Operational Delivery Engineer (Voice Comms)

NATS is the UK’s leading air navigation service provider, handling over 2.4 million flights each year. We provide air traffic control services from two control centres and at airports around the UK. We also provide a wide range of commercial products and solutions internationally. Our people are at the heart of our purpose to advance aviation and keep the skies safe.

JOB PURPOSE: The Operational Delivery Engineer provides specialist expertise in systems and applications supporting Air Traffic Management systems/applications. The role ensures service resilience across the operations lifecycle, drives continual improvement, and performs the administration, maintenance, and project support of assigned systems.

PRINCIPLE ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• Maintenance: Responsible for planning and executing the administration, maintenance, and service support of designated systems/applications.
• Incident Management: Apply expert domain knowledge to assigned/escalated Incidents, prioritising, diagnosing, resolving, and recording them using agreed procedures to restore service resilience.
• Problem Management: Support the analysis of service events and Incidents and undertake Problem Management activities to continuously improve service provision.
• Competency Management: Gain, hold, and maintain the competencies necessary to control and configure systems/applications, enabling the restoration of technical services, deploy planned changes and carry out planned maintenance.
• Prioritisation and Deconfliction: Responsible for prioritising and deconflicting planned work to ensure a safe delivery of the service.
• Service Configuration: Ensure relevant processes and tools are utilised to deploy service configuration changes, records remain accurate, complete, and current.
• Document Management: Produce, review, and amend engineering and training instructions.
• Service Asset Management: Manage service assets to ensure they are in a known state and in the correct location for use.
• Safety Culture: Be an advocate for Safety Culture, promoting and advancing best practice, challenging poor behaviours, and ensuring personal health & safety (H&S) by adhering to H&S procedures.
• Training: These roles may be expected to deliver on‑job training and technical skills assessment of colleagues.
• Duty Engineer Role: Includes responsibilities for the Duty Engineer role (Be the first point of contact for service resolution - To initiate and progress actions to rectify issues relating to service availability and business continuity).
• Continual Service Improvement: Responsible for the identification, coordination and implementation of assigned continual service improvement requests, and for assessment and implementation of assigned changes, to meet customer requirements and improve the service.
• Supplier Engagement: Engage with suppliers when required to resolve service Incidents and Problems.
• Stakeholder Management: Responsible for liaising and negotiating with internal and external stakeholders and managing the partnership relationship.
• Project Work: Support project requirements and activities.

AUTONOMY: Working in a safety critical environment, supported by defined processes and procedures that are trained and assessed. Liaises directly with Service Management to resolve Incidents and Problems with Service Management retaining oversight. Expected to apply own judgement, experience and expertise to determine the appropriate course of action to resolve Incidents and Problems outside of defined process and procedures, if required. Provides technical guidance to Service Management decision making. The service resolution remains within the accountability of the Service Management leadership.

SCOPE OF JOB:

• On Call/Out of Hours: These posts are liable for on‑call as part of the 24‑hour support organisation. There may be the need to provide telephone support or attend out of hours for service restoration to meet agreed service levels, or to deploy service changes in line with the defined procedures.
• Environments: Operates across multiple NATS environments, including Production, Pre production, Training, Simulation, and Testing and Development environments.

EXPERIENCE, QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS:

• Professional engineering qualification to Higher National Certificate (Level 4 or SQF Level 7) as a minimum Electronics, Telecommunications or Computer Science or other relevant Engineering discipline.
• In lieu of the above qualifications the candidate will be required to demonstrate one of the following alternative criteria: Relevant lower‑level engineering qualifications such as an Apprenticeship coupled with demonstrable engineering experience in a relevant field (May include but not limited to: Military, Rail, other Safety Critical environment).
• Evidence of substantial experience gained in a relevant transferable environment (such as ATSEP) gained over a significant period.
• Experience of resolution of incidents, service restoration, incident and problem management of systems and equipment in a Safety Critical environment such as but not limited to Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs), Military or Rail.
• Shall demonstrate an understanding of safety critical systems and the impact they may have within our operational environment.
• Communication Skills: Effective oral and written communication skills.
• Decision Making Skills: Ability to make sound and effective decisions and to negotiate and motivate is essential, ensuring outcomes are clearly communicated.
• Problem‑Solving Skills: Ability to work calmly, systematically, and analytically when working in a safety‑related context.
• Teamwork: Ability to work in teams, take responsibility for their actions, delegate, plan, and schedule activities efficiently.
• Culture and Behaviours: Demonstrates an understanding of working in a safety critical environment, specifically with regards to the importance of establishing a safe and just culture backed by the correct behaviours, attitude and standards.
• Continuous Improvement: Demonstrates an ability to apply continuous service improvement processes.
• Safety‑Critical Services & Incident Response: Able to identify and elevate a situation and act as engineer focal point until resolution.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: We are excited to share an exciting opportunity to join the Swanwick Voice Communications team. Within this team you will contribute to the delivery of the entire lifecycle of critical Air Traffic Control voice systems. As an ODE you will support not only the operation of our ATC systems but the delivery of change. You’ll develop and complete adaptation changes and maintenance to ensure safe operation. You’ll work closely with ATC, military and project teams to introduce and deliver safe change.

What we’re looking for:

• Knowledge of Voice Communications protocols such as: E1, AC15, MFC and VOIP.
• An understanding of PSTN and ATOTN.
• Knowledge of Ground‑Ground AND Air‑Ground ATC communication.
• Understanding of IP networks is desirable.

We are proud to offer a fantastic total reward package to help you thrive both personally and professionally. We have adopted agile working to provide greater flexibility and increased choice over working arrangements, with the opportunity for this role to work in our modern office facilities as well as remotely. If you share our passion to advance aviation and keep the skies safe – we would like to hear from you.