SnackStar
Aerospace Engineer Lead -- Complex Air Vehicle / missile programme
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Senior Technical Lead — Complex Air Vehicle / Missile Programme
Location: London Area, United Kingdom
Industry: Aerospace & Defence
Employment: Permanent
Salary: £110,000–£145,000 per annum, plus performance bonus, equity and comprehensive benefits
The Opportunity
We are seeking an exceptional Senior Technical Lead to take technical ownership of a complex air vehicle / missile programme within a well-funded, high-growth aerospace and defence startup.
This is a senior technical leadership position with responsibility for the development of the vehicle from taking over early work and architecture through hardware development, integration and demonstrator testing. The successful candidate will lead a small, highly experienced engineering team and serve as a key technical authority across the programme.
The role is suited to an experienced aerospace engineer who has previously held whole-vehicle or system-level technical responsibility and is comfortable making and owning difficult engineering trade-offs across multiple disciplines.
What You'll Do
- Own the whole-vehicle technical architecture, including requirements, system decomposition, interfaces and system-level budgets.
- Lead technical development of the vehicle from concept through design, hardware development, integration and test.
- Balance competing technical requirements across disciplines including aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, guidance/navigation/control (GNC), avionics and systems engineering.
- Establish and maintain system-level technical priorities, interfaces and performance budgets.
- Lead a small team of experienced engineers, providing technical direction and establishing a high standard of engineering execution.
- Drive resolution of complex cross-disciplinary technical issues and make engineering trade-offs where requirements compete.
- Work closely with programme, manufacturing, test and leadership teams to ensure technical decisions support programme objectives.
- Maintain technical accountability for vehicle-level performance and readiness for integration and demonstrator testing.
- Support the transition from engineering development into hardware-in-the-loop, ground and flight testing.
- Communicate complex technical issues and recommendations clearly to senior leadership and programme stakeholders.
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What We're Looking For
- 10+ years of experience working on complex aerospace, air vehicle or missile programmes.
- Demonstrable experience with whole-vehicle or system-level technical ownership, rather than responsibility limited to a single subsystem.
- Strong understanding of systems engineering, including requirements, architecture, interface definition, system budgets and verification.
- Experience balancing technical requirements across disciplines such as aerodynamics, structures and GNC.
- Demonstrable experience taking aerospace hardware from concept and design through build, integration and test.
- Experience leading or technically directing a small team of experienced engineers.
- Strong technical judgement and the ability to make and own decisions in an ambiguous, fast-moving environment.
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to work effectively across engineering disciplines.
- UK right to work and the ability to obtain UK Security Check (SC) clearance.
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What We Offer
- £125,000–£145,000 base salary, depending on experience and technical scope.
- Performance-related bonus.
- Equity participation in a well-funded, high-growth aerospace and defence company.
- Comprehensive benefits package.
- The opportunity to take genuine technical ownership of a highly complex air vehicle programme.
- A small, experienced engineering environment with significant influence over architecture, development and test.
- The opportunity to work on advanced aerospace technology from concept through demonstrator and flight testing.
The Role
This is an opportunity for an engineer who wants to be accountable for making the vehicle work, not simply responsible for a particular subsystem.
The successful candidate will have the technical depth to understand individual engineering disciplines while maintaining the broader vehicle-level perspective required to make difficult architecture, integration and performance decisions.
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