Systems Engineering Discipline Manager

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.

Systems Engineering Discipline Manager

Crawley – Hybrid

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

We are a forward-looking business that develops innovative products:

• Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) which are revolutionising modern warfare
• Radars that are capable of detecting foot prints in the grass when someone has walked across a field
• 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 currently recruiting for a System Engineering Discipline Manager to hold functional responsibility for the System Engineering team within ISR. The team is made up of circa 30 system engineering professionals at varying levels.

This role ensures effective deployment of engineering talent to Integrated Project Teams (IPTs), aligning with immediate project demands.  You will act as the primary tactical resource contact, overseeing the daily operations of the engineering team, resolving operational issues, and ensuring timely support for project milestones.  You will be responsible for ensuring your team possess the correct knowledge and skills to meet future demands

Role and responsibilities

As a Systems Engineering Discipline Management Role within Thales, you will:

• Manage the allocation of Systems Engineering resources to meet project and product development demands, providing the S&OP process with precise data on engineering capacity and constraints
• Act as the primary tactical resource contact, overseeing the daily operations of the engineering team, resolving operational issues, and ensuring timely support for project milestones
• Identify skills needed for future work highlighted through the strategic business plan and multi-year budget planning
• Ensure effective recruitment activities for permanents, contractors and graduates
• Pursue additional potential sources of work when forward load indicates possible under-load
• Contribute on Bids/Products and Projects peer reviews to reduce technical/engineering risks and increase confidence to deliver

Experience and knowledge required:

• You graduated with a Master of Engineering, Computer Science or any other relevant field in University, and you have significant experience in team management
• You want to oversee systems-related activities and be plunged into a challenging environment
• You are a leader willing to engage and develop your team through the use of collaborative work and challenging approaches
• You love to share knowledge and help people develop themselves, which enables you to be recognised as a great mentor and team-player
• You are responsible and show a great sense of initiative

Competencies:

• You have great communication skills
• You are able to empower and unite employees around clear objectives by acting as a coach and servant leader, which mobilises influencing and “team first” skills
• Proven ability to manage and allocate engineering resources to meet the dynamic needs of IPTs
• Strong aptitude for resolving immediate resource and project challenges with effective tactical solutions
• You have a good understanding of data and business issues
• You have substantial knowledge of Systems Engineering:
• You have the ability to adopt a holistic approach to analyse a system, focusing on the way that a system’s constituent parts interrelate and how systems work over time and within the context of larger systems
• You are able to understand the system capabilities through functional, logical and value analytics
• You understand the importance of requirements definition through a process using performance analysis, trade studies, constraint evaluation and cost/benefit analysis
• You have notions of IVVQ (Integration/Verification/Validation/Qualification), RAMT (Reliability/Maintainability/Availability/Testability) and associated norms and standards

Security Clearance Statement

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.

For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the National Security Vetting (NSV) Agency - United Kingdom Security Vetting - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

What we can offer

We are committed to giving you opportunities to be your best. We believe in embracing the passion and potential of our people, and to achieve this we offer market leading training, development and experiences, along with the opportunity to be mentored and coached by some of the smartest minds in the industry. We hire from within as our first priority, so you’ll have a myriad of opportunities within our diverse, global organisation.
 

Our packages will include significant bonus, car allowance a strong pension contribute, private healthcare, development focused targets and relocation support can be provided if required along with a variety of learning, development and career enhancement opportunities. Further support can be provided towards academic and membership attainments.

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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!