Lead Engineer, Air

UFORCE; Greater London; Remote; GBP 95,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Job summary

UFORCE, a defence-technology company with operations in London, seeks a Lead Engineer, Air to own a first Western‑facing air product. You will unite engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and field teams to resolve reliability and integration challenges, building a repeatable, testable system ready for customers.

You will stay close to hardware, own system‑level decisions, and drive design validation through testing.

Qualifications

• Hands-on UAS engineering ownership with evidence of decisions impacting flight performance.
• Systems integration across mechanical, electrical, flight-control, navigation and software interfaces.
• Prototype-to-production involvement including design for manufacture and production testing.
• Reliability and test discipline with root-cause analysis and corrective actions.
• Cross-functional technical leadership to set priorities and drive delivery.
• Cost and component judgement affecting availability, qualification and unit cost.
• Operational awareness of GNSS denial, jamming and communications resilience.
• Startup execution: capable of hardware‑adjacent decisions with incomplete information.
• Clear communication and ownership to elevate risks early.
• Willingness to travel to engineering sites, manufacturing plants, test ranges and customers.

Responsibilities

• Establish product ownership and a delivery plan.
• Create a controlled technical baseline.
• Lead end‑to‑end systems integration.
• Improve reliability and demonstrate performance.
• Prepare the product for repeatable production.
• Enable credible customer trials and delivery.
• Connect operational experience to product development.
• Build a foundation for portfolio growth.

Skills

Hands-on UAS ownership

Systems integration judgement

Prototype-to-production

Reliability and test discipline

Cross-functional technical leadership

Cost and component judgement

Operational awareness

Startup execution

Clear communication and ownership

Willingness to travel

Job description

UFORCE exists to make aggression unaffordable.

Founded in Ukraine and headquartered in London, UFORCE is a defence-technology company with operations across Europe, the United States and Asia.

UFORCE builds uncrewed vessels, ground robotics and aircraft, autonomy software, and the command-and-control layer that operates them together. Each platform is deployable on its own, and stronger as part of the system. Its product lines include the MAGURA family of uncrewed surface vessels, the NEMESIS family of strike platforms, the LIUT family of ground robotic platforms, and counter-UAS systems.

About the role

UFORCE is looking for a Lead Engineer, Air to take hands‑on technical ownership of our first Western‑facing air product, turning operational lessons from Ukraine into a reliable, manufacturable system that customers can test, deploy and reorder.

Your initial focus will be one product. You’ll bring engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and field teams together around a controlled design and a clear delivery plan, resolving the reliability and integration challenges that stand between today’s product and repeatable production.

This is a hands‑on technical leadership role, not a management‑only position. You’ll stay close to the hardware, own system‑level engineering decisions and ensure that changes are proven through testing and reflected in what we build.

As our air portfolio expands, there is potential to grow into broader technical leadership, including Chief Engineer, Air. Progression will depend on business need and demonstrated performance, rather than a fixed promotion timetable.

What you’ll do

• Establish product ownership and a delivery plan. In your first 30 days, assess the current design, customer requirements and test evidence with engineering, manufacturing and field teams. Identify the highest‑priority risks and agree a 90‑day plan with clear owners, milestones and acceptance criteria.

• Create a controlled technical baseline. By day 60, establish practical requirements, configuration records, bills of materials, interface definitions and change control so teams know what has been approved, built, tested and deployed.

• Lead end‑to‑end systems integration. Own technical trade‑offs across airframe, propulsion, power, avionics, flight control, communications, navigation, payload interfaces and ground systems, drawing on specialist expertise where needed.

• Improve reliability and demonstrate performance. During the initial three to five months, establish a failure‑reporting and corrective‑action process, address priority failure modes and verify improvements through repeatable ground and flight testing against agreed requirements.

• Prepare the product for repeatable production. Partner with manufacturing and supply chain on design for manufacture, component qualification, approved substitutions and supplier risks. Release a production package covering drawings, BOM, assembly requirements, inspection and acceptance tests, supported by a costed BOM and cost‑reduction priorities.

• Enable credible customer trials and delivery. Define approved configurations, test plans and readiness criteria. Validate capability claims, document operating limits and provide clear engineering input on delivery feasibility, support needs and technical risks.

• Connect operational experience to product development. Work closely with Ukrainian product experts and international teams to preserve field knowledge, manage configuration differences and translate operator and customer feedback into prioritised product changes.

• Build a foundation for portfolio growth. Identify reusable architecture, components and engineering practices, recommend capability and resource needs, and review the scope for broader ownership with leadership as the portfolio develops.

Required Skill

• Hands‑on UAS engineering ownership: Experience leading delivery of a complete air vehicle or substantial integrated UAS product, with clear evidence of your own technical decisions and their impact on flight performance.

• Systems integration judgement: The ability to reason across mechanical, electrical, flight‑control, communications, navigation and software interfaces, and recognise when specialist depth is needed.

• Prototype‑to‑production experience: Meaningful involvement in taking an aerial product into repeatable production, including design for manufacture, configuration control and production testing.

• Reliability and test discipline: A track record of diagnosing flight or field failures, identifying root causes and proving corrective actions through repeatable testing.

• Cross‑functional technical leadership: The ability to set priorities, coordinate engineers and specialist partners, and drive delivery through influence as well as formal authority.

• Cost and component judgement: Practical understanding of how design decisions affect availability, qualification, unit cost, manufacturing quality and applicable sourcing requirements.

• Operational awareness: Understanding of how GNSS denial, jamming, communications resilience and operator feedback influence UAS design and testing.

• Startup execution: Comfort working close to hardware, making decisions with incomplete information and balancing delivery speed with appropriate engineering control.

• Clear communication and ownership: The ability to distinguish demonstrated capability from development goals, explain limitations and elevate technical, safety or resource risks early.

• Willingness to travel regularly to engineering teams, manufacturing sites, test ranges and customers.

Nice to Have

• Direct experience working with Ukrainian UAS teams, products or operators.

• Experience adapting products for Western defence customers.

• Familiarity with applicable NDAA, Blue UAS and export‑control requirements.

• Experience supporting customer trials, military qualification or airworthiness activity.

• Experience with payload integration or payload‑release systems.

• Experience coordinating engineering and manufacturing across countries.

• Evidence of growing from hands‑on product ownership into broader technical leadership.

The nature of combat has changed.

Tomorrow’s battlefield success depends on autonomy, speed, and adaptability.

And UFORCE is ready.

Are You?