Project Lead Engineer

Project Lead Engineer Bristol and Andover travel to these 2 days a week. SC Cleared candidates. Responsibilities • Provide engineering leadership and oversight across engineering disciplines being delivered by another supplier. • Support the programme Chief Engineer in developing the required standards and governance for the programme • Work closely with the programme integration office Chief Architect and Engineer to support the creation of standards and governance structures for the ISTAR portfolio and the programme. • Support and lead the design, integration, and testing of the programme’s solution ensuring scalability, reliability, and security. • Ensure all engineering designs meet operational, technical, and regulatory requirements. • Act as the working level technical interface between the supplier and internal Defence Digital and Army teams, senior stakeholders, and external partners. • Support the development of the software factory roadmap and development requirements for current and future contracts, and integration into other DD Service Executive capabilities • Oversee the documentation of engineering processes, designs, and outcomes for audit and review purposes. • Manage Risk by identifying and mitigating engineering risks, ensuring the resilience and reliability of deployed systems. • Ensure robust contingency plans are in place for technology solution. • Support the development of current and future requirements for the capability through existing and future contracts. • Support the production of outline and full business cases through contribution and architectural artefacts • Stay abreast of emerging technologies and methodologies to enhance project outcomes. • Promote a culture of innovation and continuous improvement within the supplier engineering teams. • Ability to travel to customer sites 1-2 days per week Experience • Experience in lead engineer roles within Defence, Aerospace, or similarly complex environments. • Proven track record of delivering large-scale, mission-critical systems in secure environments. • Familiarity with defence-specific standards and frameworks, such as DEF STAN, MIL-STD, or NATO standards. • Deep understanding of Defence deployed technologies, including secure communications, data analytics, mission-critical applications and integrations • Proficiency in cloud architectures, cybersecurity, software development methodologies, and system integration. • Understanding of on-premise and deployable technologies. • Deep knowledge of systems engineering, software development, hardware integration, and testing methodologies. • Understanding of ISR or ISTAR capabilities advantageous • Proficiency in engineering tools and technologies relevant to Defence Digital projects. • Understanding of integrated sensor architecture (ISA) advantageous • Deep Understanding of MongoDB, VMWare technologies, API integration, KAFKA, and Systematic applications desirable • Experience of applications built with Java / JRE / Maven / SpringBoot frameworks. • Develop robust, secure and efficient CI pipelines – GitLab / GitHub Actions to enable rapid and reliable software delivery • Manage and scale containerized environments using Kubernetes (RH OpenShift) • Maintain integration with monitoring and logging tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack) • Work with a software development team to troubleshoot, build and deploy to environmental issues. • Integrate security best practice into DevOps lifecycle including vulnerability scanning, secrets management and code quality scanning.