Engineering Manager (APAC)

Metrea; City of Brisbane; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private Health Insurance

Generous Annual Leave

Annual incentive plan

Paid parental leave

Life and disability insurance

Income protection

Employee Assistance Program

Novated car leasing

Job summary

Metrea is expanding its Asia-Pacific Market Group, headquartered in Brisbane, to establish an Australian AERO footprint. The Systems Engineering Manager APAC will align aircraft design and modification with CASA rules, deliver AV&V plans, and support certification across contracted services for Australian government customers.

Working with US/UK teams, you will coordinate systems engineering activities, produce requirements matrices, and guide readiness reviews, while later broadening to

Qualifications

• 10+ years on aircraft design and modification projects in regulated environments.
• In-depth CASA certification experience and Part 21 delivery frameworks.
• Experience with Australian government customer methodologies for requirements.
• Demonstrable experience in complex aircraft Test and Acceptance management.
• Major aircraft engineering programme and project management experience.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate systems engineering activity and artefacts to ensure aircraft design/modification meets Customer requirements.
• Produce V&V plans and Acceptance Test Plans/Procedures for systems entering service.
• Act as Australian Test Manager to ensure assets and capability readiness for TRR and ATO activities.
• Provide Part 21 design/modification expertise to capability roadmaps for airborne assets.

Skills

Systems engineering

Aerospace design

Test & acceptance management

CEng level

Australian regulatory compliance

Program management

Project management

Education

Engineering degree

Tools

Microsoft Project

MS Office

Job description

Company Overview

Metrea delivers effects-as-a-service to national security partners across five domains and more than a dozen mission areas. These include airborne ISR, electronic warfare, secure communications, aerial refueling, special air missions, aerial firefighting, and advanced simulation. We own the whole stack: designing, building, and operating turnkey capabilities that give our partners decisive, asymmetric advantage against rapidly evolving threats.

Our operating model is built around three interlocking pillars. The Support Groups provide a global shared-service – spanning people, finance, platform, operations, legal, and engagement. This frees up our Core Groups, who develop and own mission capabilities end-to-end, to focus entirely on delivery. The Market Groups apply a regional lens, ensuring that our agile and adaptable capabilities remain aligned to the wicked problems that matter most to our partners across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific.

At the heart of our model is a simple but powerful idea: be a true partner with skin in the game. Our partners need effects, not just equipment. By owning the full stack – from the lab to the field – we are able to drive a continuous cycle of innovation that keeps our partners ahead. It’s a fast-moving, intellectually demanding environment where talented people are given real responsibility, work on problems that matter, and contribute to an enterprise that is growing quickly and deliberately.

Headquartered in Washington, DC, with facilities across the United States, the United Kingdom, as well as Continental Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Group Overview

Metrea is actively building its presence in Australia as part of a deliberate, globally coordinated expansion into the Asia-Pacific region. Our Asia-Pacific Market Group, headquartered in Brisbane with an additional office in Perth, is the enterprise’s dedicated regional interface — connecting Australia’s national security community with Metrea’s full suite of capabilities across three core domains: Aerospace, Electromagnetic & Cyber, and Digital & Synthetic. Metrea is now bringing that same depth of mission expertise and proven operating model to Australia.

Underpinning these capabilities is a global network of Support Groups spanning people, finance, platform, operations, legal, and engagement — ensuring that as we grow in Australia, we do so with the full weight of an established global enterprise behind us.

Metrea’s solutions are built for elegance: effective, efficient, and evolving — enabling our partners to scale capacity and achieve asymmetric advantage against rapidly evolving threats.

Our Aerospace Engineering Group (AERO) is responsible for all of Metrea’s aviation engineering capabilities, including design integration and certification. Taking concepts and solution requirements and delivering well designed, high fit, certified solutions. It comprises of 3 capability areas: Aerospace Design for design and certification, the Aircraft Integration Centre responsible for aircraft integration and Metrea’s Airborne Asset Adaptation (A3) cell responsible for coordination and project management across all integration activities.

