Product System Design Authority Lead in Gloucester

About Roke Roke offers specialist knowledge in sensors, communications, cyber, and AI and ML. We change the way organisations think and act – through dynamic insights from the analysis of multiple layers of data. We take care of the innovative, technical stuff that keeps everyone safe – that’s our mission, passion, and motivation. Joining a team united by purpose and ambition, you’ll be at the heart of an exciting growth journey: having doubled in size over the last 4 years. We push technical boundaries, together. We re-invest in product innovation, and we empower our people to make a difference.

The Role

The Product System Design Authority Lead is the technical authority responsible for ensuring full Solution Compliance across Line of Business (LoB) Products. Acting as the primary technical leader reporting to the Deputy Head of Engineering (DHoE), this role safeguards the integrity, suitability, and coherence of the solution architecture throughout the lifecycle. The Design Authority serves as the lead technical interface with the customer and may also act as the Principal Systems Engineer where required.

This position provides strategic technical leadership across multidisciplinary engineering teams and ensures that all design, verification, validation, and qualification activities meet customer needs, product policy, regulatory requirements, and organisational standards.

Key Responsibilities & Tasks

• Technical Leadership & Solution Governance

• Analyse customer needs and requirements, assessing solution architecture and technical design trade-offs.
• Ensure solution compliance with customer requirements, Product Policy as well as applicable legislation, rules, and regulations.
• Act as the primary technical authority for the product, ensuring design integrity and lifecycle coherence.
• Lead systems engineering activities, including requirements capture, modelling, system design, and IV&V.
• Maintain a strong understanding of the development lifecycle and lifecycle products.

• Lead design reviews, verification, validation, and qualification activities.
• Ensure all engineering deliverables meet required standards.
• Approve technical specifications and source selection for outsourced subsystems, considering Make/Buy policy, export controls, and offset requirements.
• Ensure production, maintenance, and service considerations are embedded in the solution design.

• Review technical risks and opportunities, ensuring robust mitigation plans throughout the Product lifecycle.
• Ensure the suitable Engineering Environment aligns with company policy and supports cost, schedule, and risk objectives.
• Ensure product safety, security, environmental, and HSE requirements are fully addressed, with appropriate certification activities completed.

• Act as the lead technical interface with internal and external customers.
• Lead engineering reviews and decision milestones, escalating issues appropriately within the organisation.
• Organise technical meetings and peer reviews with the Engineering Delivery Manager and other experts.
• Maintain awareness of emerging technologies and industry developments.

• Ensure optimal trade-offs between customer requirements, product policy, cost, schedule, and risk.
• Provide clear, evidence-based technical leadership to guide teams through complex engineering challenges.

Skills, Knowledge & Competencies

• Technical & Analytical Skills

• Strong ability to draw clear conclusions from complex numerical and analytical data.
• Ability to apply physical principles (electrical, thermal, mechanical, optical) to diverse engineering problems.
• Technical expertise in one or more relevant domains (e.g., Sensors & Communications, Cyber & Information Security, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Data Science & Analytics, Electronic Systems & Hardware Engineering, Autonomy & Robotics, Systems Engineering & Integration, National Security & Defence Solution).
• Deep understanding of systems engineering and product lifecycles for complex systems.

• Strong communicator with excellent interpersonal and technical writing skills.
• Natural leadership ability, capable of building and sustaining effective relationships at all levels.
• First-class presentation skills and the ability to influence, negotiate, and build consensus.
• Highly organised, composed under pressure, and focused on delivering high quality outcomes.

• Proven experience in technical leadership within product development or systems engineering.
• Experience across the full development lifecycle: requirements capture, modelling, system design, product development, IV&V.
• Desirable: experience operating as a technical authority in research or low TRL technology development.

• Essential

• Degree in a relevant engineering or scientific discipline.

• Chartered Engineer status (or working toward it with strong evidence of progression).
• Experience with the MOD.

Why You Should Join Us

Roke offer a competitive salary and access to a number of additional flexible benefits covering Health and Wellbeing, Savings and Protection & Life, Leisure and Entertainment. Roke has a great community of groups with shared interests across a wide range of domains. We are a people-first business, and fostering and developing the talent of our people is core to our continued success. Our approach to knowledge-sharing and interest groups enables people to share ideas and be passionate about tools, technologies & techniques, which interest them, supporting fulfilment and professional development. We are committed to a policy of Equal Opportunity, Diversity and Inclusion. Our working environment is friendly, creative and inclusive and support a diverse work-force and those with additional needs.

Clearances

Due to the nature of this role, we require you to be eligible to achieve SC clearance. As a result, you should have resided in the U.K. for the last 5 years for SC.