
• This is a strategic and senior hire for the business, where the senior chief engineer will be leading a team of three chief engineers, across three major business streams. This is a fantastic opportunity for an individual to join a thriving company and have the ability to influence.

Experience needed:

• Ideally qualified to degree-level or equivalent experience in a Physics or Engineering based subject, such as; Electronics, Hardware, Computer Science, Software or Systems Engineering etc.
• Must be able to influence and lead various stakeholders and teams.
• Experience within Design Authority, understanding all aspects of product design and able to make key decisions concerning new designs and design updates
• Technically competent in the tools and technologies used by the team (requirements management tools such as DOORS or Jama, CAD tools (with sufficient familiarity to enable review), PLM tools such as Windchill etc.), to allow review/assist with technical work where needed.
• Help deliver the Business' strategic plans for long term growth.
• Customer-facing, particularly to represent the customer within the business on projects such that the customer needs with regard to security, reliability and supportability are appropriately prioritized.
• Generate all the good ideas, but should be able to create an environment of trust and psychological safety in which innovation flourishes within creative and engaged teams.
• Provide strong governance across projects and product teams.
• Deliver effective Engineering input into bids, proposals and projects, often on a tight schedule, maintaining high OTD standards whilst also managing our product lines means we may ask the individual to juggle and balance multiple priorities with minimal supervision.

Experience in the following would be desirable:

• Experience in the Defence / Aerospace or safety regulated environment would be advantageous
• Experience in the Naval / Maritime domain would be advantageous.
• Technical knowledge of Sonar and associated naval systems, and of good engineering practices is essential, including familiarity with the regulatory environment for maritime products