Project Engineering Manager

Hackajob Ltd; City of Edinburgh; Hybrid; GBP 75,000 - 82,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Time off & flexi‑days

Pension scheme

Mental health support

Bonus scheme

Online courses access

Referral bonus

Hybrid/ Flexible benefits

Job summary

Leonardo, Edinburgh, is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead cross‑functional teams within the GCAP MRFS IPT, delivering demonstrator hardware and contributing to future GCAP concepts.

You will coordinate across engineering activities, ensure governance, manage risks, and liaise with customers and partners. The role requires DV-level security clearance and a track record of complex project delivery in a defence context.

Qualifications

• Proven leadership and decision‑making in a complex, dynamic environment.
• Broad experience across engineering lifecycles with emphasis on planning activities.
• Influencing and negotiating with internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience delivering engineering solutions, preferably in defence electronics.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate engineering activities across a complex project to meet quality, schedule and budget.
• Lead engineering governance and lifecycle management for the project.
• Manage multi‑discipline engineering teams with clearly defined roles.
• Collaborate with safety and security specialists to align inputs to the main project.
• Maintain communications with customers, partners and engineering leadership on milestones and deliverables.
• Ensure the design solution meets end‑user requirements and is properly documented.

Skills

Leadership experience

Engineering lifecycle

Communication skills

Influencing/negotiation

Technical governance

Security clearance DV

Project coordination

Job description

hackajob is partnering directly with Leonardo to hire for this role. Job Description: SALARY: £75,000 - £82,000 Leonardo UK operates a grade-based salary framework with broad bands. The salary range shown reflects the approved grade band for this role, or a narrower hiring range published within that band, and is benchmarked against the external market. Exceptions above the standard range are managed through governance controls to protect internal equity.

Your Impact

We have an opportunity for a skilled engineering manager to join the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) Multifunction RF System (MRFS) IPT, leading the interdisciplinary team that will deliver one of our key Technology Demonstrator programmes (TDP) into GCAP. This is a key leadership role, working with the Chief Engineer and Head of Engineering to identify, develop and deliver the technical solution. You will work closely with Leonardo's internal engineering team that is tasked with delivering the main GCAP programme. This is an exciting time within the GCAP programme, this engineering manager will play an important role in bringing together critical technology components into demonstrator hardware that will be tested and incorporated into future GCAP concepts and designs, ultimately contributing to our most advanced RF sensor to date. As this role has a high profile with our customers and partners, it may require travel within the UK and abroad.

What You'll Bring

As an Engineering Manager you will be responsible for coordination of the engineering activities across a complex project.

• Leading the Engineering aspects of the Project, ensuring adherence to quality, schedule and budget
• Ensuring that engineering governance is in place and regularly maintained
• Ensuring the efficient application of lifecycle management to the project
• Managing multi-disciplined engineering teams, ensuring that roles within the teams are clearly defined
• Working with specialists (such as safety and security) to coordinate their input to the main project
• Creating a positive working relationship with customers and partners, to deliver project capability
• Establishing and maintaining good lines of communication across the engineering team, with the engineering leadership team, Project Manager, and Heads of Discipline
• Working closely with the Systems Design Authority ensuring they are fully informed on technical progress, technical risk and any mitigation strategies
• Regularly reporting into engineering and project forums - including the definition and ownership of engineering milestones, authoring and maintaining the Scope of Work and reporting delivery from the multi/cross-functional Engineering team.
• Ensuring the design solution meets the end user requirement, is reliable, fully documented and works within the designated environment
• Coordinate engineering input to bid activities

You really must have:

• Ability to achieve DV level security clearance
• Broad experience across engineering lifecycles, with an emphasis on engineering and associated planning activities for successful delivery outcomes
• A disciplined approach to reporting and planning
• Influencing and negotiation skills with a variety of internal and external stakeholders
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, proven ability to build trust and respect at all levels
• Proven leadership and decision-making skills in a complex, dynamic environment
• Experience of delivering engineering solutions for complex and technically challenging products, preferably in the defence electronics sector
• Awareness of statutory and regulatory compliance requirements within the defence avionics industry

It is desirable, but not essential that you will have experience in several of the following areas:

• Knowledge of a broad range of engineering disciplines
• Experience of consortium projects
• Experience of the application of continuous improvement principles
• Experience with New Product Introduction

Security Clearance

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government's Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV). For more information and guidance please visit:

Why join us

• Time to Recharge: Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year.
• Secure your Future: Benefit from our award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution.
• Your Wellbeing Matters: Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Armed Forces, Carers, Wellbeing and Ethnicity).
• Rewarding Performance : All employees at management level and below are eligible for our bonus scheme.
• Never Stop Learning : Free access to 4,000 online courses via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.
• Refer a friend: Receive a financial reward through our referral programme.
• Tailored Perks : Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.
• Flexible working: Flexible hours with hybrid working options.

For part time opportunities, please talk to us about what might be possible for this role.

For a full list of our company benefits please visit our website.

Leonardo is a global leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. Headquartered in Italy, we employ over 53,000 people worldwide including 8,500 across 9 sites in the UK.

Our employees are not just part of a team-they are key contributors to shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.

At Leonardo we are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers.

If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.

Primary Location: GB - Edinburgh Contract Type: Permanent Hybrid Working: Hybrid