Location: Crawley, United Kingdom

Thales people provide armed forces customers with operational advantage at every decisive moment throughout the mission. Defence and armed forces customers rely on us to deliver the full range of defence mission systems solutions at land, sea, and air. Our platforms extend across the battlespace including Above and Sonar, Electronic Combat, and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance systems.

Together we offer fantastic opportunities for committed employees to learn and develop their career with us. At Thales UK, we research, develop, and supply technology and services that impact the lives of millions of people each day to make life better, and keep us safer. We innovate across five major industries; Aerospace, Defence, Ground Transportation, Security and Space. Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

Head of Technical – AWS UK

Location: Crawley with other UK locations considered – domestic and international travel will be required

Would you like to apply your technical expertise in a growing domain? Are you looking for your next challenge and want to make it an exciting one? Then apply now!

What the role has to offer:

• Senior technical leadership opportunity!

• Gain experience to a senior, multi-national role and help shape the growth, vision and technical strategy of the domain.

• Work with a team with well thought-out and defined career pathways, offering exposure to a variety of responsibilities.

Thales UK Above Water Systems (AWS-UK) provide integrated combat management systems and services for naval surface ships in the UK and internationally. The team have an excellent opportunity for a Head of Technical to join them. This role will be responsible for driving the technical direction and innovation strategy of AWS-UK, developing solutions that meet the future needs of our customers. As the Head of Technical, you will be responsible for assessing the competence of the independent design authority across AWS-UK. The Head of Technical is in charge of all technical aspects across AWS and is accountable for all technical compliance and safety assurance.

This role will dual report to the Managing Director of AWS-UK and to the Technical Director of the AWS Business Line, as well as having strong links to the Thales UK CTO. The role is to oversee and carry out specific duties related to Thales Group and Thales UK Technical Governance associated with AWS-UK's bids and projects and related strategy and growth activities.

Duties will include:

• Delegated Design Authority and Design Validation sign off.

• Safety Authority.

• Bid and Project Technical Governance.

• Accountable for Technical Regulatory Compliance.

• Strategic growth plans linked to AWS Business Line in the UK.

• Accountable as key stakeholder and/or line manager for the AWS-UK Safety Project Authority.

• Broad technical scope of the following; Radar, Electronic Warfare, Uncrewed Systems, Combat Management System/Mission Systems, System Integration and Test, Weapons Systems.

Day to day you will:

• Be the Technical risk owner for the overall solutions, and identifying and driving risk migration activities.

• Be responsible for arbitrating trade-offs and decisions at the solution level (for all units involved in the Solution).

• Ensure appropriate governance is in place for the business related to this role objectives and that regular reviews are undertaken at the necessary levels.

• Maintain a good knowledge of the Integrated Combat Systems domain, its Solutions Architectures and associated Engineering practices, such as;

• - Understand and influence needs (Concept & requirements)

• - Drive Technical decisions (in particular when impacting Architecture or Design - Where allowable due to security considerations, ensuring competitive advantage is maintained via strong links with Business Line teams across the Thales international group.

About you

You will have technical leadership experience within an engineering development environment, with excellent collaboration, influencing and communication skills. You should have a high degree of engineering experience within your domain with the ability to understand customer requirements for our products. Naval experience is not required, but you should be highly experienced in the technical performance of complex products in the field.

You should be able to confidently represent Thales UK to outside government and customer organisations, operating successfully in a multi-disciplined, multi-cultural environment. You will have the ability to approach the role with both a strategic and operational approach, being a good problem solver showing initiative.

What We Can Offer

We’re committed to giving you opportunities to be your best. We believe in embracing the passion and potential of our people, and to achieve this we offer market leading training, development and experiences, along with the opportunity to be mentored and coached by some of the smartest minds in the industry. We hire from within as our first priority, so you’ll have a myriad of opportunities within our diverse, global organisation.

Flexibility

Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

If you are interested in this role, we would encourage you to have informal chat with the Talent Acquisition Partner.

Thales is an equal opportunities employer and diversity and inclusion are integral to the success of Thales.

• #LI-CD1

In line with Thales' Baseline Security requirements, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK and employment and/or education history for up to three years. Some vacancies may require full Security Clearance which can require further evidence to be provided. For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the Defence Business Services National Security Vetting (DBS NSV) Agency.

At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working.

Thales UK is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. We will provide reasonable adjustments and support to ensure neuro-diverse applicants or those with a disability or long-term condition can be their best during the recruitment process. To request an adjustment, if you need this job advert in an alternative format or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Resourcing Ops for mid to senior roles, or the Early Careers Team for graduate and apprentice roles.

Great journeys start here, apply now!