Senior Engineering Consultant in Bristol

As a Senior Engineering Consultant within our Defence & Space group, you will sit at the intersection of innovation and strategic delivery. You will lead and execute complex engineering tasks and feasibility studies focused on the next generation of advanced systems to be exploited, with expertise in Unmanned and Autonomous Systems (UxS) deployed across Land, Maritime and Air. Your main objective is to translate MOD requirements into actionable engineering projects, ensuring that autonomous capabilities—whether Air, Surface, or Underwater—are viable, scalable, and operationally effective within the defined military context.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical Advisory: Serve as the Subject Matter Expert (SME) for autonomous systems, advising on Concepts of Use (CONUSE), Concept of Operations (CONOPS) and the integration of AI/autonomy in multi-domain environments.
• Project Leadership: Lead technical studies and modelling/simulation efforts, ensuring all deliverables meet rigorous defence standards and project milestones.
• Stakeholder Management: Act as the primary technical conduit between the customer, industry partners, and internal teams, effectively communicating complex strategies to non-technical stakeholders. Managing expectations and ensuring that realistic targets are set.
• Usability & Evaluation: Provide frontend knowledge sharing and usability testing planning to ensure any autonomous platforms are intuitive and mission-ready for the end-user.

Qualifications & Experience

• Domain Expertise: Deep technical knowledge of Unmanned Systems across Air, Surface, and Underwater domains.
• Defence Background: Proven experience working within the MOD, the defence supply chain, or as ex-military personnel. Understanding the MOD ways of working is essential.
• Engineering Lifecycle: Familiarity with the full engineering lifecycle, from initial concepts and prototyping to testing, integration and evaluation.
• Communication: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with a track record of influencing high-level stakeholders.
• Self-Management: Strong prioritization skills with the ability to manage multiple workstreams in a high-pressure, deadline-driven environment.

Qualifications: A Bachelor’s (BEng/BSc) or Master’s (MEng/MSc) degree in a relevant STEM discipline. Ability to demonstrate equivalent experience and knowledge will also be considered.

Preferred fields: Systems Engineering, Electronic & Electrical Engineering, Telecommunications, or Physics.

Desirable Experience

• Experience in resilient communications techniques and/or systems to be applied in defence environments.
• Familiarity with IP data networks.

Note on Security: Due to the nature of this role, candidates must be eligible for, or already hold, UK Security Clearance (SC/DV).

We believe in supporting our team members both professionally and personally. Here’s how we invest in you:

Compensation and Financial Wellbeing

• Competitive base salary
• Matching pension scheme (up to 5%) from day one
• Discretionary company bonus scheme
• 4 x annual salary Death in Service coverage from day one
• Employee referral scheme
• Tech Scheme

Health and Wellness

• Private medical Insurance from day one
• Optical and Dental cashback scheme
• Help@Hand app: access to remote GP's, second opinions, mental health support, and physiotherapy
• EAP service
• Cycle to work scheme

Work Life balance and Growth

• 28 days annual leave (plus bank holidays)
• An extra paid day off for your birthday
• Ten paid learning days per year
• Flexible working hours
• Work from anywhere (up to 3 weeks per year)
• Industry-recognised training and certifications
• Bonusly employee recognition and reward platform
• Clear opportunities for career progression
• Length of service awards
• Regular company events

Diversity and Inclusion

At Qodea we champion diversity and inclusion. We believe that a career in IT should be open to everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability or neurotype. We value the unique talents and perspectives that each individual brings to our team, and we strive to create a fair and accessible hiring process for all.