Principal Systems Engineer - Electronic Warfare

Location: Crawley, United Kingdom

Thales people provide armed forces customers with operational advantage at every decisive moment throughout the mission. Defence and armed forces customers rely on us to deliver the full range of defence mission systems solutions at land, sea, and air. Our platforms extend across the battlespace including Above and Sonar, Electronic Combat, and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance systems.

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.

Principal Systems Engineer - Electronic Warfare 

Crawley - Hybrid

Thales Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) UK is a principal supplier of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), Electronic Warfare (EW) and Radar equipment to the UK armed forces, as well as an exporter of these capabilities worldwide.

We are looking for senior engineers with the skills and experience to enhance our Electronic Warfare portfolio, delivering cutting edge products including:

• Digital Radar Electronic Support Measures (RESM) that provides situational awareness and identify threats even in busy Electronic Transmission Environments
• Radar Electronic Countermeasures (RECM) that can protect assets by denying tactical advantage and distracting incoming threats.

We are seeking an Principal Systems Engineer with experience of working within the field of Electronic Warfare, or related fields such as RESM, CESM, ECM or similar. You will have prior knowledge of the key principles of the domain and can quickly grasp the science and technology that sits behind a modern digital EW suite. You may have a military background, having operated EW equipment in the field, or have worked in the design, development or testing of similar products.

Role Description

As a Principal Systems Engineer within Thales, you will: 

• Analyse and understand customer needs through advanced studies, simulations, mock-ups, models, prototypes, …
• Formalise specifications and architecture used to propose the best solution / product to your clients
• Prepare and carry out integration, verification and validation tests  
• Define test plans and procedures for system level testing
• Ensure the technical integration and coherence of the system design, interfaces, and performances.
• Support design of the systems architecture
• Demonstrate the solution to the customer

Principal Relationships

• Electronic Warfare Product Line Engineers, Architects and Managers
• EW Project Delivery Teams (including Project Management)
• Domain Technical and Engineering Managers
• Domain Functional Management
• The wider multi-discipline engineering team

Profile of the successful individual

• You have graduated with a degree from a University (Electronics, Aeronautical/Space Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics …)
• You have a proven experience in Systems Engineering and/or Software, Hardware, 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 inf 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

Competencies

• You can quickly understand the system in which you involve (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, JIRA
• You have experience with leading engineering projects or activities 

Desired Knowledge or Skills

• Signal Processing or
• Communication Systems or
• RF Systems (EW, CESM, Comms) or
• RF Performance Modelling/Budgets;
• System Specification & Design (SSS/TRS)

Your Career At Thales UK

Future opportunities will allow you to discover other domains or sites. You will be able to evolve and grow your Competencies in different areas: 

• Room and attention to personal development 
• Build your talents in another domain of Thales Group, discovering new products, new customers, new country or go to a more complex Solution 
• Choose between a technical expertise or a leadership path
• Build an international career within a leading Engineering Group 

Security Clearance statement  

Due to the nature of the work that we do at Thales, many of our roles are subject to security restrictions. This role requires you to be a sole British National from birth and achieve Security Clearance (SC) without any caveats. It would be advantageous if currently held, however, if not currently held, it is a requirement that the successful applicant undergo, achieve, and maintain SC Clearance prior to commencing employment. Please visit the UKSV website for further guidance- United Kingdom Security Vetting - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

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.

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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.

Great journeys start here, apply now!