Design Engineering Senior Manager

Aalto Haps Ltd.; United States; Hybrid; USD 147,000 - 213,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Attractive market-aligned salary

Short-term incentive plan

25 days of holiday

Private medical, dental, and optical

Personal pension plan

Income protection and life assurance

Vehicle salary sacrifice

Employee assistance programme

Perkbox discounts

Job summary

AALTO HAPS in the UK seeks a Design Engineering Senior Manager to lead a multi-discipline team at Farnborough, steering mechanical, electrical, and structural work for Zephyr platform design and certification. You will drive engineering performance, safety analyses, and supplier interactions, while shaping a high-impact product roadmap.

In this role, you will mentor technical leads, manage budgets and schedules, and ensure airworthiness compliance across programs.

Qualifications

• Ten years in aerospace or a similarly regulated industry with UK involvement.
• Experience leading technical leads and senior engineers.
• Familiarity with lightweight composite structural design; CVE desirable.
• Proven track record in process improvement and tool deployment.
• Strong collaboration and stakeholder management across leadership and regulators.

Responsibilities

• Provide functional leadership for a multi-disciplinary design engineering org.
• Develop and execute strategy to support Zephyr's roadmap and certification.
• Oversee design reviews, safety assessments, and regulatory audits.
• Manage budgets, schedules, and workforce planning across programs.
• Coach and grow engineering talent, champion technical excellence.
• Ensure compliance with airworthiness, certification, and safety standards.

Skills

Leadership

Mechanical design

Electrical integration

Systems engineering

Regulatory knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Tools

CAD

PLM

Requirements mgmt

Analysis tools

Job description

Design Engineering Senior Manager

Application Deadline: 2026-10-19

Location: South East England

Country: United Kingdom

Postal Code: KT19 8GY

Work Type: Any

Company: AALTO HAPS

Closing Date: 2026-11-17T10:00:12.603

Company Overview

AALTO, a global leader in Stratospace, is based in Farnborough and is an Airbus subsidiary. It manufactures, operates, and delivers services with its solar-powered, stratospheric platform: Zephyr. Zephyr's persistence enables continuous flight for months at a time, holding a current flight-time record of over 67 days in the stratosphere. Operating from above 60,000+ft, or 20KM above ground, AALTO provides applications including direct-to-device connectivity and high-resolution Earth observation, operating in a new layer called Stratospace between most air traffic and low-Earth orbit. This high-altitude platform delivers services to commercial and government partners, monitoring environments, observing borders, tracking natural disasters, and connecting unconnected communities. Join Team AALTO to create a new domain of aerospace: Stratospace.

Role Overview

We are seeking a Design Engineering Senior Manager to lead our expanding multi-discipline design team at our Farnborough site. You will provide technical leadership and people management across mechanical and electrical design and analysis activities, supporting new platform design and certification activities, along with sustainment and improvement of legacy systems.

Responsibilities

• Functional Leadership and Strategy: Build, lead and develop a multi-disciplinary Design Engineering organisation comprising mechanical design, electrical integration and structural analysis disciplines. Develop and execute the Design Engineering strategy supporting Zephyr's long-term product roadmap, certification objectives, technology maturation plans and organisational growth. Own engineering performance metrics and drive continuous improvement across people, processes and tools.
• Product Development: Accountable for timely design and development deliverables. Maintain cost, schedule, and quality of technical baselines throughout the program lifecycle. Act as the internal champion for design best practice and influence strategic direction on material and supplier selection. Support design reviews, safety assessments, and regulatory audits.
• Product Sustainment: Collaboratively manage change processes, resolve obsolescence issues, manufacturing easement and improvement activities, aligning engineering priorities with company goals. Review and approve engineering solutions for structural, mechanical, and electrical system modifications where appropriate.
• Skills Development and Growth: Develop team’s personal and professional skills through coaching and fostering a culture of technical excellence, collaboration, accountability, and succession planning.
• Financial and Schedule Oversight: Manage estimating, budgeting, and tracking expenses. Lead workforce planning, investment prioritization, and resource allocation across multiple programs.
• Regulatory and Process Compliance: Ensure adherence to engineering governance and processes. Maintain compliance with airworthiness, certification, and safety standards, liaising with authorities such as the CAA if needed.

Skills and Knowledge Required

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, aerospace, electrical, or related engineering discipline.
• Proven experience leading and mentoring technical leads and senior engineers.
• At least ten years' experience in aerospace or a similarly regulated industry, ideally in a UK CAA Part-21 Design Organisation.
• Strong resource planning and prioritisation skills across multiple concurrent programs.
• Familiarity with lightweight aerospace composite structural design; competence as a CVE is desirable.
• Experience in process improvement and deployment of engineering tools and systems.
• Technical credibility and sound engineering judgment, capable of driving technical decisions and root cause analysis.
• Excellent collaboration and stakeholder management skills, with effective communication with leadership, regulators, customers, and technical teams.
• Familiarity with aerospace engineering tools for requirements management, CAD, PLM, and analysis, with the ability to drive advanced adoption.

Benefits

• Attractive market-aligned salary
• Short-term incentive plan
• 25 days of holiday
• Private medical, dental, and optical insurance
• Personal pension plan
• Income protection and life assurance schemes
• Vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
• Employee assistance programme
• Range of employee discounts via Perkbox

Additional Information

If you are interested in this role but unsure about meeting all requirements or seeking flexible working options, please engage with us to explore practical solutions.

Location: Farnborough

Contract Type: Full Time, Permanent

Hours: 37 - some flexibility with WFH

Travel: Occasional, Less than 10%