Principal Systems Engineer

Job Title:

Principal Systems Engineer

Location:

Portsmouth Naval Base

We offer a range of hybrid and flexible working arrangements – please speak to your recruiter about the options for this particular role

Salary:
Up to £57,000 depending on skills and experience

Who we are:

Join BAE Systems and you’ll be part of something bigger. As a valued member of our global colleague network, you’ll bring your unique skills and perspectives to help pioneer progress and protect what matters most. You’ll be trusted to play your part in delivering the advanced, technology-led defence, aerospace and security solutions of tomorrow, shaping a safer future, for all of us.

From the depths of the ocean, to the far reaches of space, there’s no limit to where a career at BAE Systems could take you.

Job Description:

This position sits within the Systems Engineering Hub, which is part of the Warship Technical Authority (WTA) Service Hub. The WTA aims to deliver Naval whole ship, systems and equipment engineering support and change management. You will be part of a high performing Systems Engineering team, which works across the Maritime and Land Defence Solutions business unit. You will be required to lead and manage the delivery of on-going contracted work streams, and deliver tailored systems engineering services to the Asset Management Service Hubs, which comprises of warship Platform Management, Maintenance Management, Supply Chain, Data and Digital Services.

The Principal Systems Engineer provides technical leadership, acts as a technical authority within their scope, engages with customers and suppliers, and mentors engineers to build capability across projects and teams. As a Principal Systems Engineer you will support the delivery of one or more of the core WTA service elements;
Design Change Management, Platform Technical Assurance, Material State Management, Obsolescence Management, Specialist Engineering Support, Future Support and Transformation Planning.

Core duties:

You will understand the full problem space, surface constraints and emergent behaviours, balance trade-offs (performance, cost, schedule, safety, security), and define clear, testable success criteria. Define and maintain how a system works and how they interact; keep interfaces stable; record key decisions and trade-offs; and support bids and concept studies with evidence-based architectures

You will work with stakeholders to capture, decompose and agree requirements; set acceptance criteria; maintain end-to-end traceability; and manage change with clear impact assessments

You will champion and govern MBSE (Model Based Systems Engineering) to capture system definition, behaviour, structure and interfaces; utilise the necessary toolset (e.g. Enterprise Architect); set modelling standards; keep models and documents in sync; and generate controlled outputs that support design, V&V and compliance

You will break ambiguous, multi-domain problems into clear, testable elements and increments; define levels of abstraction and clean interfaces; use MBSE to visualise dependencies and control scope; prioritise and retire key risks early; and maintain traceability and decision records so complexity stays manageable through design, integration and in-service change

You will tailor and work with the engineering lifecycle; when required, plan progressive integration, prepare teams for design and test reviews, and drive verification and validation to achieve on-time, high-quality customer acceptance. Drive and support systems integration activities collaboratively with other WTA disciplines when required

You will collaborate with Asset Management Service Hubs to improve the service offering, and support activities which can be aided by systems engineering principles and toolsets

You will act as the technical expert for assigned scope; lead technical reviews; follow engineering governance; meet safety and security obligations; and contribute to the evidence needed for assurance and accreditation. Own and deliver concurrent work packages to cost, schedule and quality; define statements of work and technical acceptance; align multi-domain stakeholders; resolve conflicts and…