Principal Engineer – Electrical Engineering (Control and Instrumentation)

BAE Systems; Burton CP; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading engineering firm is seeking a Principal Engineer – Vehicle Motion Control System Architect. This role involves leading the design solutions for flight control systems, ensuring compliance with safety and cyber security standards. Applicants should have a relevant engineering degree and significant experience in this domain. The position is hybrid, and the firm offers extensive benefits, including a pension scheme and flexible health plans.

Benefits

Competitive pension scheme

Flexible health benefits

Employee share plans

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience developing safety critical systems compliant with Functional Safety and System-of-Systems best practice.
• Significant experience developing functional definitions for bespoke motion or flight control systems.
• Experience with real-time test in simulation environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of flight controls design solutions.
• Manage suppliers to deliver required solutions on time.
• Guide junior team members and develop their skills.

Skills

Experience architecting motion control systems

Hands-on experience with Functional Safety

Understanding of cyber security considerations

Knowledge of Newtonian physics

Experience with IEC 61508 standards

Education

BEng (Hons) / MEng or equivalent in a relevant subject

Tools

Speedgoat simulation environment

IPG

dSpace

NI

Job description

Job Title: Principal Engineer – Vehicle Motion Control System Architect

Location: Barrow-in-Furness / Filton / Coventry – Hybrid – (dependent on business needs)

Salary: Competitive (Commensurate with skills and experience)

What you’ll be doing:

• Elicit requirements and describe a design solution (from a functional perspective).
• Understand design constraints (due to existing hardware/ software).
• Perform functional safety (FuSa), Quality and Cyber analysis on your designs and architect a system than satisfies requirements.
• Develop, collate and publish evidence in support of, BAE product delivery processes & applicable standards.
• Ensure you designs translate into MBSE or MathWorks toolchain, without loss of any function.
• Manage suppliers to deliver the required solutions on time, to quality & budget.
• Guide the development of more junior members of the team.
• Be the technical Subject Matter Expert for the vehicle control system.
• Develop the Validation and Verification plan, including MiL and HiL.
• Attending factory acceptance tests.
• Configuration and testing of equipment.

Your skills and experiences:

Essential:

• BEng (Hons) / MEng or equivalent in a relevant subject.
• Demonstrated experience, hands-on, architecting, analysing and developing motion control or flight control systems, within a Systems Engineering framework.
• Demonstrated experience designing or developing safety critical systems compliant with Functional Safety and System-of-Systems best practice.
• Demonstrated experience developing systems compliant with cyber security considerations.
• Good understanding of Newtonian physics, demonstrable experience creating parameterised plant models, filtering and state machines.
• Significant experience developing the functional definition of bespoke motion or flight control systems that are compliant with at least 1 of IEC 61508 family of functional safety (FuSa) standards (e.g. ARP4761, ARP4654, ISO26262 etc.).

Desirable:

• Further higher education e.g. MSc, PhD, post doc positions.
• Experience developing real-time MiL& HiL test in a Speedgoat simulation environment or similar (i.e. IPG, VI Grade, dSpace, NI etc.).
• Experience working on systems that have a HMI & GUI element.
• Technical report writing skills.
• CEng

Benefits

As well as a competitive pension scheme, BAE Systems also offers employee share plans, an extensive range of flexible discounted health, wellbeing and lifestyle benefits, including a green car scheme, private health plans and shopping discounts – you may also be eligible for an annual incentive.

The Vehicle Control Team:

An excellent opportunity has arisen for a Principal Engineer –Vehicle Motion Control System Architect, working within The Vehicle Control Team.

The Principal Engineer (Vehicle Control System Functional Architect) – shall provide support to the Engineering Manager and/or external specialists during design, development, analysis, integration and verification of our platform’s motion control system (flight controls).

The Principal Engineer shall lead the development of our flight controls design solution. They must be familiar with functional safety and cyber security principles and be a role model for the application of systems engineering activities within the team. The Principal Engineer shall be responsible for technical leadership, concurrent with fostering a proactive team culture and developing the competency and skills of the team.

We offer relocation support packages across all Submarines roles, subject to meeting eligibility criteria.

Why BAE Systems?

This is a place where you’ll be able to make a real difference. You’ll be part of an inclusive culture that values diversity of thought, rewards integrity, and merit, and where you’ll be empowered to fulfil your potential. We welcome people from all backgrounds and want to make sure that our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. If you have a disability or health condition that may affect your performance in certain assessment types, please speak to your recruiter about potential reasonable adjustments.

Please be aware that many roles at BAE Systems are subject to both security and export control restrictions. These restrictions mean that factors such as your nationality, any nationalities you may have previously held, and your place of birth can restrict the roles you are eligible to perform within the organisation. All applicants must as a minimum achieve Baseline Personnel Security Standard. Many roles also require higher levels of National Security Vetting where applicants must typically have 5 to 10 years of continuous residency in the UK depending on the vetting level required for the role, to allow for meaningful security vetting checks.

Closing Date:

14th December 2025

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.