Lead Systems Engineer

Team: Engineering

Location: London

Commitment: Full-time

Workplace Type: hybrid

What you'll do

• Establish and own the systems engineering capability for Hypersonica in the UK, defining approaches, interfaces, and ways of working from the ground up.
• Own the end to end system architecture for a high speed aerospace system, translating mission intent into structured system requirements, logical architectures, and clear interface definitions.
• Build and maintain the authoritative system model using model based systems engineering, ensuring traceability from mission objectives down to subsystem implementation.
• Define and drive the verification and validation strategy, aligning requirements, simulation, ground test, and flight test into a coherent delivery plan.
• Act as the technical integrator across guidance, avionics, propulsion, structures, software, and test, resolving interface ambiguity and maintaining architectural coherence.
• Deliver PDR level system artefacts, including validated requirements baselines, interface control definitions, and a credible V&V framework.

Who you are

• A senior systems engineer with 8+ years’ experience delivering complex aerospace or defence systems end to end.
• Eligible for UK Security Clearance (SC or DV), with a UK passport and prior exposure to cleared environments strongly preferred.
• Comfortable operating at the intersection of systems engineering and programme delivery, not treating them as separate disciplines.
• Someone who can balance commercial awareness with technical depth, understanding cost, schedule, and risk as system constraints.
• Motivated by building and leading capability in a growing UK operation, not inheriting a finished organisation.
• Strong in model based systems engineering, comfortable owning and structuring the system model as a single source of truth.
• Experienced defining verification and validation approaches for flight hardware in defence or high consequence aerospace environments.
• Broad across disciplines and confident arbitrating system level trade offs under cost, schedule, and risk constraints.
• Structured, rigorous, and delivery focused, able to create clarity in technically ambiguous environments.
• Comfortable operating in small, high autonomy teams where architectural decisions directly shape flight outcomes.

What we offer

• A mission driven environment with the opportunity to work on one of Europe’s most consequential defence challenges, with direct impact on sovereign capability and security.
• Daily collaboration with top experts across engineering, operations, and defence, with real opportunity to learn from the best, contribute, and grow.
• High ownership and autonomy; no time tracking, no micromanagement, just clear objectives and accountability for outcomes.
• A fast paced environment where good ideas are implemented quickly, and feedback from test and flight drives real decisions.
• A culture that values clarity, integrity, and excellence, and supports people who take initiative and push boundaries responsibly.
• Competitive compensation and real share options aligned to responsibility and impact, not tenure or hierarchy.