Flight Controls Engineer

At Vertical Aerospace, we are pioneering the way for electric aviation. The Valo, our eVTOL (electric, vertical, take-off and landing), ‘zero emissions’ aircraft will set a new safety standard for how we will navigate the sky.

We won’t realise our mission following the same legacy processes and traditions our predecessors followed, instead, we want to ‘redefine’ aerospace best practices. We are growing quickly from a prototype business to a scaling SME, and the next few years will be critical to our success and delivering on our ambitious goals. Valo is targeting airliner-level safety certification in 2029 ahead of entering service with our airline and operator customers.

As a Flight Controls Engineer, you’ll take a leading technical role in developing the control laws for Valo. You’ll apply strong controls fundamentals and practical aircraft certification programme experience to solve novel engineering challenges, working from early requirements capture and validation through to design, testing and certification and modelling through testing and certification.

You will hold technical ownership of a significant area of the control-law development and coordination of its delivery across multiple engineering disciplines. You’ll have the opportunity to influence important technical decisions on a novel aircraft programme moving at pace towards certification.

• Design, develop and deliver flight control laws for Valo.
• Lead a significant area of control law development from initial requirements capture and validation through to design, verification, flight testing and certification including the co-ordination of technical delivery and interfacing with relevant engineering teams.
• Develop and evaluate the control-law design using MATLAB, Simulink and model-based engineering approaches.
• Work closely with engineers across flight dynamics, systems, software, simulation, testing, certification and our test pilots to deliver an integrated solution.
• Use your certification programme experience to support definition and validation of the FCL programme plan
• Engage with technical challenges beyond your immediate specialism, helping resolve complex cross-functional engineering problems.
• Make sound engineering decisions where information may be incomplete, balancing technical performance, complexity, certification and programme needs.

• A strong grounding in classical control theory and extensive practical experience applying it to fixed wing or rotary wing aircraft.
• 10+ years of relevant engineering professional experience in flight-control laws or GNC.
• Substantial hands‑on experience with MATLAB and Simulink, including model‑based design and development (DO-331).
• Knowledge and practical experience with aerospace standards including ARP-4754B, DO-178C, DO-331.
• Experience working on an aircraft development and certification programme (e.g. CS-23, CS-25, CS-27, CS-29 or equivalent) with an understanding of how flight controls progress through design, verification, testing and certification.
• Comfortable working effectively across engineering disciplines, able to communicate technical decisions clearly and contribute beyond your immediate area of expertise.
• Experience of modern control techniques would be beneficial.
• Relevant experience may come from fixed-wing aircraft, rotorcraft or other complex GNC applications where safety, control performance and rigorous development are critical.

We’re on a mission. Where others see limits, we see opportunity, and we work king at Vertical isn’t your average role but for those seeking a challenge, a flexible, supportive organisation and an incredible team; working here is an opportunity to do the best work of your…