Weapon System Product Lead

Hypersonica GmbH; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

No time tracking

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Job summary

Hypersonica GmbH is seeking a senior Product Lead to own the direction and lifecycle of a critical European defence hardware system. You will shape the roadmap, align engineering, manufacturing, and safety teams, and drive decisions under technical ambiguity.

You will ensure baselines, variants, and configurations are managed diligently, balancing capability with safety and cost, while engaging customers to validate priorities and guide investment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years leading development of complex hardware products or systems.
• Experience across requirements, design, integration, production, and in-service support.
• Ability to translate technical detail into clear product priorities and trade-offs.
• Experience guiding baselines, variants, and engineering changes in a controlled environment.
• Understanding how safety, reliability, maintainability, producibility, and cost shape product success.
• Proven cross-disciplinary leadership without formal authority.
• UK citizenship or eligibility for security clearance is required.

Responsibilities

• Own the product direction and lifecycle coherence of a weapon system in development.
• Build and maintain the product roadmap translating needs into capability spirals and releases.
• Act as product authority across engineering, manufacturing, test & safety, and programmes.
• Own product baseline, variants, versioning, and configuration intent.
• Set priorities balancing capability, safety, reliability, cost, and production constraints.
• Engage with customer and operator stakeholders to validate priorities and usage.
• Use integration, test, production, and operator feedback to shape development spirals.
• Ensure safety, maintainability, producibility, and supportability from the outset.

Skills

Product leadership

Hardware product lifecycle

Technical credibility

Product baselines & configuration

Safety & reliability mindset

Cross-disciplinary leadership

Decision-making under ambiguity

UK security clearance readiness

Education

Bachelor-level engineering or equivalent

Tools

None

Job description

Help Build Europe's Hypersonic Capability

At Hypersonica, we’re redefining what’s possible in European defence technology. We exist to deliver speed, resilience, and technological independence at a pace that sets a new standard. We are a small, elite team working on problems that matter, and solving them fast.

By joining Hypersonica, you’re not stepping into a predefined role. You’re joining a talent dense environment where every individual shapes the direction of the company. Our philosophy is to hire a small number of exceptional people with broad, deep technical capability, strong judgement, and the ability to operate autonomously.

We hire for talent, not rigid boxes. This role represents a business need, but the way it evolves will be shaped by the individual. If you’ve achieved what others said was impossible, or you bring a unique combination of skills that doesn’t fit a traditional mould, we want to hear from you. The work you do here directly contributes to Europe’s technological independence.

What you'll do

• Own the product direction and lifecycle coherence of one of our weapon systems currently in development, ensuring it evolves into a capable, reliable, producible, maintainable, and supportable product.
• Build and maintain the product roadmap, translating operational needs, technical maturity, test evidence, and business priorities into clear capability spirals, releases, and product decisions.
• Act as the product authority across engineering, manufacturing, test & safety, quality, programmes, and ILS, ensuring a shared understanding of the product, its intended use, and its next priorities.
• Own the product baseline, variants, versioning, and configuration intent, ensuring that engineering changes are assessed before adoption.
• Set clear product priorities and trade-offs with engineering, balancing capability, safety, reliability, cost, schedule, maturity, production, and through-life sustainability.
• Engage with relevant customer and operator stakeholders to validate priorities and usage requirements.
• Use evidence from integration, test, production, maintenance, and operator feedback to shape the next development spirals and focus investment on the changes that create the greatest product and operational value.
• Ensure reliability, maintainability, producibility, supportability, transportability, and safety from the outset. Work closely with the ILS organisation, retaining ownership of the resulting product trade-offs and evolution.
• Establish lean product-management structures and decision routines where needed, keeping the product moving without adding process for its own sake.
• Make sound decisions under real technical and delivery ambiguity, recognise when a decision requires wider expertise or escalation, and step into unowned product problems rather than waiting for assignment.

Who you are

• You have five or more years’ experience leading the development and evolution of complex hardware products or systems, ideally in defence, aerospace, or a similarly demanding environment.
• An understanding of the full product lifecycle, from requirements and design through integration, test, production, in-service support, and product improvement.
• A technically credible with engineering teams and can turn complex technical detail into clear product priorities, decisions, and trade-offs.
• Experience managing product baselines, variants, configuration, and the impact of engineering changes in a controlled development environment.
• You understand how safety, reliability, maintainability, producibility, supportability, and cost shape a successful product, not just its technical performance.
• Experience leading effectively across disciplines, creating alignment without needing formal authority over every contributor.
• Comfortable taking ownership in ambiguity, making considered decisions with incomplete information, and escalating issues where the decision or risk exceeds your authority.
• You bring a pragmatic, hands‑on approach, building only the structure needed to keep the product moving, and continuously improving ways of working rather than working problems.
• British citizenship is required due to the security requirements of the role. You must be eligible to obtain and maintain the required UK security clearance.

What we offer

• A mission-driven environment with the opportunity to work on one of Europe’s most consequential defence challenges, with direct impact on sovereign capability and security.
• Daily collaboration with leading experts across engineering, operations, business development, and defence, with genuine opportunities to learn, contribute, and grow.
• Exposure to the full lifecycle of complex defence programmes, from customer requirements and commercial strategy through to engineering delivery and flight testing.
• High ownership and autonomy: no time tracking and no micromanagement, just clear objectives and accountability for outcomes.
• A fast-paced environment where good ideas are implemented quickly and feedback from testing and flight drives real decisions.
• A culture that values clarity, integrity, and excellence, and supports people who take initiative and push boundaries responsibly.
• Competitive compensation and real share options aligned with responsibility and impact, not tenure or hierarchy.

Security and Eligibility Requirement

Due to the nature of the work with the UK MOD, applicants must be a British Citizen (or Dual UK national with British citizenship) and eligible for UK Security Clearance (SC) and, where required, Developed Vetting (DV)

Hypersonica is an equal-opportunity employer and assesses candidates solely on merit, capability, and potential.