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MBDA

Effects Optimisation System Architect

Salary:  £65,000 per annum
Location:  Bristol | United Kingdom
Location flexibility:  1 office day / week, 2 office days / week, 3 office days / week – 2-3 days at home (some exceptions), 4 office days / week
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Job Description

MBDA are at the forefront of the one of the most exciting and challenging programmes within Defence – to design and deliver the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) for the RAF and international partners in record time!

Salary: Circa £65,000 depending on experience

Dynamic (hybrid) working: 4 days per week on-site due to workload classification

Security Clearance: British Citizen

Restrictions and/or limitations relating to nationality and/or rights to work may apply. As a minimum and after offer stage, all successful candidates will need to undergo HMG Security Clearance checks (SC), which are managed by the MBDA Personnel Security Team.

What we can offer you:

  • Company Bonus: Bonus of up to 21% of base salary
  • Pension: maximum total (employer and employee) contribution of up to 14%
  • Flexible working: We welcome applicants who are looking for flexible working arrangements
  • Enhanced parental leave: offers up to 26 weeks for maternity, adoption and shared parental leave -enhancements are available for paternity leave, neonatal leave and fertility testing and treatments
  • Facilities: Fantastic site facilities including subsidised meals, free car parking and much more…
  • Healthcare Cash Plan: The Healthcare Cash Plan benefit provides the option to claim cash back on everyday healthcare expenses such as optical, dental, health and wellbeing and more.

The opportunity:

We are looking for a System Architect to provide knowledge and expertise to an exciting new product as part of the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), and Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme. The successful candidate will be an analytical systems thinker, able to specify new concepts and algorithms, and organise them through the system architecture.

What we’re looking for:

  • A strong understanding and experience of system architecting for complex systems, particularly in early development with new technologies.
  • Experience with model-based systems engineering (MBSE) tools and approaches.
  • Strong technical governance abilities across small team task management, support to customer demonstrations, and contribution to system development lifecycle activities.
    • Demonstrated ability to directly lead and manage a team, and influence the technical direction of the broader programme.
  • An ability to clearly communicate new concepts and architectures to a variety of internal and external stakeholders.
  • The ability and cultural awareness to work with multi-disciplinary teams supporting technology and concepting.
  • Confidence to embrace the uncertain nature of early concept development and technologies to progress towards defining solutions and system concepts.
  • An understanding of aspects of weapon systems, platforms, mission system software, and battlespace architectures will be beneficial.

Here’s what’s in it for you:

  • This is a high profile role with joint working across our customers, industry partners, and our business including systems engineering, algorithms, software, experimentation, and sales.
  • This is a new programme of work, so there is opportunity to shape it as it grows.
  • The role will develop a broad skill base, across technology and systems engineering processes.
  • Opportunity to facilitate experiments with the customer community to communicate, explore and test them.
  • There could be opportunity to travel internationally.

Join a great team!

You will be joining a growing team of highly skilled people working across the breadth of MBDA’s current and future products. Your department is focussed on growing and developing a team of excellent Weapon System Architects. This is a small but experienced team focussed on technical solutions and setting the right design principles with new projects.

Our company: Peace is not a given, Freedom is not a given, Sovereignty is not a given

MBDA is a leading defence organisation. We are proud of the role we play in supporting the Armed Forces who protect our nations. We partner with governments to work together towards a common goal, defending our freedom.

We are proud of our employee-led networks, examples include: Gender Equality, Pride, Menopause Matters, Parents and Carers, Armed Forces, Ethnic Diversity, Neurodiversity, Disability and more…

We recognise that everyone is unique, and we encourage you to speak to us should you require any advice, support or adjustments throughout our recruitment process.

Follow us on LinkedIn (MBDA), X (@MBDA_UK), Instagram (MBDA_UK) and Glassdoor or visit our MBDA Careers website for more information.

Apply

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Working at MBDA

1 office day / week 2 office days / week 3 office days / week – 2-3 days at home (some exceptions) 4 office days / week

A little flex time – high flexibility for most roles

Company benefits

25 days annual leave + bank holidays
Adoption leave – up to 26 weeks
Annual bonus – all employee bonuses paid in Feb/March
Annual pay rises – performance (+ inflation) increases each year
Bike parking – secure parking at all sites
Buddy scheme – buddies when onboarding
Buy or sell annual leave – buy up to 5 extra days
Carer’s leave
Cinema discounts
Coffee discounts – discounted on site cafes and canteens
Collaboration spaces
Company shutdown periods – Christmas closures and bank holidays
Compassionate leave
Cycle to work scheme
Dental coverage – salary sacrifice options
Electric Car Salary Sacrifice – MyCarScheme - including electric vehicles
Electric vehicle charging unit loan – electric charging points at all UK sites
Employee assistance programme
Employee discounts
Enhanced maternity leave – up to 26 weeks
Enhanced paternity leave – available after 26 weeks service
Enhanced pension match/contribution
Enhanced sick pay – increases with length of service
Faith rooms
Family health insurance – salary sacrifice options
Fertility treatment leave
Gym membership – Discounted gym on site in Stevenage, or discounts for local gyms across UK
Health insurance – salary sacrifice options
In house training – In house L&D team
L&D budget
Language lessons
Learning platform – access to multiple learning resources
Meditation space
Menopause support
Mental health first aiders
Mentoring – available to all employees. Includes women in leadership options
Modern office
Neonatal leave – up to 12 weeks
On-site barista
On-site catering
On-site gym
On-site shower
On-site wellness room – reflection rooms available to employees
Open to compressed hours
Open to job sharing
Open to part time work for some roles
Open to part-time employees
Optional unpaid leave
Personal development budgets – up to £150 towards non-work training courses
Pregnancy loss leave
Pregnancy support
Private booths
Professional subscriptions – full membership funding available
Referral bonus – up to £3,000 for a successful referral
Reservist leave – up to 3 weeks off for training (2 weeks on full pay)
Restaurant discounts – discount/cashback employee platform
Salary sacrifice
Secure on-site parking
Share options
Shared parental leave – up to 26 weeks
Teambuilding days
Technology Loan – salary sacrifice options available
Time off in-lieu
Travel loan – season ticket loans for public transport
Volunteer days – up to 2 days a year for team-based volunteering
Wellbeing allowance
Will writing

Awards & Accreditations

Best Work-Life Balance

Top 5 - Best Work-Life Balance

Flexa awards 2026
Apply

Airbus

Systems Architect

Guildford | Newcastle upon Tyne

#1 BEST WORK-LIFE BALANCE

MBDA

Product Lead – Weapon Systems Operations Equipment Team

£65,000 per annum

Stevenage | Bristol

Company employees:

7000

Gender diversity (m:f):

74:26

Hiring in countries

United Kingdom

Office Locations