Systems Engineer - Defence

Company Description

ALTEN is a global engineering and technology consultancy operating across over 35 countries worldwide. We partner with industry leaders across sectors including Aeronautics, Aerospace, Defence, Naval, Automotive, Energy, Rail, IT and many more to deliver innovative engineering solutions that drive technological advancement & support sustainable transformation.

Our teams of passionate and agile engineers work on cutting-edge projects that shape the future of technology and sustainability. At ALTEN, we empower talented engineers to innovate, solve complex challenges, and deliver impactful solutions that build tomorrow’s world—today.

Join us and start building tomorrow’s world today!

Job Description

Work at the forefront of advanced opto‑electronic and sensor systems supporting some of the UK’s most critical maritime and avionics defence platforms. Join ALTEN Ltd as a Systems Engineer, where you’ll play a key role in delivering next‑generation sensing capabilities that enhance situational awareness and operational resilience.

You’ll contribute across the full systems engineering lifecycle, from requirements capture and architecture through to integration, verification and delivery — working on complex, real‑time systems.

Location: Glasgow
On‑site: Hybrid 3/4 Days per week (Glasgow or Edinburgh) 
Seniority: 5+ Years of Relevant Experience
Security Clearance: Candidates must be willing and eligible to obtain SC clearance.

Key Responsibilities

• Deliver systems engineering activities across the full V‑model lifecycle, including requirements, design, integration, verification and validation
• Capture, manage and maintain system requirements within DOORS, ensuring full traceability to design and test
• Support and lead system integration activities across embedded software and sensor subsystems
• Define system architectures, interfaces and functional behaviour
• Contribute to integration and system‑level test strategy, including planning and execution
• Participate in design reviews, technical governance and risk‑based decision making
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams across software, hardware and systems engineering
• Support through‑life engineering, including defect management, upgrades and configuration control

Qualifications

Required Skills

• Strong experience in systems engineering within defence, aerospace or safety‑critical environments
• Proven experience working on the left‑hand side of the V‑model (requirements, design, architecture)
• Hands‑on experience with requirements engineering (elicitation, decomposition, traceability)
• Experience using DOORS or similar requirements management tools
• Strong understanding of system interfaces, boundaries and integration challenges
• Experience supporting integration, verification and validation of complex systems

Soft Skills & Collaboration

• Strong analytical and problem‑solving mindset
• Confident communicator within multidisciplinary engineering teams
• Proactive, self‑starting approach to delivering engineering solutions
• Comfortable working in structured, process‑driven environments

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering, or relevant technical military background with equivalent experience.

Desirable Skills

• Experience with opto‑electronic, optical or sensor‑based systems
• Knowledge of systems modelling techniques (e.g. MBSE, SysML)
• Experience decomposing complex systems into sub‑system architectures
• Knowledge of real‑time embedded systems
• Experience contributing to test procedure development and verification activities
• Background in maritime or defence programmes

Additional Information

Why join us? 

We bring together entrepreneurial, tech-driven people to deliver innovative solutions for leading companies.

At ALTEN, you’ll work on exciting projects, supported by ongoing learning, mentoring, and clear career development tailored to your goals.

Join a passionate team and help build tomorrow, today.

In short you get: 

• A personalised career path and a rewarding management style 
• A huge diversity of engineering projects and industries
• Private Medical Insurance
• Cycle & Tech Scheme 
• Employee assistance programme
• Life insurance & Pension Scheme
• Social atmosphere, regular gatherings & team buildings
• Flexible way of working (role dependent)

We are proud to support the Armed Forces Covenant & actively encourage applications from members of the Armed Forces community, including veterans, reservists, service leavers, and military spouses/partners. We recognise the value of military skills and experience and are committed to ensuring that no applicant is unfairly disadvantaged during our recruitment and selection processes. 

ALTEN is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace and values the strength that comes from a global mix of backgrounds and perspectives. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates, regardless of background or protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know. 

This role may require you to have or be willing to go through Security Clearance. As part of the onboarding process candidates will be asked to complete a Baseline Personnel Security Standard; details of the evidence required to apply may be found on the government website Gov.UK. If you are unable to meet this and any associated criteria, then your employment may be delayed, or rejected . Details of this will be discussed with you at interview.