Chief Engineer, Autonomous Systems Leadership

Kaizen Resourcing; Bradley Stoke; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Kaizen Resourcing is recruiting a Head of Engineering to lead the autonomous systems division, shaping and delivering high‑performance UAV platforms for defence and aerospace applications.

You will oversee systems, software, electronics, mechanical, autonomy/GNC and testing, mentor senior engineers, build scalable processes, and drive technical excellence while aligning with product and business priorities.

Qualifications

• Degree or equivalent in Systems, Aerospace, Electronic, Mechanical or Software Engineering, Robotics, Physics or related discipline.
• Significant experience in complex multidisciplinary product development.
• Proven experience leading cross-functional engineering teams or an engineering function.
• Technical credibility with senior engineers and specialists.

Responsibilities

• Lead the multi-disciplinary engineering function and take overall responsibility for engineering delivery.
• Align technical activity with product, programme and business priorities.
• Define and grow the engineering organisation: structure, technical leadership, recruitment and capability.
• Provide technical leadership across the product lifecycle, concept and architecture through development, integration, verification, flight test and productionisation.
• Set technical direction, plans and priorities with your technical leads.
• Manage dependencies and interfaces between disciplines.
• Establish proportionate engineering governance, design reviews and decision-making for a fast-moving scale-up.
• Maintain oversight of architectures, requirements, interfaces, verification strategies and key technical decisions.
• Balance performance, schedule, cost, technical risk, manufacturability and future scalability.
• Identify significant engineering risks and drive mitigation and technical closure.
• Work closely with Product, Programme, Operations, Manufacturing and Supply Chain.
• Take products from prototype and development into repeatable, supportable, manufacturable systems.
• Build a culture of technical excellence, ownership, pace and pragmatic problem-solving.
• Recruit, coach and develop engineers and engineering leaders.
• Represent the business with customers, partners and suppliers.
• Contribute to product and technology strategy and engineering investment priorities.

Skills

Systems engineering leadership

Multidisciplinary team leadership

Autonomous systems expertise

Defence/aerospace domain experience

Cross-functional collaboration

Stakeholder management

Education

Degree in Systems/Aerospace/Engineering

Tools

MBSE

Simulation/ Modeling

Job description

Kaizen Resourcing is recruiting a Head of Engineering to lead the autonomous systems division, shaping and delivering high‑performance UAV platforms for defence and aerospace applications.

You will oversee systems, software, electronics, mechanical, autonomy/GNC and testing, mentor senior engineers, build scalable processes, and drive technical excellence while aligning with product and business priorities.