At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead a high-performing engineering team and drive best practices in systems engineering.
- Company: Join Thales, a leader in underwater sensor technology for global navies.
- Benefits: Enjoy private medical insurance, annual bonuses, and flexible leave options.
- Other info: Opportunities for career development and a dynamic work environment.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on safety and innovation in defence technology.
- Qualifications: Strong leadership skills and expertise in systems engineering required.
The predicted salary is between 60000 - 75000 £ per year.
Location: Crawley, United Kingdom
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.
The Role
As the Systems Engineering Discipline Team Lead, you will play a pivotal role in leading and uniting a high‑performing engineering team around clear objectives, leveraging your skills as a coach and servant leader. You will drive best practices in systems engineering across multiple projects and products, ensuring excellence in engineering delivery, talent development, and the adoption of innovative technologies.
Key Responsibilities
- Tailor and deploy discipline practices and tools (including digitisation, automation, and data management) across projects and products.
- Drive the adoption of new technologies to enhance engineering practice.
- Foster knowledge sharing and capitalisation of best practices, building blocks, and estimating models.
- Promote and implement continuous improvement initiatives based on root cause analysis and problem solving.
- Provide coaching, skills management, career development, and effective team resourcing to meet operational demands.
- Perform technical reviews related to discipline expertise for bids, products, and projects.
- Engage Subject Matter Experts in coaching and training, ensuring continuous development of the team.
- Develop engineering capability within the Submarine domain to meet future growth.
- Create a robust talent pipeline to remove single point failures and ensure adequate knowledge transfer.
- Identify pragmatic approaches to problems—sometimes implementing innovative solutions rapidly to meet customer needs.
- Make effective and efficient use of technology and available resources.
- Lead process tailoring to ensure efficient, pragmatic, and measurable programme delivery with the right level of risk.
About You (Key Competencies And Skills)
- Proven ability to empower and unite employees as a coach and servant leader, fostering a “team first” culture.
- Substantial knowledge of systems engineering, including holistic system analysis and understanding of component interrelations within larger systems.
- Strong expertise in requirements definition through performance analysis, trade studies, constraint evaluation, and cost/benefit analysis.
- Competence in Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and architecture development.
- Familiarity with IVVQ (Integration, Verification, Validation, Qualification), R‑A‑M‑T (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Testability), and related standards.
- Continuous improvement mindset with strategic vision, ready to integrate and anticipate environmental dynamics.
- Experience with Lean Management and application of Agile principles (Scrum and/or Kanban) to manage and develop teams.
Nice to have:
- Specific domain, product, or project experience.
UK Eyes Only
Due to the nature of the work that we do at Thales, many of our roles are subject to security restrictions. This role requires you to be a UK National and achieve Security Clearance (SC) without any caveats. It would be advantageous if currently held, however, if not currently held, it is a requirement that the successful applicant undergo, achieve, and maintain SC Clearance prior to commencing employment. If approved by the MOD, a dual national from a non‑ITAR country may be considered. To be eligible for full SC, you generally need to have resided in the UK for the last 5 years. In some circumstances, a minimum of 3 years’ residence in the UK over the last 5 years may be accepted, with additional overseas checks.
Benefits
The benefits we offer include private medical insurance, buying or selling annual leave, cycle to work schemes, employee discounts, paid volunteering day, stocks and shares, annual bonus and much more depending on the role. At Thales, we ensure equal opportunities, pay and working conditions for all.
Systems Engineering Discipline Team Lead employer: Thales
Thales is an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic work environment in Crawley where innovation meets social responsibility. With a strong commitment to employee development, you will have access to market-leading training and mentorship from industry experts, alongside competitive benefits such as private healthcare, a robust pension plan, and opportunities for career advancement within a diverse global organisation. Join us to contribute to cutting-edge projects in defence and aerospace while enjoying a supportive culture that values your growth and well-being.
