Project Design Authority Job Wincanton area,Templecombe England UK,Engineering

Location:

Cheadle, United Kingdom

Thales is a global technology leader with more than 83,000 employees on five continents. With over 7,500 people in the UK, operating across defence, space, aerospace, and digital security, we help build a future we can all trust. Thales supports the security and stability of our nation by providing extraordinary technology to our customers, as well as delivering social value to the UK with our products and services.

Under

Water Systems (UWS)

Our purpose is to be the leading provider of underwater sensors and decision superiority, helping navies across the world keep our friends, families and all of us safe. We cover four sectors:
Mine Counter Measures, Anti-Submarine warfare, Services and Future Capabilities.

Primary Purpose of the Role:

The Project Design Authority will be responsible for Solution Compliance for a Bid or Project. The PDA acts as the primary technical leader of the bid or project team and as the lead technical interface with the Customer.

Key Responsibilities and Tasks:

Analyses Customer needs/requirements and assesses Solution architecture and technical choices.
Ensures Solution compliance with Customer needs, Product Policy, MTB Strategy & applicable legislation, rules & regulations.
Reviews the technical risks and opportunities and the related mitigation plans throughout the bid or project.
Ensures best trade-off between Customer requirements & Product Policy consistent with schedule, costs, MTB strategy & risks/ opportunities.
Checks the production and the maintenance/service aspects of the Solution with the Production Process/Technology Manager (PPTM) and the Service Engineering Manager.
Approves the technical specification and source selection of subsystems/products to be outsourced, by taking into account Make-Team-Buy policy, export restrictions and offset requirements.
Checks that the Engineering Environment (E2) for the Solution is consistent with Country/Company E2 Instruction, and overall Solution cost, technical risks & schedule.
Responsible for ensuring, with the support of Specialty Engineering experts & Safety/HSE stakeholders, that the Solution design takes into account contract requirements and applicable legislation, rules & regulations, including product safety & security and Environmental/HSE requirements & standards, and that related certification activities are performed adequately and correctly.
Approves the Design & Justification File (D&JF) prepared by the Solution Architect (ARC).
Approves the completion of integration, verification, validation and qualification results.
Performs the Complexity Profiler analysis with the Solution Architect (ARC) & SEM. Take into account the resulting actions during the bid or project.
Alerts first the DA & then upward within CBU/Domain, Country, BL or GBU Technical Directorate.
Leads the main bid/project Engineering Reviews and approves the main Engineering deliverables at each project decision milestone.
Organises when appropriate technical meetings and peer reviews together with the SEM (System Engineering Manager) and other technical stakeholders and experts, in order to perform the Solution technical assessment and validation.

Sound understanding of the development lifecycle and lifecycle products.
Interfacing with the client (internal/external), to define the solution.
Keep abreast of technical development both within and outside of the company.

Skills

Good technical writing skills and good interpersonal communication skills.
Leadership skills – with natural ability to build and sustain good working relationships at all levels.
First class presentation skills.
Ability to effectively manage relationships across the business and achieve outcomes beneficial to both own team and the broader business.
On-budget, on-time delivery, whilst maximising margin and delighting the customer.
Effective personal organisation and an ability to remain composed and focused under pressure.

Experience:

Technical prowess in one or more of the technological disciplines relevant to the company, e.g. Sonar Systems, Processing, Outboard Hardware etc, and/or in one or more of understanding of business case generation, resource planning, and budgetary control.
Experience in the developmental lifecycle disciplines, e.g. Requirements Capture, Modelling & Analysis, System Design, Product Development, and IV&V.
Experienced and knowledgeable of whole systems engineering life cycles for complex systems.
Proven technical/project experience in critical control systems…