Principal Systems Engineer

Principal Systems Engineering Consultant

Location: Chippenham or Portsmouth
Salary: From £60,000 - £80,000
Working pattern: Hybrid (onsite 2-3 days a week)
Employment type: Permanent

Electus Recruitment Solutions is working with a rapidly growing defence-focused consultancy that is expanding its Systems Engineering leadership capability.
This is a broad Principal-level opportunity for an experienced Systems Engineer with strong communications or other technical defence project expertise who enjoys combining technical leadership, people management, project delivery and business development.
The organisation is delivering Systems Engineering and Communications expertise across a diverse portfolio of defence projects and has recently secured a number of significant programmes involving model-based systems engineering, systems modelling and simulation.
As the team continues to grow, there is now an opportunity for an experienced Systems Engineering leader to take a key role in shaping technical capability, supporting project delivery and developing the engineers within the function.

The Role
As Principal Systems Engineer, you will provide technical, project and people leadership working across maritime, communications and air-domain projects.
You will operate across a broad range of responsibilities, providing technical direction and some hands on technical work while also supporting the development of the team and contributing to the continued growth of the business.
Your responsibilities will include:

• Providing senior technical leadership across Systems Engineering activities.
• Leading a multidisciplinary project team.
• Providing technical oversight across multiple concurrent defence projects.
• Supporting the development of systems architectures, requirements, technical solutions and engineering approaches.
• Contributing to model-based systems engineering, modelling and simulation activities.
• Supporting capability development and the continuous improvement of Systems Engineering practices.
• Providing mentoring, coaching and professional development support to engineers across the team.
• Taking responsibility for team leadership and pastoral management.
• Working closely with customers and stakeholders to understand requirements and develop effective technical solutions.
• Contributing to bids, proposals and business development activities.
• Identifying opportunities to support future business growth and developing relationships with customers.
• Working with senior colleagues to shape technical strategy and future capability.

About You
We are looking for an experienced Systems Engineering professional who combines strong technical capability with the leadership skills needed deliver across a demanding project portfolio.
You will ideally have:

• Significant experience in Systems Engineering within defence, aerospace, maritime, communications or another high-integrity engineering environment.
• Strong technical knowledge of Systems Engineering.
• Experience leading technical teams and providing technical direction.
• Experience managing, mentoring and developing engineers.
• A track record of working across complex projects with multiple stakeholders.
• Experience of systems architecture, requirements, integration, verification and validation or related Systems Engineering disciplines.
• Experience of MBSE, systems modelling or simulation would be advantageous.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
• The ability to engage confidently with technical and senior stakeholders.
• Commercial awareness and an interest in contributing to business development.
• Previous bid or proposal experience would be advantageous, although support and coaching will be available.
• The ability to operate across both technical delivery and people leadership rather than focusing exclusively on one discipline.

This would suit an experienced Senior or Principal Systems Engineer, Systems Engineering Manager, Technical Lead or similar professional who is looking for a broader leadership position and the opportunity to influence technical strategy, people development and business growth.

Professional Development
The organisation places a strong emphasis on developing its people and offers:

• 10 training days per year.
• £2,500 annual training budget.
• Full support towards professional registration and chartership.
• Opportunities to develop leadership and commercial skills.
• Exposure to a diverse portfolio of defence and technology programmes.

The successful candidate will be joining a growing organisation at a point where there is significant opportunity to influence the development of the Systems Engineering function and its future direction.
Security: Candidates will need to have the existing right to live and work in the UK and be willing and eligible to undergo the appropriate personnel security and UK Security Vetting processes.
Salary: From £60,000 - £80,000 depending on experience, plus a competitive benefits package.

Electus Recruitment Solutions provides specialist engineering and technical recruitment solutions to a number of high technology industries. We thank you for your interest in this vacancy. If you don't hear from us within 7 working days please presume your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion. You are of course free to resubmit your CV/details in the future and we shall assess your suitability at that time.