Principal Engineer

Job Description:

At EDGE bold ideas are engineered into technologies that protect, improve and save lives.

Headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, EDGE is a leading advanced technology group working at the forefront of defence and emerging technologies. Spanning more than 35 specialised companies and multiple centres of excellence, we are purpose-built to move fast. Free from heavy legacy processes, we give our people the autonomy, accountability, and agility to bring breakthrough technologies from concept to reality.

Based in Abu Dhabi, a globally connected hub at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, EDGE is home to a truly multicultural community where bold ideas thrive, and the future is shaped.

Together, we are shaping the future.

The Principal Engineer - Performance is a senior technical leadership role within the Sizing and Performance function, responsible for defining, analyzing, predicting, and substantiating vehicle performance across the full aerospace development lifecycle.

The role translates mission needs and system requirements into explicit performance constraints and develops technically rigorous point-performance, mission-analysis, trajectory, sizing, and optimization assessments.

The Principal Engineer integrates aerodynamic, propulsion, mass properties, structural, energy, systems, and operational data to establish credible vehicle performance and identify key design drivers, sensitivities, margins, and limitations.

The position serves as a technical authority for performance analysis and substantiation, ensuring that performance results are configuration-controlled, traceable, appropriately validated, and communicated with clear assumptions and uncertainty. The role also provides technical leadership, supports major design and program reviews, contributes to flight and ground testing, mentors engineers, and drives improvements to performance methods, models, automation, and digital-engineering practices.

The Principal Engineer operates in a multidisciplinary, safety-critical and configuration-controlled aerospace environment, supporting programs from concept development through detailed design, testing, qualification, production, and operational support.

• Translate mission and system requirements into measurable performance objectives, constraints, mission profiles, and analysis cases.
• Lead aircraft and aerospace vehicle performance analysis covering sizing constraints, takeoff, landing, climb, cruise, range, endurance, ceiling, speed, maneuver, and degraded conditions.
• Develop and maintain point-performance, mission-analysis, trajectory, sizing, optimization, and performance prediction models.
• Integrate aerodynamic, propulsion, mass properties, structural, energy, systems, and operational data to establish credible vehicle-level performance.
• Conduct configuration, architecture, technology, and mission trade studies, including sensitivity, optimization, and uncertainty analyses.
• Identify performance drivers, active constraints, limitations, risks, and design sensitivities; quantify impacts of key design and requirement changes.
• Establish and manage performance budgets, allocations, margins, reserves, and uncertainty in accordance with approved requirements and assumptions.
• Verify and validate performance models using analytical checks, test data, simulations, and relevant engineering evidence; maintain model traceability and configuration control.
• Support performance test planning, ground and flight testing, data reduction, test correlation, and model updates.
• Produce performance substantiation, mission-analysis, trade-study, technical assessment, margin, and test-correlation documentation.
• Support major…