Senior Aerospace Engineer (Airframe, Structures & Integration)
Location: Cambridge area, UK - on-site
Employment type: Full-time, permanent
About:
This Company designs, builds, and operates uncrewed aircraft services and end-to-end operations for critical services. We own the key elements of the technology stack and operate with partners across healthcare, energy and logistics
Role purpose:
This role is the technical owner for the existing aircraft platform from an airframe, structures, and system integration perspective. The aircraft is already designed, built, and flying. The purpose of this role is not clean-sheet design, but maturation: improving robustness, repeatability, manufacturability, and regulatory defensibility.
You translate a flying prototype into a controlled, test-backed, regulator-ready system. That means validating performance envelopes, addressing known weaknesses, improving integration quality, standardizing builds, and generating traceable engineering evidence aligned with SORA and future certification pathways.
You act as the senior airframe authority on-site, ensuring changes are intentional, verified, documented, and operationally safe.
Where this role sits today (and how it scales)
Immediate structure:
* You sit within the Aero & Robotics engineering function, working day-to-day with flight control, autonomy, software, and operations stakeholders. You own airframe and mechanical decisions and act as the primary interface between physical design, test, and regulatory evidence.
Scaling path:
* As the aircraft platform stabilises and production volume increases, this role can grow into UAS Manager or UAS lead, with accountability for configuration control, supplier interfaces, and longer-term vehicle strategy.
Key outcomes (12–18 months)
* Controlled aircraft baseline. A documented, configuration-controlled airframe with known mass properties, margins, operating envelope, and limitations.
* Targeted reliability improvements delivered - issues identified through testing or operations are systematically resolved, not patched.
* Verification is credible and reusable Ground and flight test evidence exists, is repeatable, and directly supports regulatory submissions and internal decision-making.
* Manufacturing is disciplined Build, inspection, and repair processes are standardised, auditable, and repeatable.
* Engineering supports approvals Airframe-related artefacts clearly support SORA mitigations, hazard analyses, and operational authorisation arguments.
What good looks like:
* The aircraft stops changing accidentally. Every change is deliberate, justified, tested, and traceable.
* Engineering discussions reference data, margins, and test results — not intuition.
* The workshop can build the same aircraft twice and get the same result.
* Regulatory conversations are supported by clear, structured engineering evidence rather than post-hoc explanations.
Responsibilities:
Airframe & structural ownership
* Own the airframe design baseline, including structure, materials, load paths, and mass properties.
* Define, maintain, and update load cases, margins, and assumptions as the aircraft evolves.
* Perform hand calculations and targeted FEA to support incremental design changes.
* Approve airframe-related changes from a safety, performance, and manufacturability perspective.
Mechanical & systems integration
* Own integration quality of propulsion, avionics, payloads, antennas, and cabling.
* Resolve vibration, EMI, thermal, access, and serviceability issues through design changes, not workarounds.
* Work closely with GNC and systems engineers on sensor placement, mounting, and structural assumptions.
Test, verification & regulatory support
* Define and own airframe-related verification plans.
* Design and execute structural, integration, durability, and environmental tests.
* Produce engineering artefacts:
* Test procedures and reports
* Change logs tied to specific aircraft
* Inputs to hazard analysis and SORA mitigations
* Requirements to verification traceability
* Ensure evidence is regulator-credible, not just internally convincing.
Workshop standards & build quality
* Lead hands-on engineering activity in Cambridge
* Define and enforce build standards: torque, bonding, inspection gates, sign-off criteria.
* Improve manufacturability and repairability of the existing design.
* Support with tooling, fixtures, and clear instructions.
Cross-functional leadership
* Act as the airframe authority in cross-disciplinary decisions.
* Mentor other more junior engineers and technicians in aerospace fundamentals and test discipline.
* Push back on unsafe or weakly evidenced changes.
Requirements:
Essential
* 5+ years experience in aerospace or UAV development.
* Strong background in lightweight aircraft structures and mechanical integration.
* Hands-on experience running tests and producing engineering evidence.
* Experience supporting regulatory processes (e.g. SORA, operational approvals, safety cases).
* Comfortable working on-site in workshop and flight-test environments.
Desirable
* Experience transitioning prototypes into repeatable production builds.
* Exposure to continued airworthiness or certification-adjacent processes.
* Experience working closely with GNC/autopilot teams.
* CAD Experience