Air Vehicle Design Team Lead

Air Vehicle Design Team Lead

Callen-Lenz

Salisbury, United Kingdom

About the Role

We’re looking for a hands-on and forward-thinking Team Leader to guide our Air Vehicle Design team. In this role, you’ll balance leadership with senior-level engineering work, spending your time both managing the team

and contributing directly to exciting, high-impact projects.

You’ll oversee day-to-day engineering activities across a range of technically advanced focus areas, including cutting-edge prototype air vehicle design, payload integration and development, and the maturation and productionisation of designs. You’ll work closely with the Engineering Manager to plan resources, ensure consistent delivery, and support wider company development and continuous improvement initiatives.

This is a great opportunity for a senior engineer ready to step into leadership or an existing team lead looking to deepen their impact in a dynamic, fast-evolving environment.

Responsibilities

Team Leadership and Coaching:

• Lead the department through effective line management and development of individual team members;
• Conduct regular 1:1 meetings focused on performance, SMART objectives, and personal development goals;
• Provide mentorship and support to the team, fostering collaboration across departments and helping resolve emerging challenges;
• Drive employee performance through clear goal-setting, constructive feedback, and recognition of contributions;
• Support recruitment activities in collaboration with HR and the Engineering Manager, including interviewing, hiring, onboarding, and development planning.

Health and Safety:

• Create and promote a safe working environment consistent with all applicable company and legislative requirements (e.g. COSHH, HASAW, HSE);
• Direct the maintenance of a safe and healthy working environment by eliminating hazards, training employees, and promoting safety awareness;
• Health & Safety Coordination – regulations, communications, walk-rounds, actions.

Engineering Operations:

• Communicate effectively with colleagues, customers and suppliers to efficiently plan and deliver tasks, identifying and resolving issues;
• Capture and derive requirements, developing solutions that meet internal and external customer needs within required timescales;
• Prepare material for, and lead, internal and customer facing design reviews as required, coordinating and collating inputs from colleagues;
• Maintain Configuration Management of design data and written documentation to satisfy internal and external requirements;
• Review engineering artifacts including design data and technical documentation, providing feedback for improvement as required;
• Support supply chain with identification and technical management of suppliers, including devising packages of work for outsourcing;
• Support manufacturing and build teams with engineering queries through close liaison and provision of updates to design data;
• Plan and execute item, sub-system, and air vehicle-level test activities, including flight test(s), resolving issues and producing formal test reports;
• Develop design concepts that remove or minimise hazards, identifying and incorporating industry good practice as a minimum;
• Active participation and engagement in company development initiatives to enable successful and sustainable growth;
• Support project resourcing discussions and planning based on own team members workload and development needs.

About You

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree, with Honors, in an Engineering or Science subject.

Skills and competencies

Essential:

• Excellent communicator who is able collaborate effectively;
• Demonstrable organisational and planning skills;
• Ability to provide on-the-job mentoring of team members;
• Ability to listen, reflect and positively influence a situation;
• Demonstrable problem-solving ability, working to tight timescales;
• Proficient in use of SolidWorks or a comparable CAD package;
• Demonstrable application of design for manufacture principles;
• Acting as technical interface with customers and suppliers;
• Excellent technical writing and presentation skills;
• Configuration Management experience in an engineering environment.

Desirable:

• Previous line management experience;
• Structural design, analysis and test, including composite materials;
• Design, integration and test of air vehicle systems, including powerplants;
• Electrical and avionics systems integration experience;
• Experience of 3D printing, CNC milling and composite manufacture;
• Knowledge and application of civil/military aerospace standards;
• Systems Engineering experience, preferably within an aerospace context.

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