Job Description:

Systems Engineer

About Us

Averna powered by Spherea designs, manufactures and supports complex test systems for aerospace, defence and other regulated industries.

The Systems Engineer Role

You will connect customer needs with technical solutions, translating operational and test objectives into clear requirements, architectures, interfaces and verification strategies for hardware, software, mechanical and production teams.

The role spans customer workshops, system design, technical reviews, laboratory integration, acceptance testing and commissioning. Regular in-person collaboration with engineers and physical equipment is required, alongside occasional UK and international travel, including some overnight stays.

Systems Engineer Key Responsibilities

• Work with customers and stakeholders to understand products, test objectives, operating environments, constraints and acceptance expectations. Plan and lead requirements workshops, resolve unclear or conflicting needs, define concepts of operation and use cases, and translate customer needs into structured, verifiable system and subsystem requirements.

• Establish requirements baselines and traceability, identifying assumptions, dependencies, constraints, exclusions and customer obligations. Control changes and assess their technical, cost and schedule impact.

• Develop system concepts and assess feasibility. Define functional and physical architectures, allocate requirements across hardware, software, mechanical and operational elements, and document internal and external interfaces.

• Lead or contribute to technical trade-off studies and evidence-based recommendations. Work with specialists to select technologies, instruments, interfaces and design approaches, balancing performance, safety, reliability, maintainability, obsolescence, cost and schedule.

• Ensure solutions can be manufactured, integrated, tested, commissioned and supported throughout their intended lifecycle. Identify technical risks and mitigation actions, support modular and reusable solutions, and maintain technical coherence as detailed design progresses.

• Support the full engineering lifecycle, from stakeholder-needs analysis, concepts of operation and feasibility through requirements, architecture, preliminary and detailed design, manufacture, integration, verification and validation, factory and site acceptance, commissioning, warranty and in-service support.

• Prepare for and contribute to system requirements, preliminary design, critical design and test-readiness reviews. Define the evidence needed to demonstrate design maturity, coordinate specialist input, and ensure decisions, deviations, concessions and changes are controlled.

• Develop verification and validation strategies, defining methods such as analysis, inspection, demonstration and testing. Maintain requirements-to-verification traceability and produce or coordinate test plans, specifications, procedures and acceptance documentation.

• Support integration testing, debugging, technical investigations, factory acceptance, customer demonstrations, installation and site commissioning. Coordinate the resolution of cross-discipline issues and ensure all supporting evidence is complete and controlled.

• Work closely with hardware, software, electrical, mechanical, production, quality and project-management colleagues, as well as customers and international delivery partners. Communicate technical progress to the Project Manager and escalate unresolved issues that could affect delivery.

Systems Engineer Essential Skills and Experience

• Degree, HNC or HND in electronic, electrical, aerospace engineering or a related discipline.

• Relevant systems engineering experience, or equivalent practical experience in a related engineering discipline.

• Ability to work directly with customers to elicit, clarify and manage technical requirements and acceptance expectations.

• Experience translating customer and stakeholder needs into system requirements, architectures, interfaces and verification approaches.

• Understanding of multidisciplinary engineered systems and the lifecycle from concept and design through integration, verification, acceptance and ongoing support.

• Ability to analyse technical trade-offs, manage requirements traceability and change, identify risks, and maintain alignment between requirements, design and verification evidence.

• Experience contributing to technical reviews, test planning, integration, fault investigation or acceptance activities.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, clear communication, collaborative working and the initiative to obtain missing information and resolve uncertainty.

• Comfortable working alongside engineering teams and physical test equipment, with a willingness to travel occasionally within the UK and internationally.

• Must have the right to work in the UK.

Systems Engineer Desirable Experience

Experience in one or more of the following areas would be advantageous:

• Aerospace, defence, space, rail, energy or another regulated sector.

• Automated or special-to-type test equipment.

• Electronic, electrical, software-controlled or electromechanical systems.

• Data acquisition, instrumentation, control systems or test-system integration.

• Requirements-management tools, formal design reviews, verification and validation, factory and site acceptance testing, and commissioning.

• Legacy-system modernisation, obsolescence management, maintainability and long-life equipment support.

• Working with international teams, customers or delivery partners.

Security requirements

Applicants must be eligible to obtain and maintain the level of UK national security clearance required. Some programmes may have additional nationality, residency or export-control restrictions.

Working arrangements

The role may be based in Bournemouth or elsewhere in the UK where the arrangement supports effective delivery. Regular on-site engagement is essential.

Reporting and offer

The reporting line will be to the Regional Operations Manager or an Engineering Team Leader, to be confirmed. Benefits include competitive salary, performance-related bonus, pension, family healthc