Deputy Chief Engineer

MPS Deputy Chief Engineer

Platform Design Authority

Location: Farnborough (Hybrid)

Everything we do is built on a commitment to do the right thing for our customers, our people and our community. Our mission and our values guide the way we do business. The foundations of our Leidos culture are our Values, Beliefs and Expectations by which we select, recognise and reward employees. They create the environment that drives us toward our mission.

We are seeking a Deputy Chief Engineer/Platform Design Authority to support a complex delivery programme utilising hybrid cloud hosting tailored COTS products to deliver critical national infrastructure services to a law enforcement customer.
This is a mobile working role with a work hub based in Farnborough but with occasional travel to sites across the UK.

The Deputy Chief Engineers primary role is to assist the Chief Engineer in supervising engineering operations, projects, and technical teams ensuring operational and tactical activities are carried out in line with agreed designs, standards and requirements.

While the Chief Engineer is both External and Internal facing to the programme, dealing with strategic planning and customer relationships, the Deputy  Chief Engineer is internally focussed on the programme ensuing the steady state of the technology already delivered is maintained and quality, risks and issue are monitored and managed.

A key part of the Deputy role is to act as a conduit between the Programme Senior Leadership team with their strategic vision and the engineering teams practical implementation, planning the tactical and operational activities required to deliver the programme vision and maintain standards to ISO 9001, ISO 27001, DPA 2018, etc.
This is a great opportunity for aspirant Chief Engineers to develop the skills required for future technical leadership roles.

Platform Design Authority

As a dual responsibility the Deputy Chief Engineer will act as the Platform Design Authority (PDA) for the Hybrid Cloud Platform ensuring that the platform is maintained to the agreed standard to enable the capability development activities. To this end the PDA will ensure that regular horizon scanning of technology and dependencies is carried out and that technical roadmaps are maintained out to a minimum of a 18 month horizon, identifying any potential risks or issue as a result of technology evolution.

The PDA “owns” and is responsible for the Hosting Platforms Low Level Designs and Change Management of the platform and design artifacts.

If any platform issues are identified it is the responsibility of the PDA to plan remediation and mitigation activities and escalate to the Senior Leadership team.
A key role for the PDA is to work with the Delivery Lead to identify any environment contention/conflict and work to provide the most appropriate and efficient approach to maintaining new capability delivery and test.

It is also the PDAs responsibility to lead any incident management team and document any post incident root cause analysis.

Your role and responsibilities:

• Work directly under the direction of the Programme Chief Engineer

• Deputise from the Programme Chief Engineer when not available.

• Deputise for Delivery lead when not available

• Act as design authority for a Hybrid cloud platform

• Act as one of the key reviewers of core design artifacts eg HLD and  LLDs.

• Document platform and product roadmaps projected out to a minimum of 18 months.

• Plan technology step change activities in coordination with the delivery lead to minimise disruption to delivery and minimise costs

• Work with the Delivery Lead and teams to define the delivery build logic and schedule work activates in the IMS including estimating and costing activities

• Own the Platform Transition To Operations work plan, coordinating with the Leidos and customer transition teams to ensure correct process are followed, artifacts are generated and milestones are met at each transition state

• Work as part of the senior technology team (Chief Engineer, Solutions Architect, Security  Architect, Cloud Architect) to develop design solutions

• Present design solutions to the customer

• Identify and report delivery progress and dependencies risks and issues

• Maintain oversight of security and maintenance activates ensuring platform integrity is maintained in line with commercial commitments and requirements

• Identify gaps/opportunities, proposing solutions and managing exceptions/mitigations.

• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to ensure seamless integration of hardware, software, and network components

• Providing technical leadership and mentorship across the programme

• Act as Line manager for a minimum of 2x staff

Minimum Qualifications/Experience:

• Proven track record with a Experience in an a technology delivery leadership  role for IT/software systems

• Good working knowledge of Software and Hardware used for IT systems technologies primarily focused on platform and infrastructure technologies.

