Chief Systems Engineer

Job Description:

Your Impact

As a Chief Systems Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in defining and delivering the next generation of support and service solutions across the air domain — from rotary and fixed‑wing aircraft to advanced training and future capabilities. This is a strategic, high‑influence position where your technical leadership will directly shape outcomes for internationally important defence programmes.

Joining our Customer Support and Service Solutions (CS3) line of business, you’ll work with diverse teams across the UK and internationally to help ensure critical air, land and sea systems remain ready and available to protect national security. We are proud to be the largest supplier of avionic support to the UK MoD and a trusted partner for our customers worldwide, providing innovative and invaluable support solutions.

This role gives you the opportunity to:

• Architect complex, large-scale solutions across multiple bids and programmes
• Define technical vision and champion systems engineering excellence
• Influence decision‑making with customers, partners, and senior stakeholders
• Challenge and innovate how support solutions are designed and delivered
• Shape the development of future engineers through coaching and mentoring

You will be responsible for:

• Designing compelling, technically robust solutions that meet evolving stakeholder needs across the full lifecycle
• Contributing to in‑service support strategies, bids and proposals across CS3 and the product lines of business
• Leading technical trade‑offs to optimise capability, cost, quality and schedule, while promoting transparent and inclusive decision-making
• Providing senior technical leadership and defining engineering approaches
• Influencing engineering make/buy decisions
• Building trusted, collaborative relationships with customers, suppliers and internal teams
• Driving continuous improvement with an openness to new ideas and perspectives from within and outside the business
• Promoting knowledge sharing and best practice adoption
• Mentoring and coaching members of the teams, helping develop talent from all backgrounds
• Acting as an independent assessor for lifecycle management reviews

What You’ll Bring

• Experience leading technical decision-making in complex, dynamic environments
• Background in support engineering or through‑life systems engineering (defence experience beneficial)
• Strong stakeholder engagement and relationship building skills, with the ability to communicate complex concepts clearly
• Experience of collaborative design and development of complex solutions and services
• An approach that balances customer focus with business expectations and engineering feasibility in a pragmatic and transparent way
• Experience shaping engineering inputs for bids or proposals
• A passion for challenging established approaches in an evidence-based, constructive way, and driving subsequent improvement
• Interest or experience in digital technologies or synthetic environments

This is not an exhaustive list, and we are keen to hear from you even if you might not have experience in all the above. The most important skill is a good attitude and willingness to learn.

Security Clearance

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV). For more information and guidance please visit: https://careers.uk.leonardo.com/gb/en/security-and-vetting

Why Join Us

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We offer a comprehensive, company-funded benefits package that supports your wellbeing, career development, and work–life balance. Whether you're looking to grow professionally, care for your health, or plan for the future, we’re here to help you thrive.

• Time to Recharge: Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year.
• Secure your Future: Benefit from our award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution.
• Your Wellbeing Matters: Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Armed Forces, Carers, Wellbeing and Ethnicity).
• Rewarding Performance: All employees at management level and below are eligible for our bonus scheme.
• Never Stop Learning: Free access to 4,000+ online courses via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.
• Refer a Friend: Receive a financial reward through our referral programme.
• Tailored Perks: Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.
• Flexible Working: Flexible hours with hybrid working options. For part time opportunities, please talk to us about what might be possible for this role.

For a full list of our company benefits please visit our website.

Leonardo is a global leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. Headquartered in Italy, we employ over 53,000 people worldwide including 8,500 across 9 sites in the UK. Our employees are not just part of a team—they are key contributors to shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.

At Leonardo we are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.

Be part of something bigger - apply now!

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Primary Location:

GB - Bristol - Coldharbour Lane

Additional Locations:

GB - Edinburgh, GB - Lincoln, GB - Luton - Cap. Green 300, GB - Southampton

Contract Type:

Permanent

Hybrid Working:

Hybrid