UAV Concept Design Engineer – Sizing & Trade Studies

Saab AB; Bedford; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

30 days annual leave

Pension scheme 8% company contribution

Private medical insurance

Death in service insurance

Up to 5% share matching scheme

Enhanced Maternity/Adoption & Paternal

Job summary

Saab UK in Bedford seeks a UAV Design Engineer to own aircraft sizing, perform rapid, iterative design studies, and translate CONOPS into viable air-vehicle concepts. You will work across geometry, aerodynamics, weights, propulsion, and mission performance within a small multidisciplinary team.

You will also validate models using flight logs and telemetry, update tools and workflows, and contribute to a robust design-space exploration process while maintaining safety-critical standards.

Qualifications

• Proficiency in aircraft sizing and constraint analysis for UAV concepts.
• Experience with concept-design tooling and synthesis of flight-test data to improve models.
• Strong Python scripting and data analysis capabilities.
• Hands-on experience with flight logs, telemetry, and validation of models.
• Familiarity with PX4/ArduPilot, SITL/HITL simulations and autopilot data.
• CAD and geometry handling for aero surface export/meshing.

Responsibilities

• Perform aircraft conceptual sizing and constraint analysis to define feasible design points for new UAV concepts.
• Develop parametric air vehicle geometry and Outer Mold Line definitions and drive them through the analysis loop.
• Produce the core conceptual outputs and run trade studies and design-space exploration.
• Synthesize flight-test and bench-test data to validate and improve models and sizing methods.
• Select and shape propulsion concepts and integrate them into mission/energy analysis.
• Maintain and improve the concept-design toolchain and automation for rapid iteration.
• Capture and communicate design risk and feed into the programme risk register.

Skills

Aircraft sizing

Conceptual design tooling

Python scripting

Flight data analysis

SITL/HITL

OpenVSP

PX4/ArduPilot

CAD geometry

Tools

RCAIDE

AVL

XFLR5

Datcom

FlightStream

Job description

Saab UK in Bedford seeks a UAV Design Engineer to own aircraft sizing, perform rapid, iterative design studies, and translate CONOPS into viable air-vehicle concepts. You will work across geometry, aerodynamics, weights, propulsion, and mission performance within a small multidisciplinary team.

You will also validate models using flight logs and telemetry, update tools and workflows, and contribute to a robust design-space exploration process while maintaining safety-critical standards.