Senior Systems Engineer - UAV Systems

Experience: 5–8 years

Department: Research & Development

Location : Abu Dhabi

Department : Research & Development

Notice Period : Immediate Joiners

Candidate preference : Currently Residing in the UAE

Role Summary

The Senior Systems Engineer will support the establishment of the company's Systems Engineering framework using an existing UAV platform as the baseline product. The initial objective is to establish a practical foundation covering requirements, system architecture, interfaces, configuration/change control, integration, risk/safety, and verification and validation.

The role requires a hands-on engineer capable of working directly with avionics, software, flight controls, mechanical, manufacturing, and flight-test teams while introducing structured Systems Engineering practices without disrupting ongoing product development.

Key Responsibilities

• Map the existing UAV development process and establish a practical Systems Engineering lifecycle from stakeholder needs through design, integration, V&V, release, and operational feedback.
• Develop and maintain stakeholder, system, subsystem, interface, and derive requirements with bidirectional traceability.
• Develop functional, logical, and physical system architectures for the existing UAV platform.
• Establish and maintain system boundaries, functional decomposition, subsystem allocation, and interface definitions/ICDs.
• Establish the Requirements Verification Traceability Matrix (RVTM) linking requirements to verification methods, test cases, results, and evidence.
• Define and support system integration and V&V from component/bench testing through SIL/HIL, ground testing, and flight testing.
• Establish basic configuration and change-control processes, including baselines, change requests, impact analysis, and CCB support.
• Support system-level trade studies and engineering decision analysis.
• Support FHA, FMEA/FMECA, FTA, technical risk identification, and safety-derived requirements.
• Establish practical SE templates, naming conventions, identification schemes, review checklists, and engineering records.
• Implement and administer the initial requirements/MBSE/traceability toolchain and support migration of existing product information.
• Coordinate with discipline engineers to ensure requirements, architecture, interfaces, configurations, and verification evidence remain consistent.
• Support SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and FRR with appropriately tailored entry/exit criteria.
• Mentor the Junior Systems Engineer and review their requirements, models, traceability, and V&V records.
• Develop reusable SE assets that can be applied to future small, medium, and eventually larger UAV platforms.

Required Experience

• 5–8 years of Systems Engineering or multidisciplinary product-development experience.
• Minimum 3 years in aerospace, UAV, aircraft, robotics, autonomous systems, defense systems, or another safety-critical multidisciplinary product environment.
• Demonstrated experience in several of the following: requirements engineering and traceability; system architecture/decomposition; interface management; system integration; verification and validation; configuration/change management; technical risk/safety analysis.
• Experience taking systems through multiple lifecycle stages rather than requirements/documentation alone.
• Practical experience working with multidisciplinary hardware/software systems.
• Experience with MBSE or architecture modelling tools such as Capella, Cameo/SysML, Enterprise Architect, or equivalent.
• Experience with a requirements-management tool such as DOORS, Polarion, Jama, Tuleap, Reqtify, or equivalent.
• Experience with PLM tools such as Siemens Teamcenter, PTC Windchill, or Aras Innovator for product configuration management, BOM control, engineering change management, and lifecycle traceability is preferred.
• Working knowledge of Git/version control.
• Familiarity with SIL/HIL and system-level testing is strongly preferred.

Technical Knowledge

Working knowledge of:

• ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 Systems Engineering lifecycle principles
• Requirements development, decomposition, allocation, and traceability
• Functional/logical/physical architecture
• Interface Control Documents
• Verification methods: Analysis, Inspection, Demonstration, and Test
• Configuration baselines and engineering change control
• FHA/FMEA/FMECA/FTA concepts
• UAV subsystems including avionics, flight control, navigation, C2/telemetry, electrical power, propulsion, payload, and ground control systems

Knowledge of ARP4754A, ARP4761, DO-178C and DO-254 is desirable but not mandatory.

Qualification

Required : Bachelor's degree in aerospace, Aeronautical, Electrical/Electronics, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Systems Engineering, or a closely related engineering discipline.

Preferred : Master's degree in systems/aerospace engineering and/or INCOSE ASEP/CSEP or equivalent Systems Engineering training.