Senior Solution Architect

Location: Templecombe, United Kingdom

Thales people provide armed forces customers with operational advantage at every decisive moment throughout the mission. Defence and armed forces customers rely on us to deliver the full range of defence mission systems solutions at land, sea, and air. Our platforms extend across the battlespace including Above and Sonar, Electronic Combat, and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance systems.

Together we offer fantastic opportunities for committed employees to learn and develop their career with us. At Thales UK, we research, develop, and supply technology and services that impact the lives of millions of people each day to make life better, and keep us safer. We innovate across the major industries of Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space. Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

The Systems Architect is a technical leader and enterprise coach, driving architecture strategies and solutions at business or cross-programme level. This role typically demonstrates Advanced Practitioner (AP) capability in multiple domains, mentors and shapes best practice, and is a recognized source of technical authority.

Key Accountabilities:

• Set and arbitrate architecture strategies/solutions for complex or enterprise-system problems, ensuring best practice is adopted across programmes/business units.
• Review, approve, and champion major architectural and system design decisions, balancing technical, business, and enterprise considerations.
• Lead on architectural innovations, the introduction of novel techniques, and continuous improvement within the architecture function.
• Act as a cross-discipline mentor and coach; promote talent development and knowledge transfer.
• Advise on or arbitrate sensitive requirements, interface, and partitioning issues on major programmes.
• Lead/approve integration of specialist disciplines and lifecycle alignment across the business.
• Shape and implement advanced planning, monitoring, risk, and change management strategy for enterprise architecture.
• Represent Thales as a technical authority and contributor to industry/INCOSE best practice standards.

Competency Profile:

• Extensive and substantial practical experience; recognized for deep, applied subject knowledge and innovation; sets and reviews strategy, coaches at all levels.
• Able to coach and mentor, provides technical authority in all core architecture and systems competencies.
• May supervise in highly specialist/emerging topics.
• Brings awareness of emerging business/technology streams and market evolutions.

Principal Relationships:

• Engineering Delivery Managers (EDM)

• Design Authority (PDA / DAPL)

• MCM Design Authority UK

• Technical Directors UK / iMWS

• MCM Principal Naval Architects

Key Responsibilities and Tasks:

• Authority for Configuration Management / Baselines (As Designed, As Built) and PALMA records for the integrated USV platform
• Technical Evidence Analysis, justification and evidence sign-off leading to customer acceptance/delivery
• Ownership and sign-off for the Certificate of Design, including clearing limitations, reservations and the integration of sub-systems
• Delivery of an accepted Safety Case for the USV platform
• Technical analysis of change, and the associated impact on the USV platform. Technical authority for associated Change Control Boards.
• Act as informed customer to subcontractors and third parties in matters of Solution Architecture in a marine environment.
• Technically liaising with subcontractors, certification bodies, and other business lines within Thales in areas of Solution Architecture including the review and acceptance of deliverables.

Skills

Essential skills include:

• A well-proven leadership capability – with natural ability to build and sustain strong working relationships at all levels.
• Excellent standard of technical writing skills and first-class presentation skills.
• Ability to effectively manage relationships across the business and achieve outcomes beneficial to both own team and the broader business.
• A strong record of on-budget, on-time delivery, whilst maximising margin and delighting the customer.
• Effective personal organisation and an ability to remain composed and focused under pressure.
• Experience in engaging with clients and partners with subject matter expertise and knowledge.
• Experience in overseeing and performing technical calculations, investigations and problem solving associated with solution architecture across the whole project lifecycle.
• Experience in coordinating internal and external resources to provide a timely and accurate technical service to the client and/or colleagues on the maritime aspects of complex defence projects.
• Excellent communication and inter-personal skills with a qualified ability to remain composed and focused under pressure.
• Customer and stakeholder management (internal & external).
• Ability to put skills and project based experience of the above listed areas into practice unaided whilst providing support and direction to less experienced colleagues and advice and direction to senior members of the organisation.

Desirable skills include:

• Extensive knowledge of Classification Rules, International Standards and Defence Standards.
• Ability to oversee inclining experiments and interpret the results making recommendations to the business on the subsequent remedial activities.
• Solid analytical skills and ability to interpret technical drawings, review mechanical designs, assess Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and manage simulation modelling.
• Experience in supporting bid teams, providing technical input, identifying work packages, risk areas and costing technical activities.
• Experience in working internationally in a technical and customer facing environment with knowledge of both complex ship regeneration and new build programmes.
• Experience in providing technical leadership within the responsibilities assigned and familiar with working within multi-disciplinary teams to design, estimate and deliver technical solutions.
• Experienced and knowledgeable of engineering requirements, standards and processes for large complex systems and familiar with acting as a peer reviewer of engineering deliverables on projects.
• Experience of requirements tracing from design through to development and acceptance.
• Strong knowledge and proven application of Engineering Project Delivery and processes – across the full project lifecycle with cognisance of commercial acumen.

Experience:

• Acknowledged expert in one or more of the technological disciplines relevant to the company, e.g. Sonar Systems, Processing, Outboard Hardware etc, and/or in one or more of understanding of business case generation, resource planning, and budgetary control.  The developmental lifecycle disciplines, e.g. Requirements Capture, Modelling & Analysis, System Design, Product Development, and IV&V.
• Experienced and knowledgeable of whole systems engineering lifecycles for large complex systems.
• Proven PDA with technical/project experience in both development and support fields.

Values & Behaviours:

• Focus on Customers
• Perform through teaming
• Innovate
• Develop our people

Qualifications:

• Degree-qualified or equivalent
• Chartered Engineer
• Driving Licence

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In line with Thales' Baseline Security requirements, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK and employment and/or education history for up to three years. Some vacancies may require full Security Clearance which can require further evidence to be provided. For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the Defence Business Services National Security Vetting (DBS NSV) Agency.

At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working.

Thales UK is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. We will provide reasonable adjustments and support to ensure neuro-diverse applicants or those with a disability or long-term condition can be their best during the recruitment process. To request an adjustment, if you need this job advert in an alternative format or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Resourcing Ops for mid to senior roles, or the Early Careers Team for graduate and apprentice roles.

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