Position Summary

This is a new role that will establish an AERO footprint in Australia to manage the alignment of Metrea aircraft design and modification with the Australian Customer’s requirements, including certification and compliance within the CASA regulatory framework and Acceptance Verification and Validation (AV&V) plans and execution. The role will also provide wider Part 21 design support to the evolution of Metrea airborne asset solutions, which may not be limited to the APAC region. The Systems Engineering Manager (APAC) will report to the Head of AERO, whilst working work closely with the Head of Airborne Asset Adaptation.

What You’ll Do

Working with US and UK based engineering teams within the AERO Group, the role will primarily focus on aircraft being designed and built for existing contracted services into Australian government customers. Responsibilities fall into the following main areas:

• Coordinate the systems engineering activity and develop the artefacts required to ensure aircraft design and modification meets Customer requirement, e.g., Requirements Traceability Matrices and System Requirements Documents
• Produce V&V plans and supporting Acceptance Test Plans and Procedures for systems entering into service
• Act as Australian Test Manager to ensure assets, systems and capability are fully prepared for Test and Readiness Reviews (TRR) and subsequent Operational Test and Evaluation and Acceptance activities
• Provide Part 21 design and modification expertise to capability roadmaps for airborne assets and systems

Once transition in activities for current contracts are complete and steady state delivery has been achieved, and/or as capacity and prioritisation allow, the role will broaden to support engineering activity across Metrea’s global asset fleet.

What You Bring

The successful candidate will ideally have the following key qualifications, skills, and experiences:

• Relevant professional systems engineering qualifications up to CEng level
• 10+ years’ experience working on aircraft design and modification projects and programmes in highly regulated environments
• Detailed knowledge and practitioner level delivery experience of the CASA certification and delivery frameworks for aircraft operational services in Australia, including Part 138, Part 145, Part 42 and Part 21
• Intimate knowledge of the Australian government customer’s methodologies for setting requirements for contracted airborne services
• Demonstrable experience in complex aircraft Test and Acceptance management
• Major aircraft engineering programme and project management experience
• Familiarity with the airborne assets, missions and effects across Metrea’s capability portfolio

In addition to the above, any of the following would be beneficial:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Aviation Management, Project Management, Information Technology, Business Administration, or related field
• Microsoft Project certifications
• Proficient in Microsoft 365, project management principles, quality management systems (e.g., AS9100), and safety protocols
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, including Outlook, Word, and Excel
• Valid Driver’s License

Benefits

• Private Health Insurance
• Generous Annual Leave
• Annual incentive plan
• Paid parental leave
• Life and disability insurance
• Income Protection Insurance
• Employee Assistance Program
• Novated Car Leasing

Work Authorisation / Security Clearance

Ability to obtain and maintain a minimum NV1 AGSVA Security Clearance.

Inclusion Statement

We are committed to building a team that reflects a broad range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates and make hiring decisions based on capability, potential and alignment with our values. If you require any adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please let us know.

Travel

Able to travel frequently to operating sites and customer locations across Australia and regularly to Metrea facilities in the UK and US.

Our Firmware

At Metrea, our single core value is Rooted in Humility, and our four cornerstone attributes are Entrepreneurial, Systematic, Discerning, and Over-Deliver. These form what we call our Teammate Firmware. Just like technical firmware connects software and hardware, our Firmware is the constant interface between our mission and our people. It defines how we show up, how we work together, and how we solve complex problems.

Our team Firmware creates a web‑like, hyper‑collaborative, dynamically hierarchical way of working that helps us adapt quickly, communicate openly, and distribute decision‑making to where expertise actually lives. It enables groups to self‑organize around hard problems, shift fluidly as priorities evolve, and operate with the trust, curiosity, and discipline required in a complex mission space. This foundation allows us to deliver elegant, effective solutions and uphold our purpose: protecting our precious inheritance.