Systems Engineer - Trials

Salary Range

Principal Systems Engineer £53,500 - £68,000

Lead Systems Engineer £59,500 - £75,000

Where this vacancy is being recruited across more than one grade, the successful candidate will be appointed to a specific assessed grade, and the applicable salary range will be that associated with the grade of appointment.

Leonardo UK operates a grade-based salary framework with broad bands. The salary range shown reflects the approved grade band for this role, or a narrower hiring range published within that band, and is benchmarked against the external market. Exceptions above the standard range are managed through governance controls to protect internal equity.

Leonardo is seeking to recruit systems engineers to join its Electronics UK business. The successful candidate will play a key role in delivering leading edge solutions to challenging projects.

Advanced targeting covers all of the Electro-Optic (EO) and Infrared (IR) projects being developed in Edinburgh, spanning lasers, imaging systems, detection and tracking, control systems, and navigation. The whole of the engineering lifecycle is covered, from early concept systems, to products reaching their end of service. Systems engineers are involved in every part of the lifecycle, and play a crucial role, ensuring the system as a whole performs above expectations.

You will take an active role in the planning, coordination, and execution of trials activities to evaluate EO/IR system performance in real‑world conditions. This will involve producing test plans, configuring instrumentation, executing trial activities, and analysing trial data to assess system behaviour against expectations. You will be a key interface between engineering teams, customers, and trials organisations, ensuring that all trial outputs feed directly into system design maturity and verification evidence.

Given the nature of the work at this level we can offer custom working, however some on-site working is expected.

• Contribute to the requirement capture and management, definition, development, modelling, manufacture, test and verification of advanced EO/IR technologies and systems
• Mentor early-career engineers in your immediate team, or across the business
• Adopt, adhere to, and contribute to the improvement of defined engineering processes governing systems engineering across the full lifecycle
• Working with other functions within Integrated Project Teams and across the sector in the definition and conduction of trials with EO/IR equipment
• Collaborate with your peers in similar roles across the UK to promote a culture of continual learning and improvement, acting as a change agent for systems engineering

People with experience supporting the application of systems engineering applied to products in an EO/IR environment. You should have a degree level qualification (or equivalent) in systems engineering, physics, or a related technical discipline.

We are looking for the following technical skills, in order of decreasing priority:

• Strong numerical, analytic and problem-solving skills supporting “systems thinking”
• Experience of systems engineering methods, tools and processes supporting trials conduction
• Relevant experience with EO/IR systems and technologies
• Familiarity with the engineering lifecycle

In addition, the following attributes would be highly desirable:

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, proven ability to build trust and respect at different levels
• Tenacity and determination, with a desire to deliver outputs and results
• Experience in collaborating with both internal and external stakeholders

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV). For more information and guidance please visit

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We offer a comprehensive, company-funded benefits…