Principal​/Lead Systems Engineer

Job Description

Are you a Systems Engineer who loves contributing to the UKs Defence Industry and making impactful change? We are recruiting for a Lead/Principal Systems Engineer in our growing Precision Guidance team, working on real engineering problems, designing and developing solutions that sit at the heart of our products.

As the Principal Systems Engineer you will support the execution of Systems Engineering capability and improvement matters across the Business Areas, providing proactive guidance to senior stakeholders on Systems Thinking and Methods for adoption that aligns with successful project execution.

We build exciting, interesting, challenging and complex systems. A diverse product portfolio of technologies, with each programme at a different stage in its development lifecycle.

• The focus of this role is the execution of systems engineering activities, and in supporting & providing expertise to ensure: the systems engineering team assesses the problem completely, reuses techniques and artefacts across the portfolio of projects, manages complexity through architecting systems well, predicts and mitigates emergent behaviours when operating at a system or integrated systems level, and creates and enacts the correct verification and validation strategy.
• Influence the development of engineering artefacts, their technical direction and ultimately stakeholder satisfaction.
• Work across highly demanding and complex development programmes throughout the engineering lifecycle within Precision Guidance.
• Act as the focal point for systems engineering governance on the project.
• Provide expertise and guidance to ensure engineers understand the problem completely and stakeholder needs through coaching on systems engineering practices, early and later lifecycle stages.
• Ensure appropriate level of concepting, modelling and simulation techniques are used across the lifecycle to inform architectures and solution options.
• Influence whole life design considerations relating to safety, security, manufacture, test, supportability and through life support in line with company processes.
• Represent Leonardo within systems engineering bodies and groups of interest, such as INCOSE.
• Promote an agile mind‑set to systems engineering, building a culture of experimentation and failing fast.
• Collaborate with peers in similar roles across the UK to promote a culture of continual learning and improvement, acting as a change agent for systems engineering.

• Proven experience as a Lead or Principal Engineer (or role with similar responsibilities).
• Experience applying governance and guidance on the Systems Engineering LCM process.
• Experience working in Integrated Project Teams delivering engineering artefacts successfully.
• Experience managing and collaborating with internal and external stakeholders.
• Proven leadership and decision‑making skills in a high‑complexity, dynamic environment.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, proven ability to build trust and respect at different levels.
• Motivation, tenacity and determination, with a desire to deliver outputs and results.

• Deriving stakeholder needs to solution domain functions and constraints, evidencing trade‑off decisions across multiple concepts.
• Experience with Model‑Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and Model‑Based Design (MBD) tools and methodologies to support describing and analysing through the problem to implementation domains.
• Domain experience in any of the following specialisms: electro‑optics, infrared imaging, image processing, telecommunications, RF or electronic warfare.
• Experience creating and defining architectures – able to describe methods and techniques for optimisation and managing trade‑offs from constraints.
• Good attitude and willingness to learn.

This role is subject to pre‑employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). Additional Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) may apply, including eligibility for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV). For more information and guidance please visit

• Generous leave with up to 12 additional flexi‑days each year.
• A pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution.
• Free mental health support, financial advice and employee‑led networks championing inclusion and diversity.
• Eligibility for bonus scheme for employees at management level and below.
• Access to over 4,000 online courses via Coursera and Linked In Learning.
• Referral programme with financial reward.
• Flexible benefits worth up to £500 annually, including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech, lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.
• Flexible working – hybrid hours with home and on‑site options.