Chief Engineer
Location: Flexible UK – Hybrid Working Arrangements (Plymouth, Devon or Bristol sites)
Compensation: From £75,100 Dependent on Experience + Benefits
Role Type: Full time / Permanent
Role ID: SF72524
The role
As a Chief Engineer you’ll lead multidisciplinary engineering teams on defence, aerospace, and engineering innovation projects. You will provide strategic and technical leadership, influencing the UK’s most critical vehicle capability programmes to ensure they are safe, reliable, resilient, and built to the highest technical standards.
Day‑to‑day responsibilities
- Lead and coordinate multidisciplinary engineering teams delivering complex vehicle programmes
- Oversee system architecture development, design solutions, integration strategies, and verification and validation activities
- Act as the primary technical interface with customers, suppliers, and internal stakeholders
- Represent engineering at technical reviews, governance boards, and programme milestones
- Ensure technical integrity, safety, and performance across all protected mobility vehicle systems
Essential experience
- Proven experience leading complex, multidisciplinary engineering programmes at a senior level
- Strong understanding of vehicle systems engineering, integration, and lifecycle management
- Deep knowledge of defence standards, safety assurance, and regulatory compliance
- Demonstrable leadership and stakeholder management capability
- Ability to influence technical strategy in a high‑integrity engineering environment
Qualifications
- HNC/HND or degree in an engineering discipline
- Chartered Engineer status or working towards it (desirable)
- Additional systems engineering, safety engineering, or defence‑accredited qualifications (desirable)
Security Clearance
The successful candidate must be able to achieve and maintain Security Check (SC) security clearance. Eligibility may be affected by place of birth, nationality, citizenship, and residency.
Benefits
- Matched contribution pension scheme, with life assurance
- Access to a Digital GP, annual health check, and nutritional consultations through Aviva DigiCare+
- Employee shopping savings portal
- Payment of professional fees
- Reservists in the armed forces receive 10‑day special paid leave
- Holiday Trading – allow employees to buy additional leave or sell up to one working week of annual leave (open February to March)
- ‘Be Kind Day’ – paid leave to undertake volunteering with a chosen organisation or registered charity
EEO Statement
We are a disability confident committed employer. If you have a disability or need reasonable adjustments during the application and selection stages, please email careers@babcockinternational.com with the subject header ‘Reasonable adjustments requirement’. We are happy to discuss flexible working arrangements during interview.
