Software Design Authority

Job Description

Job Title: Software Design Authority

Location: New Malden/Portsmouth. We offer a range of hybrid and flexible working arrangements – please speak to your recruiter about the options for this particular role

Salary: Circa £70,000 depending on skills and experience

Who we are:

Join BAE Systems and you’ll be part of something bigger. As a valued member of our global colleague network, you’ll bring your unique skills and perspectives to help pioneer progress and protect what matters most. You’ll be trusted to play your part in delivering the advanced, technology-led defence, aerospace and security solutions of tomorrow, shaping a safer future, for all of us.

From the depths of the ocean, to the far reaches of space, there’s no limit to where a career at BAE Systems could take you.

Job Description:

To act as the technical authority for software design, ensuring the integrity, safety, security, and compliance of all software solutions across the system lifecycle. You will be accountable for governing design decisions, assuring alignment with requirements and standards, and providing independent technical oversight to support certification, safety cases, and product security. This includes leading complex technical analyses, guiding strategic design choices, and ensuring robust, evidence-based solutions to capability challenges, ultimately enabling the safe, reliable, and effective delivery of system functionality.

Core Duties:

• Own and govern software design integrity, ensuring all architectures and implementations meet defined requirements, standards, and lifecycle controls and assure the safe, secure, and compliant performance of delivered systems, providing technical authority that solutions satisfy agreed software and system-level requirements
• Provide design authority approval and justification, compiling and endorsing engineering evidence to support compliance, assurance arguments, and subsystem certification
• Be accountable for software inputs to the Software Integrity (SI) safety case, ensuring design decisions are robustly justified and aligned with safety requirements
• Oversee and assure software contributions to SI product security certification, ensuring adherence to applicable security standards, policies, and risk mitigations
• Lead technical governance of analyses and investigations, ensuring rigorous evaluation of options and selection of optimal, compliant solutions
• Champion continuous improvement of software capability, guiding the development and implementation of technically sound, future-proof design solutions

Essential Skills:

• You will be degree qualified, likely to be in a technology, engineering or science related discipline or have equivalent experience
• You will have significant experience from the IT/Software industry
• You will possess good knowledge in Software Development, Virtualisation, Containerisation and other high performance/density computing techniques
• You will be able to document high level design and rationale solutions for low level designers/implementation teams to consume
• You will have the ability to operate in a large, complex multi-project environment

The Shared Infrastructure – System Design team:

The SI team provides the network and computing infrastructure solution (on COTS hardware) for Royal Navy (RN) warships across the Fleet, supporting Ship’s Mission Systems. This role specifically looks after the Type 26 class, working to bring first of class into service.

This is part of the Combat Systems group which provide diverse Mission systems to every ship in the RN Fleet. This role interacts with these system providers as well as external system providers.

The Combat Systems SI team are currently developing the next generation of Infrastructure for all classes which will support the RNs move to a Hybrid Navy.

Why BAE Systems?

Here you’ll build a career with purpose and limitless possibilities. With lifelong learning and meaningful work, this is a place where you can grow your career with confidence and be empowered to be your best. You’ll be recognised for your contribution and enjoy rewards tailored to what’s most important to you and your family, support for your financial and personal wellbeing, as well as a balanced lifestyle. In an environment embracing sustainable ways of working and with a strong sense of shared purpose, our supportive culture is a place you can feel you belong and proud of the difference you make.

A place where everyone can thrive:

We’re committed to building an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and supported. We know that a diversity of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences strengthens our teams and is vital to the work we do.

Please be aware that many roles at BAE Systems are subject to both security and export control restrictions. These restrictions mean that factors such as your nationality, any nationalities you may have previously held, and your place of birth can restrict the roles you are eligible to perform within the organisation. All applicants must as a minimum achieve Baseline Personnel Security Standard. Many roles also require higher levels of National Security Vetting where applicants must typically have 5 to 10 years of continuous residency in the UK depending on the vetting level required for the role, to allow for meaningful security vetting checks.

Closing Date: 22nd June 2026. Interviews will take place w/c 29th June 2026

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

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