Lead Systems Engineer – Guidance, Navigation, Control & Fusion

Leonardo is a global high-technology company and one of the key players in Aerospace, Defence and Security. We are seeking a talented and motivated Guidance, Navigation, Control, & Fusion (GNCF) Engineer to join our growing engineering team developing next-generation defence and aerospace systems.

This role is primarily focused on the design, development, integration and verification of navigation systems and algorithms for advanced airborne, maritime and land-based platforms. The successful candidate will work as part of a multidisciplinary team responsible for delivering robust Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) solutions capable of operating in challenging and contested environments.

The role offers the opportunity to contribute across the full engineering lifecycle, from concept development and modelling through to system integration, verification and customer support.

As a Guidance, Navigation, Control, & Fusion Engineer, you will:

• →Collaborate with hardware development teams to develop and implement advanced navigation technologies for military and civilian applications.
• →Design and analyse integrated navigation solutions incorporating GNSS/GPS, Inertial Navigation Systems (INS), Inertial Measurement Units (IMU), vision-aided navigation systems, and other traditional and advanced sensor technologies.
• →Work on advanced and complex filtering, and AI-enabled algorithms.
• →Work towards intelligent and autonomous vehicle capabilities
• →Be a part of an exciting and ambitious multi-disciplinary and multi-national project.

• →Navigation algorithm design and development.
• →Sensor modelling and performance characterisation.
• →Navigation system architecture definition.
• →State estimation and sensor fusion development.
• →Navigation simulation and analysis.
• →Verification and validation planning and execution.
• →Technical risk identification and mitigation.
• →Development and exploitation of artificial intelligence
• →Contribution to innovation, research and technology development initiatives.
• →Support of system-level trade studies and performance assessments.

• A degree in Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Aerospace Engineering, Control Engineering, closely related discipline, or equivalent knowledge and experience.
• Understanding of navigation principles and estimation theory.
• Knowledge of:
  • Inertial navigation systems
  • GNSS/GPS technologies
  • Coordinate transformations and reference frames
  • Error propagation and uncertainty analysis
  • Sensor fusion techniques
• Experience with Kalman Filters or related estimation approaches.
• Experience using MATLAB and Simulink for modelling and simulation.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts effectively.

• Postgraduate qualification in Control, Navigation, Aerospace or Applied Mathematics.
• Experience developing navigation systems for defence, aerospace or autonomous platforms.
• Knowledge of resilient PNT technologies.
• Experience with:
  • Advanced filters such as Extended Kalman Filters (EKF), Unscented Kalman Filters (UKF), or Particle Filters
  • Multi-sensor fusion architectures, multi-modal and multiple-hypothesis filtering
  • Visual-Inertial Navigation
  • SLAM techniques
  • GNSS/GPS simulation and integration
• Other software development experience (e.g. C++, Python or embedded environments).
• Familiarity with Systems Engineering principles, approaches and the engineering lifecycle.
• Knowledge of, Jira, Git and configuration management tools.
• Experience in collaborating with external customers and international partners

• Experience contributing to programme-level technical decision making, including system architecture trade-offs, technical risk management, and engineering governance activities.
• Experience providing technical leadership to engineering teams or work packages.

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV). For more information and guidance please visit: https://careers.uk.leonardo.com/gb/en/security-and-vetting