Chief Design Engineer

Overview

In this role you lead as a senior aerospace design authority for the flagship stratospheric UAS programme, shaping airframe design and integration decisions. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to address performance, manufacture, and lifecycle considerations, while supporting other programmes and internal productisation efforts. You’ll drive design reviews, provide expert judgement on trade studies, and own or contribute to engineering release packs. This is a growth-enabled position in a leading aerospace environment with a strong emphasis on design excellence and impact.

Pay / Benefits

• Permanent role
• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge aerospace projects
• Professional development and training opportunities
• Supportive and collaborative work environment
• Comprehensive employee benefits package

Responsibilities

• Lead or contribute to airframe and platform design for the flagship stratospheric UAS programme
• Support aircraft configuration, layout, structures, mass properties, performance, and integration decisions
• Contribute to other customer programmes and internal productisation routes where aerospace design input is needed
• Collaborate with avionics, flight control, operations, software, productisation, and test teams
• Provide senior design judgement during trade studies, design reviews, and technical decisions
• Own or contribute to CAD, drawings, design rationale, configuration records, and engineering release packs
• Support design-for-manufacture, maintainability, operations, and field support
• Help resolve design issues during build, integration, ground test, and flight test

Key requirements

• Strong aerospace engineering background
• Experience designing aircraft, UAS, UAVs, air vehicles, or similar aerospace systems
• Strong mechanical, structural, aerodynamic, and integration judgement
• Experience with CAD, drawings, design documentation, and configuration control
• Understanding of mass properties, airframe integration, manufacturing constraints, and system integration
• Hands-on engineering mindset
• Flexibility to shape team processes and engineering culture during growth/facilities transition

• collaboration
• adaptability
• communication
• CAD
• drawings
• design documentation

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