Senior Aircraft Systems Manager

Senior Aircraft Systems Manager

Vertical Aerospace

Bristol, United Kingdom

What to expect

As Senior Aircraft Systems Manager you will join a growing team of passionate individuals whose primary focus is to take full ownership of systems engineering delivery at the aircraft level. This leadership role is pivotal to the successful integration, traceability, and verification of aircraft systems through the full development lifecycle.

A typical day could range from coordinating a cross-functional systems team to maintaining aircraft level oversight, to ensuring key engineering decisions are made and executed with confidence. This is not a hands-off management role—technical credibility and leadership by example are vital.

The ability to quickly figure things out and make decisions at pace as well as drive your team's delivery will all factor into this role's impact and your success.

What you'll do

• You will be responsible for owning the full systems engineering lifecycle across the aircraft, including architecture, requirements, V&V, and compliance demonstration;
• You will lead and develop a team of systems engineers, driving them to deliver high-quality outputs on time, within budget, and to spec;
• You will capture, decompose, and trace Aircraft requirements; interpret and validate external requirements, including regulatory ones;
• You will be planning and executing verification and validation activities to ensure all systems meet design and performance requirements;
• You will be responsible for creating and maintaining an Aircraft systems engineering plan that integrates with the broader aircraft development schedule;
• You will design system architecture with a focus on performance, complexity, and cost trade-offs, providing solid foundation for subsequent development phases through integrated system models.

What you'll bring

• Bachelor's Degree in a relevant engineering discipline;
• Proven leadership experience in a systems engineering context (preferably aircraft-level or similar complex product);
• Strong understanding of aircraft systems and integration challenges;
• Skills in requirements management, architecture, and verification planning;
• Comfort working with certification frameworks such as ARP4754B and SC VTOL;
• Track record of successfully guiding teams to achieve ambitious technical objectives and meet tight schedules;
• Familiarity with requirement management tools, such as DOORS, Jama or Polarion;
• Understanding of systems engineering principles, including both sides of the 'V' and knowledge of ARP4754B;
• Knowledge of aerospace certifying standards, specifically SC VTOL.