Research Scientist

Job Description

Note: You must have five years UK residency as a minimum to apply.

We are looking for talented Scientists and Engineers with experience in research and collaboration to join us at Leonardo in Luton, Bristol and Lincoln.

We are not expecting you to have domain knowledge of electronic warfare systems or significant experience in engineering. What we are looking for are scientists and engineers looking to build their technical knowledge through training, teamwork, and one-to-one mentoring.

Leonardo is a global leader in defence electronics and delivers mission-critical systems for situational awareness, electronic warfare, and surveillance across land, sea, and air.

The Electronic Warfare and Major Air Programmes lines of business are uniquely positioned as one of the world's top developers of electronic surveillance and countermeasure systems as well as being a core member of the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), developing Tempest, the next-generation fighter aircraft that will replace the RAF’s Typhoon.

Our Systems Engineers cover a wide variety of roles:

1. Applied research: Early research looking into exploiting new technologies or concepts.
2. High-level design: Understanding the impact of design decisions on performance.
3. Low-level design: Detailed design, prototyping, and optimisation of a particular solution using expertise within their technical domain.

As a Systems Engineer, you will bridge the gap between the theoretically possible and the practically implementable in a real system. We need talented scientists and engineers to take early concepts from a variety of sources and turn them into working solutions.

You do not need a background in engineering to make a difference. Our System Engineers predominantly come from science backgrounds. Many of these people at Leonardo have PhDs/EngDs from a diverse range of research domains across STEM.

We will support you in your technical and professional development whatever your background and provide challenging technical work to allow you to excel. Our working environment is fast-paced but relaxed. We value the expertise of our engineers and work to ensure they have the autonomy and confidence to make decisions themselves or as a team. We put trust in all our engineers to ensure they remain in control of their work and future career prospects.

We are recruiting for a number of roles from a variety of backgrounds and skillsets. Based upon your skills and foundation knowledge, we will assess where your knowledge and skills would best fit and discuss options with you.

Due to the nature of our work, you must be capable of achieving a minimum of SC security clearance and will require access to caveated information such as UK eyes only. Please see the UK National Security Vetting site for more details.

Some roles may require office-based working, based at Luton, Bristol or Lincoln.

Typical work you might be involved in:

1. Contribute or lead an early concept study investigating whether new types of algorithm could improve the detection of threats at range.
2. Support the development and implementation of data fusion across multiple sensor types.
3. Develop simulators used in supporting test and validation of processing solutions.

What we can offer you:

1. Flexible working: We offer our employees the time and flexibility they need to enjoy a balanced life.
2. Continuous Learning: You’ll be supported in ongoing personal development, including access to thousands of online courses free of charge via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.
3. Annual leave: 25 days holiday plus eight bank holidays.
4. Pension scheme: Our award-winning pension scheme includes generous employer contribution.
5. Flexible benefits: Our company-funded approach to flexible benefits allows employees to make choices appropriate for them.
6. Employee discount schemes: Access to everyday discounts with many high street and online retailers, restaurants, and days out.
7. Family friendly policies.
8. Positive support for the Reserve Forces, including additional time off for Reservists.

What you will get:

1. Advanced Technology: You will have the ability to contribute to the development of market-leading product development, providing advanced capability and protection to UK platforms.
2. Agile Systems Engineering: Apply and develop your skills in a fast-paced and dynamic agile development team.
3. EW Expertise: Leonardo has subject-matter experts with extensive and detailed knowledge of the EW domain, technology, performance, and operational capabilities.
4. Continuous Learning: Whether it’s EW, leadership, or personal development, you’ll be supported in your ongoing professional development through training and mentoring.
5. Teamwork: Working alongside like-minded engineers in a highly collaborative environment.
6. Connections: Leonardo has an expansive team of over 7,000 people at six major sites across the UK.

What we are looking for:

You will have a PhD, EngD or other relevant research experience within a Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subject.

We would be interested in hearing from you if you also have:

1. Experience of collaborating with others either within your research group or wider afield.
2. A drive for continuous improvement of your own skills and knowledge.
3. A methodical approach to solving large complex problems.
4. Experience in planning, leading and overseeing technical research or development tasks.
5. An appreciation of the Systems Engineering process.
6. Coding is central to our day-to-day work. You should have some experience of using a programming language to solve problems or develop models. Experience using Matlab and Simulink would be an advantage.

Primary Location: GB - Luton - Cap. Green 300

Additional Locations: GB - Basildon, GB - Bristol - Coldharbour Lane, GB - Lincoln, GB - Southampton

Contract Type: Hybrid Working