Principal Research Engineer - Sustainability

Fantastic challenges. Amazing opportunities.

GKN Aerospace is reimagining air travel: going further, faster and greener! Fuelled by great people whose expertise and creativity sets the standards in our industry, we’re inspired by the opportunities to innovate and break boundaries. We’re proud to play a part in protecting the world’s democracies. And we’re committed to putting sustainability at the centre of everything we do, opening up and protecting our planet. With over 16,000 employees across 33 manufacturing sites in 12 countries we serve over 90% of the world’s aircraft and engine manufacturers and achieved sales of £3.35 bn in 2023. There are no limits to where you can take your career.

Job Summary

We’re looking for a Principal Research Engineer – Sustainability to join our Global Technology Centre in Bristol.

In this role, you will apply your broad engineering expertise and sound business awareness to shape and lead research and development projects across Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 1 to 6.

Focusing on operations and production, you will drive the implementation of sustainable technologies across these areas. This could include reducing waste, lowering energy usage, or exploring innovative solutions to help us achieve our sustainability targets.

You will bring a proven ability to lead technical work, manage budgets, schedules, and risk, and adapt project direction to deliver maximum value. Your strategic mindset and critical thinking will support effective decision-making and guide your team towards impactful outcomes.

How You'll Contribute

• Implement sustainability improvements using technology across civil operational sites
• Lead workstreams and packages
• Line manage research engineer(s)
• Engage with key stakeholders (Suppliers exploring the state-of-the-art, site and operations leaders), actively participating in the management of communications between production sites and technology
• Create and own project plans and industrialisation plans
• Manage budgets

What You'll Bring

To help us make a difference, you’ll bring your passion and talent for what you do along with the following skills, experience, qualifications and attributes:

Essential:

• Experience in leading and embracing change management
• Experience in a manufacturing engineering function
• Experience of technology insertion into an operational environment
• Demonstrable experience of working across multi-site projects independently

Desirable:

• Previous experience in the Aerospace

What We'll Offer

Once you’re on board you’ll get the following perks and benefits:

• Competitive salary dependant on experience
• Opportunity to earn up to 15% bonus
• Hybrid working – giving you the opportunity to balance home and office working
• Industry Leading Pension Scheme = we’ll match your contributions up to 8% on a 1 : 1.5 basis
• Life Assurance 8 x salary
• 25 days holiday + bank holidays
• Income protection
• Shopping discounts
• Cycle To Work Scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• A collaborative, dynamic working environment

As well as a competitive package we’ll offer you a world of opportunity. We want to see your career fly! We’ll support your career progression by providing you with learning and development opportunities. That’s the beauty of being part of a global business, once you’re on board you never know where your career journey may take you!

A Great Place to work needs a Great Way of Working

Everyone is welcome to apply to GKN. We believe that we can only achieve our ambitions through a coming together of diverse minds who enjoy collaborating in an inspirational environment. Through our commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging and by living our five powerful principles we’ve created a culture where everyone feels welcome to contribute. It’s a culture that won us ‘The Best Workplace Culture Award’. By embracing and celebrating what makes us unique we encourage everyone to bring their full self to work.

We’re also committed to providing an accessible recruitment process, so if you require reasonable adjustments at any stage during our recruitment process please get in touch and let us know.

We are the place where human dreams, plus human endeavour, shape the future of aerospace innovation and technology.

#LI-HYBRID