Principal Design Engineer

Job Summary

It’s great to know you’re making a difference to the future of aviation! Whatever part you play you’ll be helping us deliver operational excellence to our customers. Based at our Luton manufacturing plant you’ll do just that. Established in 1993, GKN Aerospace in Luton is a world leader in commercial and military ice protection systems and transparencies. Offering a full range of capabilities;

design, analysis, testing, certification and manufacture of electro‑thermal ice protection, military fast‑jet canopies and flight deck windows to over 20 programmes including:
Boeing 787, Dream liner, Airbus A320, Agusta Westland, AW101, Eurofighter Typhoon and Lockheed, Martin F‑22 Raptor. Our customers include Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed Martin, Bell Helicopters, Textron, BAE Systems, Pratt & Whitney, Leonardo. Our Luton site is home to 370+ employees and onsite facilities including onsite parking, food hub and vending machines.

The Principal Design Engineer is a technical authority within the Transparency Systems team, responsible for leading complex product development, driving technical strategy, and ensuring engineering excellence across multiple programmes. It spans the full lifecycle: advanced concept development, requirements definition, geometric design, materials and process selection, supporting tooling design, manufacturing development, qualification, and in‑service support. The role also shapes technology roadmaps, mentors engineering teams, and represents the business in high‑level customer, regulatory, and airworthiness discussions.

This requires flexibility for occasional travel, both within the UK and internationally. Core operational hours at our Luton site are: 07:30 – 16:30 Monday to Thursday & 07:30 – 12:30 Friday.

• Act as the technical authority for transparency design across multiple programmes, ensuring design integrity, safety, and compliance with customer, regulatory, and airworthiness requirements.
• Lead the definition of design standards and engineering best practices for transparency systems and approve design solutions, specifications, concessions, rework schemes, and compliance documentation.
• Provide expert guidance on requirements management, materials selection, structural performance, optical performance, manufacturing processes and qualification methods.
• Represent Design function in MRBs and serve as the primary escalation point for all MRB‑related queries, exercising technical authority to determine and approve the disposition of non‑conforming parts.
• Define and validate test methods and/or alternate means of compliance (analysis/similarity) as required to demonstrate design solution complies with requirements.
• Act as a senior technical interface with customers, suppliers, regulatory bodies, and internal stakeholders. Communicate complex technical information clearly to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Lead major technical reviews, gate reviews, and customer design reviews, ensuring high quality technical data and presentations.
• Identify, assess, and manage technical risks across programmes, proposing mitigation strategies and influencing programme direction.
• Support capability development within the Transparency Systems team including training, knowledge capture, and succession planning.
• Contribute to the development of GKN as a “Great Place to Work”, aligned with the core principles – safe, innovative, open & honest, care & respect, and ownership.

• Degree in Aerospace, Mechanical or similar.
• Experience in Aerospace design or Aerospace product development.
• Deep understanding of the full product lifecycle, design practices, manufacturing processes, and airworthiness requirements.
• Proven ability to lead complex engineering work packages and solve complex technical problems using evidence‑based, methodical approaches.
• Familiarity with digital engineering and model based design preferably using CATIA V5.
• Excellent communication skills, able to create clear, concise, and accurate technical content and present to senior stakeholders.

• Expert user of CATIA V5 for complex modelling and drawing…