Systems Engineer

Location: Reading, United Kingdom

Thales people architect solutions that are relied upon to deliver operational advantage at every decisive moment throughout the mission. Defence and armed forces customers rely on us to deliver the full range of defensive systems for land, sea, and air. From early warning, to threat neutralisation, our platforms cover all levels from very short-range systems, to extended protection across the entire battle-space including Airspace Mobility Solutions, Vehicles and Tactical Systems and Missile Defence, Optronics, and Radar.

Together we offer fantastic opportunities for committed employees to learn and develop their career with us. At Thales UK, we research, develop, and supply technology and services that impact the lives of millions of people each day to make life better, and keep us safer. We innovate across the major industries of Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space. Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

Senior Systems Engineer

Thales people architect solutions that are relied upon to deliver operational advantage at every decisive moment throughout the mission. Defence and armed forces customers rely on us to deliver the full range of defensive systems for land, sea, and air. From early warning, to threat neutralisation, our platforms cover all levels from very short-range systems, to extended protection across the entire battle-space including Airspace Mobility Solutions, Vehicles and Tactical Systems and Missile Defence, Optronics, and Radar.

Together we offer fantastic opportunities for committed employees to learn and develop their career with us. At Thales UK, we research, develop, and supply technology and services that impact the lives of millions of people each day to make life better, and keep us safer. We innovate across the major industries of Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space. Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

An opportunity has arisen for an experienced Senior Systems Engineer with Aircraft sensor systems experience  to support of our Air Optronics system development and verification.

The role is based in Reading, but may be required to work at other Thales locations. Depending on the specific projects the role may require periods of time to be spent at Customer sites and/or integration facilities.

LIFE AS A THALES SYSTEM ENGINEERING ROLE 

As a Senior Systems Engineer you will be responsible for delivering the systems design activities throughout the engineering project lifecycle involving:

• Definition of the technical solution, including requirements elicitation and decomposition, and architecture from Operational Concepts through to Solution Architecture
• Definition, management and de-risking of the interfaces through and between the system functional chains
• Definition of the interfaces between the solution and the solution elements
• Upfront Integration, Validation, Verification and Qualification (IVVQ) activities to support the IVVQ Manager and supporting IVVQ throughout the lifecycle.
  • Reviewing and agreeing verification methods for system requirements
  • Definition of the IVVQ verification procedures
  • Definition of test equipment requirements  
• Perform IVVQ activities under the management of the IVVQM/EDM
  • Perform Integration and Verification testing at both sub system and system level
  • Perform fault diagnosis and root cause analysis
  • Prepare Solution Test Reports and collate evidence for customer sell-off of requirements
  • Support installed trials through provision of SME guidance to platform operators and post-test analysis of trials data.
• Design trades offs to establish an optimal design, ensuring that key design decisions are made, captured and communicated across all of the project stakeholders to meet the schedule demands
• Leading de-risk activities to explore solution designs and functionality, and to identify potential risk areas during IVVQ and sell-off
• Collaborating across all disciplines for the complete solution design, this includes:
  • coherence of low level design to system design
  • alignment of technical dependencies across the other disciplines and business areas
  • understanding of technical assumptions and constraints
  • identification of technical risks and their mitigations
  • undertake workpackage management of key systems workpackages
  • Generate and manage both synthetic imagery and trial imagery for algorithm performance analysis
  • Develop and apply analysis tools in MATLAB to review, process, and interpret data

The Senior Systems engineer maintain the overall system compliance to both the customer requirements and product line requirements.

COMPETENCIES: 

• An understanding of the fundamentals of Systems Engineering methodologies around Design, Verification, Validation, Qualification and Acceptance.
• Experience deriving system capabilities, functionalities and behaviours, ideally using traditional methods, Model Based Systems Engineering & SysML approaches.
• Self-motivated and capable of working alone & with teams.
• Proven experience in product design in an engineering or research environment.
• Must have good communication skills.
• Experience producing documentation with clarity and precision.
• Be prepared to challenge other’s views and willing to accept constructive feedback.
• IBM DOORS or an equivalent requirements management tool.
• Enterprise Architect / Capella / Rhapsody or similar MBSE tool.
• MATLAB or an equivalent simulation/modelling tool (Desirable).
• Knowledge of analogue and digital circuit design (Desirable).
• Expertise in Lan Systems and Armoured Fighting Vehicle domains (Desirable).
• Knowledge and experience of open vehicle architectures (Desirable).
• You can quickly understand the system in which you evolve (key stakeholders, interactions, products, environment …) 
• You know what a design-to-cost approach means 
• You are able to adapt and react to change 
• You are familiar with management and engineering tools such as DOORS, Polarion, TFS, JIRA, Matlab
• You have experience with leading engineering activities 

PROFILE: 

• You have graduated with a Master’s degree of an Engineering School (Electronics, Aeronautical/Space Engineering, Computer Science, …) or in University 
• You have a proven experience in Software and/or Hardware, Systems Engineering and IVVQ activities 
• You want to update your expertise continuously and design innovative solutions to fit your customers’ needs 
• You want to strengthen your expertise in one of the following areas: conception, requirement management, development, test, integration or validation 
• You want to solve complex problems and be plunged into a challenging environment 
• You are recognised as a team player and enjoy collaborative work 
• You are a mentor willing to share knowledge 
• You are resourceful, analytical and structured 
• You are open-minded and curious 
• You are rigorous and logical 
• You are seen as ambitious 

Connect with Fiona Tal, Talent Acquisition Partner #LI-FT1 who is eager to explore together with you this exciting opportunity.

This role will require SC Clearance. It would be advantageous if currently held, however, if not currently held, it is a requirement that the successful applicant will undergo, achieve, and maintain SC Clearance. Please visit the UKSV website for further guidance.

To be eligible for full SC, you generally need to have resided in the UK for the last 5 years. In some circumstances, a minimum of 3 years’ residence in the UK over the last 5 years may be accepted, with additional overseas checks.

In line with Thales' Baseline Security requirements, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK and employment and/or education history for up to three years. Some vacancies may require full Security Clearance which can require further evidence to be provided. For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the Defence Business Services National Security Vetting (DBS NSV) Agency.

At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working.

Thales UK is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. We will provide reasonable adjustments and support to ensure neuro-diverse applicants or those with a disability or long-term condition can be their best during the recruitment process. To request an adjustment, if you need this job advert in an alternative format or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Resourcing Ops for mid to senior roles, or the Early Careers Team for graduate and apprentice roles.

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