Systems Engineer - Defence

ALTEN is a global engineering and technology consultancy operating across over 35 countries worldwide. We partner with industry leaders across sectors including Aeronautics, Aerospace, Defence, Naval, Automotive, Energy, Rail, IT and many more to deliver innovative engineering solutions that drive technological advancement & support sustainable transformation.

Our teams of passionate and agile engineers work on cutting-edge projects that shape the future of technology and sustainability. At ALTEN, we empower talented engineers to innovate, solve complex challenges, and deliver impactful solutions that build tomorrow’s world—today.

Join us and start building tomorrow’s world today!

Work at the forefront of advanced opto‑electronic and sensor systems supporting some of the UK’s most critical maritime and avionics defence platforms . Join ALTEN Ltd as a Systems Engineer , where you’ll play a key role in delivering next‑generation sensing capabilities that enhance situational awareness and operational resilience.

You’ll contribute across the full systems engineering lifecycle , from requirements capture and architecture through to integration, verification and delivery — working on complex, real‑time systems.

Location: Glasgow

On‑site: Hybrid 3/4 Days per week (Glasgow or Edinburgh)

Seniority: 5+ Years of Relevant Experience

Security Clearance: Candidates must be willing and eligible to obtain SC clearance.

Soft Skills & Collaboration

- Strong analytical and problem‑solving mindset
- Confident communicator within multidisciplinary engineering teams
- Proactive, self‑starting approach to delivering engineering solutions
- Comfortable working in structured, process‑driven environments

Responsibilities

Deliver systems engineering activities across the full V‑model lifecycle , including requirements, design, integration, verification and validation; Capture, manage and maintain system requirements within DOORS , ensuring full traceability to design and test; Support and lead system integration activities across embedded software and sensor subsystems; Define system architectures, interfaces and functional behaviour; Contribute to integration and system‑level test strategy , including planning and execution; Participate in design reviews, technical governance and risk‑based decision making; Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams across software, hardware and systems engineering; Support through‑life engineering , including defect management, upgrades and configuration control

Requirements

Strong experience in systems engineering within defence, aerospace or safety‑critical environments; Proven experience working on the left‑hand side of the V‑model (requirements, design, architecture); Hands‑on experience with requirements engineering (elicitation, decomposition, traceability); Experience using DOORS or similar requirements management tools; Strong understanding of system interfaces, boundaries and integration challenges; Experience supporting integration, verification and validation of complex systems; Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering, or relevant technical military background with equivalent experience.

Nice to have

Experience with opto‑electronic, optical or sensor‑based systems; Knowledge of systems modelling techniques (e.g. MBSE, SysML); Experience decomposing complex systems into sub‑system architectures; Knowledge of real‑time embedded systems; Experience contributing to test procedure development and verification activities; Background in maritime or defence programmes

Benefits

A personalised career path and a rewarding management style; A huge diversity of engineering projects and industries; Private Medical Insurance; Cycle & Tech Scheme; Employee assistance programme; Life insurance & Pension Scheme; Social atmosphere, regular gatherings & team buildings; Flexible way of working (role dependent)