QinetiQ
Chief Engineer - Air
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Job Title: Chief Engineer (Air)
Global Grade: GG15
Location: Boscombe Down - three days per week on-site
Role Type: Permanent – Full Time
Role ID: 20366
Salary: £90 - 105k + bonus + benefits
Role Purpose
The Business Chief Engineer (Air) provides enterprise-level technical leadership across the Air business portfolio, ensuring the delivery of safe, compliant, assured and innovative engineering solutions aligned to customer requirements and QinetiQ strategic objectives.
The role holds delegated Engineering Delivery Authority and is accountable for engineering governance, technical integrity and through-life performance across all Air programmes, capabilities within scope.
Scope & Impact
- Enterprise-wide impact across a business unit or major portfolio.
- Influences delivery of complex, high-value and high-risk programmes.
- Impacts customer outcomes, regulatory compliance and company reputation.
- Leadership of multiple engineering disciplines and senior technical leaders.
Key Accountabilities
1. Strategic Engineering Leadership
- Defines and executes engineering strategy within the business aligned to corporate and customer objectives.
- Translates organisational strategy into actionable engineering plans, investments, and capability development.
- Shapes future engineering direction, including adoption of new technologies, facilities, and methods.
2. Engineering Authority & Technical Governance
- Acts as the senior Engineering Authority for the business portfolio, approving critical technical decisions, milestones, and deliverables.
- Provides authoritative direction on complex, high-risk or business-critical engineering activities.
- Leads First Line technical governance and assurance activities across the engineering lifecycle (LCM 1–4).
- Ensures engineering risks are proactively identified, assessed and mitigated.
3. Delivery Assurance & Operational Performance
- Accountable for engineering performance across all programmes within the portfolio, ensuring delivery to cost, schedule, quality, and safety requirements.
- Oversees technical bid quality, solution integrity and execution effectiveness.
- Drives continuous improvement in engineering delivery, processes and standards.
4. Stakeholder & Customer Leadership
- Serves as the primary technical interface for senior customer stakeholders, regulators, and industry partners.
- Influences strategic decisions and builds trusted relationships at senior customer and executive level.
- Aligns engineering direction across business units and external partners.
5. Engineering Capability & Development
- Contributes to the UK Defence Engineering Leadership Team, shaping organisational capability, workforce strategy and long-term skill development.
- Works with Heads of Capabilities and Professions to develop engineering standards, tools, IP, data management and methodologies.
- Fosters a high-performance engineering culture.
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6. Governance, Risk & Compliance
- Ensures all engineering outputs comply with regulatory, internal, and customer assurance requirements.
- Owns First line assurance of technical bids, systems, and solutions.
- Escalates critical engineering risks impacting safety, cost, or schedule to leadership teams.
7. Delegated Engineering Authority
- Approval of customer engineering deliverables, technical solutions and assurance outcomes.
- Approval of engineering bids, proposals and associated risks.
- Authority to appoint and assign:
- Senior Engineering Authorities (LCM 1&2)
- System Design Authorities (LCM 1&2)
- Technical Assurers (LCM 1&2)
- Technical Leads (LCM 1 to 4)
Reporting
- Provides regular reporting to the UK Defence Engineering Director on business performance, engineering delivery and risk.
- Reports to the Business Managing Director on progress against business objectives, engineering risks and delivery status.
Key Capabilities/Knowledge
- Extensive experience in senior engineering leadership roles within complex, regulated air engineering environments.
- Deep technical expertise with recognised authority in one or more air engineering disciplines.
- Proven track record of leading large-scale, high-risk programmes and delivery of MOD strategic outcomes.
- Strong leadership, stakeholder influence and decision-making capability at leadership team level.
- Comprehensive understanding of MOD Acquisition and Support Policy and approaches.
- Comprehensive understanding of engineering governance, assurance frameworks and lifecycle management.
Experience & Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, or a related STEM discipline.
- Chartered Engineer (CEng) status through a recognised professional institution.
- Membership or Fellowship of a relevant professional body (e.g. Royal Aeronautical Society, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Institution of Engineering and Technology).
- Eligibility to obtain and maintain appropriate security clearance.
Demonstrated expertise in:
- Systems Engineering
- Engineering Governance
- Airworthiness or platform safety management
- Defence Acquisition and Support
- 15–20+ years of defence air engineering experience.
- Significant experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams.
- Proven customer-facing leadership with organisations such as the UK Ministry of Defence and major prime contractors.
Why Join QinetiQ?
As we continue to grow into new markets around the world, there’s never been a more exciting time to join QinetiQ. The formula for success is our appetite for innovation and having the courage to take on a wide variety of complex challenges.
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As a QinetiQ employee, you’ll experience a unique working environment where teams from different backgrounds, disciplines and experience enjoy collaborating widely and openly as we undertake this exciting and rewarding journey. Through effective teamwork, and pulling together, you’ll get to experience what happens when we all share different perspectives, blend disciplines, and link technologies; constantly discovering new ways of solving complex problems in a diverse and inclusive environment where you can be authentic, feel valued and realise your full potential. Visit our website to read more about our diverse and inclusive workplace culture. www.qinetiq.com/en/careers/life-at-qinetiq
Our Benefits
- Matched contribution pension scheme, with life assurance
- Competitive holiday allowance, with the option to purchase additional days
- Options to join Health Cash Plan, Private Medical Insurance and Dental Insurance
- Employee discount portal: Personal Accident Insurance, Travel Insurance, Restaurants, Cinema Tickets and much more
- We are proud to support the Armed Forces community by honouring the Armed Forces Covenant and maintaining our Gold Award standard in the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme
- Volunteering Opportunities - helping charities and local community
Our Recruitment Process:
Please note that applications are reviewed as they are received, so we encourage early applications. This vacancy will be closed when sufficient suitable applications are received.
We want to make sure that our recruitment process is as inclusive as possible and we aspire to bring out the best in our candidates by creating an environment where everyone feels value, heard and supported. If you have a disability or health condition that may affect your performance in certain assessment types, please speak to your Recruiter about potential reasonable adjustments.
Many roles in QinetiQ are subject to national security vetting being completed, applicants who already hold the appropriate level of vetting may be able to transfer it upon appointment. A number of roles are also subject to additional restrictions, which mean factors such as nationality or previous nationalities may affect the roles that you can be employed in.
Please note that all applicants for this role must be eligible for SC clearance, as a minimum. UKSV National Security Vetting Solution: guidance for applicants - GOV.UK
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