• Experience of working within Agile and Waterfall delivery models and tailoring the working practices accordingly

• Bachelor’s degree or suitable experience in an Engineering or Technology subject

• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities and work effectively in cross-functional teams

Essential Skills/Experience:

• Experience in delivering solutions based on a large range of technical capabilities and technologies including hardware, software, networks, cloud, IT services and cyber security

• Understanding of different lifecycles/methodologies (incremental, SAFe agile, DevOps)

• Strong architecture skills, alongside process and leadership skills

• In depth understating of modern IT technology stacks for both On-Prem and Cloud Platforms (PaaS and IaaS) including supporting services and tooling

• Experience in leading multi-discipline technical teams 15+ technologists

• Experience in Enterprise IT and Service Management programmes

• Good working Knowledge of IT security controls eg Firewalls, NSGs, RBAC, NACLs,  Zero Trust, Secure By Design, etc

• Experience of delivery though the engineering lifecycle using the V Model from requirement capture to customer acceptance

• Experience in performing design trade off working with other architects and engineers to deliver an integrated and coherent solution

• Understanding of service operations and security operational management planning

• Experience of creating Basis of Estimates and Options papers for customer decisions   

• Experience of designing a secure software development lifecycle (SDLC) for a customer that's transitioning to a DevOps model

• Excellent structured analytical approach and organisational skills.

• Self-Starter with ability to work with minimal supervision and oversight.

Management, Communications and Soft Skills:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and works well in a team environment.

• Ability to communicate complex technical ideas across a wide range of different audiences in written and verbal forms;

• A good level of commercial awareness that informs designs, work planning and negotiations with suppliers and customers.

• Contribute to Systems Concept of Operations Document through process definition and documentation.

• Track and present progress of deliverables and dependencies

• Document engineering management/governance processes.

• Strong Leaderhsip and Management behaviours

Security Clearance/Travel:

• Ability to gain Metropolitan Police Service NPPV2 security clearance (essential).

• Willingness to gain MOD DV (advantageous)

• Work can be done from Home Location

• Expected to be at the Farnborough office 2 days per fortnight.

• Expected to attend Programme Increment planning 5 Days every 3 months in Leidos Office (Farnborough/Glasgow) Ability to attend customer locations (Greater London) when needed. Typically, 2 days per month​

Are you ready to make an impact? Begin your journey of a flourishing and meaningful career, share your CV with us today!

What we do for you:
At Leidos we are PASSIONATE about customer success, UNITED as a team and INSPIRED to make a difference. We offer meaningful and engaging careers, a collaborative culture, and support for your career goals, all while nurturing a healthy work-life balance.

We provide an employment package that attracts, develops and retains only the best in talent. Our reward scheme includes:
Contributory Pension Scheme
Private Medical Insurance
33 days Annual Leave (including public and privilege holidays)
Access to Flexible benefits (including life assurance, health schemes, gym memberships, annual buy and sell holidays and a cycle to work scheme)
Flexi-TIme

Commitment to Diversity:

We welcome applications from every part of the community and are committed to a truly diverse and inclusive culture.  We foster a sense of belonging, welcoming all perspectives and contributions, and providing equal access to opportunities and resources for everyone.  If you have a disability or need any reasonable adjustments during the application and selection stages please let us know, and we will respond in a way that best fits your needs.

Who We Are:

Leidos UK & EUROPE – we work to make the world safer, healthier, and more efficient through technology, engineering and science.

Leidos is a growing company delivering innovative technology and solutions focused on safeguarding critical capabilities and transformation in frontline services, our work in the United Kingdom includes addressing some of the most complex problems in defence, healthcare, government, safety and security, and transportation.

What Makes Us Different:

Purpose: you can use your passion and abilities at Leidos to keep the people you care about safe. We are at the forefront of machine learning, AI, cyber security and solutions. Using your skills in the technology frontline by helping to build a safer world.  You can inspire change.

Collaboration: having flexibility to do your job is one of our core benefits, enabling you to become part of our extraordinary team.  We have been empowering our people to work flexibly for years.  Whether you work from home, the office or on customer sites, we will give you the digital tools and the flexibility to work smarter and align your needs and ours.          

People: Leidos empowers people from every background to be themselves and gives you the tools to learn new skills by enabling growth whilst developing. We believe that extraordinary people need opportunities to grow, to be inspired and to inspire others. At Leidos, we invest in technical academies, career rotations and a career development plans that enhance your future.