Principal Engineer - Electrical Engineering (Control and Instrumentation)

BAE Systems; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading defense and aerospace company in the UK is seeking a Principal Engineer - Vehicle Motion Control System Architect to design and analyze critical control systems. You will be responsible for guiding junior engineers and managing suppliers to deliver solutions efficiently. The ideal candidate will have a degree in engineering and extensive experience in safety-critical systems. This role offers a hybrid working model and a range of benefits including flexible health and lifestyle discounts.

Benefits

Competitive pension scheme

Employee share plans

Flexible health benefits

Private health plans

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with motion control systems and systems engineering framework.
• Experience designing safety-critical systems and working with IEC 61508 standards.
• Ability to lead and develop the functional definition of bespoke control systems.

Responsibilities

• Elicit requirements for vehicle motion control system designs.
• Manage suppliers to ensure timely delivery of required solutions.
• Develop Validation and Verification plan for the motion control system.

Skills

Architecting motion control systems

Safety critical systems experience

Cyber security considerations

Newtonian physics

Parameterised plant models

Education

BEng (Hons) / MEng or equivalent

Tools

Speedgoat simulation environment

dSpace

NI tools

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 that satisfies requirements.
• Develop, collate and publish evidence in support of BAE product delivery processes & applicable standards.
• Ensure your 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.
• Attend factory acceptance tests.
• Configure and test 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.
• Experience designing or developing safety‑critical systems compliant with Functional Safety and System‑of‑Systems best practice.
• 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 one of the 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 (e.g. IPG, VI Grade, dSpace, NI, etc.).
• Experience working on systems that have an 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 (for example dyslexia, autism, an anxiety disorder, etc.) 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 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 five to ten 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.