Systems Engineering Manager in Brighton

Job Location – Brighton, UK. Our Brighton business is moving to a new location in 2027. The new site is expected to be located within a 20-minute drive of our current site.

About this opportunity and L3Harris UK: Operating at 11 sites in the United Kingdom, L3Harris supports Britain's mission to secure and strengthen the country by delivering sovereign innovation across the space, air, land, sea and cyber domains. L3Harris in Brighton are part of our Release Systems & Antennas division operating in the Aerospace domain. For over 70 years, L3Harris has designed and developed industry-leading carriage and release systems for fighter, rotary-wing and unmanned platforms. We design, manufacture and test a large portion of our release systems portfolio in our Brighton facility which offers 48,500 square feet of manufacturing space. Our mission-critical release systems equipment is on most major airborne fighter platforms worldwide, including the F-35, along with other aircraft like the Gripen and Typhoon.

The Systems Engineering Manager reporting to the Head of Engineering is responsible for leading the systems engineering function across complex, safety-critical defence programmes. This role provides technical leadership, governance, and people management to ensure the delivery of compliant, robust, and cost-effective system solutions that meet customer and regulatory requirements. The successful candidate will oversee the full systems engineering lifecycle from concept through to in-service support (including Safety, Reliability, Matlab Modelling, Requirements Management and Integrated Logistics Support), ensuring adherence to structured processes, technical assurance and programme commitments whilst working closely with the Test & Integration Manager to maximise the availability of company resources.

A few of our employee benefits are:

• Half day finish on a Friday
• Hybrid working available upon completion of probationary period (3 months) - 3 days onsite, 2 days remote.
• 25 days holiday per year (plus bank holidays), increasing with long service and with the opportunity to buy/sell up to 5 days
• Private medical insurance with optional family cover
• Pension scheme of up to 8% employer contribution
• Life Assurance 4x salary (flexible up to 10x)
• Group income protection
• Flexible opt-in extras such as a health care cash plan, dental insurance, gym membership, critical illness cover, cycle to work scheme, travel insurance and electric car scheme
• Employee Family Assistance Program providing mental health and wellbeing support
• Professional membership reimbursement (discretionary)

What the role will involve:

The responsibilities of your role will include the following:

• Technical Leadership: Lead and manage the systems engineering team of over 10 people across multiple programmes. Define and maintain systems engineering processes aligned to ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 and company lifecycle standards. Ensure effective requirements capture, decomposition, traceability, and verification. Oversee system architecture development, interface definition, and integration strategies. Provide governance at key design reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, etc.). Ensure robust configuration control and change management practices.
• Programme Delivery: Accountable for systems engineering performance against cost, schedule, and quality targets. Support bid and proposal activities, including technical solution development and resource estimation. Identify and manage technical risk and opportunity. Interface with Programme Managers to ensure alignment between technical and delivery plans. Act as an individual contributor executing programmes (project lead, SME, team member) and/or proposals (proposal manager, proposal contributor).
• People Management & Capability: Line management responsibility for systems engineers (performance, development, mentoring). Build capability, succession planning, and skills development within the function. Promote a strong systems engineering culture and best practice sharing. Support recruitment and workforce planning.
• Stakeholder & Customer Engagement: Act as the senior systems engineering representative with customers, partners, and suppliers. Support technical reviews and customer audits. Ensure compliance with contractual and regulatory requirements, including safety and security standards.

Key Accountabilities:

• Delivery of compliant system solutions to agreed performance, cost, and schedule.
• Maintenance of technical integrity across programmes.
• Development and continuous improvement of systems engineering capability.
• Assurance of safety, security, and regulatory compliance.

What you’ll bring:

The role requires the following experience and skills:

• Bachelor’s Degree with a minimum 6 years prior relevant experience.
• Masters Degree with a minimum of 4 years of prior related experience.
• In lieu of a degree, minimum of 10 years of prior related experience.
• Significant experience in systems engineering within a defence or aerospace environment.
• Proven leadership and people management experience.
• Strong understanding of requirements management tools.
• Ability to operate within secure and regulated environments.

Desirable:

• Experience supporting export-controlled programmes.
• Knowledge of Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) and supportability engineering.
• Knowledge of safety-critical standards (e.g., DEF STAN 00-056, MIL-STD 882E, ARP4754 where applicable).
• Experience working with MoD or international defence customers.
• Experience leading design reviews and technical governance forums.
• Experience across the full systems engineering lifecycle.

Personal Attributes:

• Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence at senior levels.
• Structured and methodical problem solver.
• Commercially aware with programme delivery focus.
• Resilient and able to operate in a fast-paced, regulated environment.
• High integrity and commitment to security and confidentiality.

Important to know:

Due to the nature of our work many of our roles require a UK nationality and the ability to obtain a security clearance. Applicants who accept a conditional offer of employment must meet the requirement of right to work in the UK and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information and will be subject to government security checks.