Chief Engineer – Operations Centre & Fleet
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Industry: Aerospace | Defence | Advanced Air Mobility | Autonomous Systems
Employment Type: Permanent, Full-Time
The Opportunity
Volantes Technical Recruitment is supporting an ambitious next-generation aerospace programme in Dubai and is seeking an experienced Chief Engineer – Operations Centre & Fleet to lead the technical architecture, development and integration of advanced operational control and fleet management systems.
This is a senior technical leadership opportunity within a pioneering aerospace programme, focused on developing sophisticated Operations Control Centre (OCC) capabilities supporting autonomous aircraft operations, mission management, fleet coordination and operational readiness.
The successful candidate will play a critical role in defining the engineering strategy and technical architecture required to support safe, secure and scalable aircraft and fleet operations.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the technical design, architecture and integration of Operations Control Centre (OCC) and fleet management systems.
- Define system-level requirements and engineering strategies for mission planning, aircraft monitoring, fleet coordination and operational control.
- Oversee the integration of Command & Control (C2), communications, telemetry, mission software and operational support systems.
- Develop technical solutions supporting autonomous and remotely piloted aircraft operations.
- Establish scalable architectures for multi-aircraft and fleet-level operational management.
- Lead systems engineering activities, including requirements definition, interface management, verification and validation.
- Ensure operational systems meet applicable aviation safety, cybersecurity, reliability and regulatory requirements.
- Work closely with aircraft systems, software, communications, flight operations and systems integration teams.
- Provide technical leadership across multidisciplinary engineering teams and external technology partners.
- Support system qualification, operational readiness assessments and the transition from development into operational deployment.
Candidate Requirements
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering or a related discipline.
- Extensive experience in complex aerospace, defence, autonomous systems or mission-critical operational environments.
- Proven technical leadership experience at Chief Engineer, Principal Engineer, Systems Architect or equivalent level.
- Strong understanding of Operations Control Centres, fleet management systems, mission management or Command & Control architectures.
- Experience developing and integrating complex software-intensive and networked systems.
- Strong knowledge of systems engineering principles, requirements management, system architecture and verification and validation.
- Experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams on complex development programmes.
- Understanding of secure communications, telemetry, data integration and operational system interoperability.
- Ability to translate operational requirements into robust engineering architectures and technical solutions.
Highly Desirable
- Experience with UAV/UAS, autonomous aircraft, advanced air mobility or defence aviation programmes.
- Knowledge of Ground Control Stations (GCS), Operations Control Centres (OCC) or mission control systems.
- Experience with multi-vehicle operations, fleet orchestration and autonomous mission management.
- Familiarity with MBSE, SysML and model-based systems architecture.
- Understanding of UTM/U-space integration, airspace coordination and autonomous flight operations.
- Experience with C4ISR, defence mission systems or distributed command-and-control architectures.
- Familiarity with aviation certification, safety assurance and cybersecurity requirements.
Why Apply?
This opportunity offers the chance to take a senior technical leadership position within an innovative aerospace development programme in the UAE.
You will help shape the engineering architecture and operational capabilities of a next-generation aircraft and fleet management ecosystem, working alongside highly experienced international engineering specialists.
All applications will be treated in strict confidence.