Principal Systems Engineer

Job Description:

Salary £53,500 to £68,000

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 are seeking an experienced Principal Systems Engineer lead Integration, Test, Evaluation and Acceptance activities for advanced electro-optical and infrared sensing systems within the GCAP environment.

This is an important systems engineering leadership role, responsible for defining and executing the system integration and verification strategy from detailed design through integration, qualification, acceptance, and transition to production. The successful candidate will shape both physical and digital integration approaches, ensuring robust verification of complex multi-disciplinary systems in a highly demanding defence environment.

The role offers the opportunity to influence next-generation sensing capability, working across national and international teams on technically challenging programmes.

What you’ll do

• Integration & Test LeadershipDefine integration and verification approaches appropriate for late-lifecycle delivery, ensuring readiness for hardware/software integration, qualification, acceptance, and release.Develop and maintain the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) electro-optical / infrared sensing systems ITEA master plan, including integration sequencing, verification logic, dependencies, risks, and maturity criteria.Define progressive integration strategies from component, subsystem, equipment, and system-level verification through formal acceptance.
• Test Architecture & Systems EngineeringLead and define ITEA related strategy and associated systems artefacts including ITEA requirements.Develop the system integration and test architecture, ensuring testability is designed into the product architecture.Define verification architectures including:Physical integration environmentsHardware-in-the-loop (HIL) environmentsSynthetic/digital test environmentsLaboratory and field test configurationsEnsure requirements, interfaces, performance budgets, and verification methods remain aligned throughout integration.
• Digital & Synthetic EnvironmentsLead development of the EOIR strategy for digital and synthetic integration/test environments.Define model-based verification approaches that enable early risk reduction, accelerated integration, and increased defect discovery prior to hardware availability.Support digital thread adoption between requirements, architecture, interfaces, models, and verification artefacts.
• Stakeholder CoordinationLiaise with the wider GCAP Test & Integration community to ensure consistency, reuse of best practice, and alignment of facilities, tooling, and processes.Coordinate integration activities across EOIR, subsystem teams, software, electronics, mechanical, detector, optics, and processing disciplines.Support design reviews, verification reviews, readiness reviews, qualification reviews, and customer acceptance activities.
• Risk & DeliveryIdentify integration and verification risks early and develop mitigation plans.Support programme planning, schedule development, cost estimation, and technical maturity assessments.Provide technical leadership and mentoring to systems engineers supporting ITEA activities.

What you’ll bring

• Experience leading system integration and test activities on complex engineered products, ideally within highly regulated industries (e.g. aerospace, defence, sensing, or other safety-critical environments).
• Proven experience in late lifecycle delivery, particularly post-critical design review integration, qualification, acceptance, and release.
• Strong systems engineering background covering requirements, architecture, interfaces, verification, and acceptance.

Desirable Experience

• Experience with model-based systems engineering (MBSE).
• Experience working with digital twins, synthetic environments, HIL/SIL environments, or virtual integration frameworks.
• Experience within electro-optical / infrared sensing systems (EOIR), mission systems, or sensor fusion environments.
• Experience defining test equipment, test environments, and facility requirements.

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

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We offer a comprehensive, company-funded benefits package that supports your wellbeing, career development, and work–life balance. Whether you're looking to grow professionally, care for your health, or plan for the future, we’re here to help you thrive.

• 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.

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