Chief Engineer, Air — Autonomous Aerial Systems Lead

UFORCE; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

UFORCE, a London-based defence-technology company, seeks a Chief Engineer, Air to lead the engineering of Western air platforms, starting with Platform N, and collaborate with Ukrainian teams to turn battlefield lessons into reliable products.

You will own the technical baseline across the air portfolio, build a small team, and coordinate with hardware, manufacturing, supply chain and commercial partners while traveling regularly to engineering sites and customers.

Qualifications

• Experience leading the design and development of a complete UAS with system-level decisions.
• Strong systems engineering judgement across airframe, propulsion, power, avionics, flight control, communications, navigation and software interfaces.
• Experience taking an aerial product from prototype into repeatable production, including design for manufacture and production testing.
• Investigating field failures and implementing verified corrective actions to improve reliability.
• Knowledge of NDAA/Blue UAS sourcing requirements and export-control considerations.
• Understanding how contested operating conditions affect product requirements and testing.
• Experience supporting customer trials, competitions or tenders, and communicating capabilities and risks to customers.
• Experience hiring or developing engineers and leading multidisciplinary teams across geographic boundaries.
• Sound judgment on cost, performance, production readiness, and supplier trade-offs in a startup environment.
• Hands-on leadership with clear communication, balancing speed with engineering discipline.
• Willingness to travel regularly to teams, sites, test ranges and customers.

Responsibilities

• Own the air portfolio's technical baseline. Establish configurations, BOMs and test evidence with clear ownership and change control.
• Lead end-to-end systems engineering across airframe, propulsion, power, avionics, flight control, and software interfaces.
• Improve reliability via disciplined failure reporting and corrective actions with repeatable testing.
• Turn operational lessons into Western product improvements and prioritised design changes.
• Lead design-for-manufacture reviews and release production-ready packages for US and allied sites.
• Strengthen the supply chain and cost position through sourcing and risk assessment.
• Support go-to-market with technical input on configurations, capability claims and delivery.
• Prepare for trials and launch with readiness gates and clear capability communication.
• Set direction, hire and develop engineers, and build the air product roadmap.

Job description

UFORCE, a London-based defence-technology company, seeks a Chief Engineer, Air to lead the engineering of Western air platforms, starting with Platform N, and collaborate with Ukrainian teams to turn battlefield lessons into reliable products.

You will own the technical baseline across the air portfolio, build a small team, and coordinate with hardware, manufacturing, supply chain and commercial partners while traveling regularly to engineering sites and customers.