Senior UAV Concept Engineer — End-to-End Flight Design

Saab AB; Dunstable; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

30 days annual leave

Workplace pension scheme with 8%

Private medical insurance

Group income protection

Death in service insurance

Share matching scheme

Enhanced parental leave

Many more benefits

Job summary

Saab UK in Bedford is seeking a Senior UAV Concept Engineer to own UAV concepts from requirements to flight-tested designs, driving iterative sizing studies and calibrating models with flight data. You will lead multiple concept studies, refine design loops, and strengthen tools used by the Concepts Engineering team.

In this role you will work with bench-test and flight-test data, and help develop junior engineers while advancing rapid, evidence-based design iterations within a defence and

Qualifications

• 5+ years in aircraft or UAV design with at least one sized, built and flown design.
• Hands-on use of flight-test or test data to calibrate design models.
• Deep knowledge of the conceptual design loop: aerodynamics, weights, propulsion, mission performance, stability and control.
• Concept-design tools such as OpenVSP, AVL or XFLR5, and Python for automation and data processing.
• Sound judgement on fidelity; clear communication of assumptions and uncertainty.
• Ability to gain SC clearance.

Responsibilities

• Own UAV concepts end to end, from requirements and CONOPS to a closed design point, build and flight test, running several studies in parallel.
• Lead conceptual sizing and trade studies: constraint analysis, weight closure, aerodynamics, propulsion, mission and energy sizing, and stability and control.
• Plan and analyse bench, wind-tunnel and flight tests, and use flight logs and test data to calibrate sizing methods and models.
• Develop the team's Python-based concept-design tools and methods.

Skills

UAV design

Flight-test data usage

Conceptual design loop

Python automation

OpenVSP/AVL/XFLR5

Communication of assumptions

SC clearance

Tools

OpenVSP

AVL

XFLR5

Python

Job description

Saab UK in Bedford is seeking a Senior UAV Concept Engineer to own UAV concepts from requirements to flight-tested designs, driving iterative sizing studies and calibrating models with flight data. You will lead multiple concept studies, refine design loops, and strengthen tools used by the Concepts Engineering team.

In this role you will work with bench-test and flight-test data, and help develop junior engineers while advancing rapid, evidence-based design iterations within a defence and