{"id":3854961,"url":"https://alion.io/job/uforce-chief-engineer-air","title":"Chief Engineer, Air","company":{"id":1922281,"name":"UFORCE","domain":"uforce.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/uforce-com","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":null},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["London, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-06T05:08:29Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-06","last_verified_at":"2026-11-07T16:08:55Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":1,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":1},"description":"UFORCE exists to make aggression unaffordable.\nFounded in Ukraine and headquartered in London, UFORCE is a defence-technology company with operations across Europe, the United States and Asia.\nUFORCE builds uncrewed vessels, ground robotics and aircraft, autonomy software, and the command-and-control layer that operates them together. Each platform is deployable on its own, and stronger as part of the system. Its product lines include the MAGURA family of uncrewed surface vessels, the NEMESIS family of strike platforms, the LIUT family of ground robotic platforms, and counter-UAS systems.\nAbout the role\nUFORCE is looking for a Chief Engineer, Air to lead the engineering of our Western-facing air platforms and turn operational lessons from Ukraine into reliable, manufacturable products that global customers can test, deploy and reorder.\nYou’ll own the technical baseline across the air portfolio, initially focusing on Platform N and expanding to other platforms sold outside Ukraine. You’ll work closely with Ukrainian engineering teams to understand the wider Nemesis pipeline, translate field experience into product improvements and build a consistent view of configurations and engineering evidence across the portfolio.\nThis is a hands-on senior technical leadership role. You’ll stay close to the hardware and the field, build a small engineering team, and bring engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and commercial partners together to deliver products at pace without compromising technical rigor.\nThe role is based in the UK and involves regular travel to engineering teams, manufacturing sites, test ranges and customers. Reporting arrangements and travel expectations will be confirmed during the hiring process.\nWhat you’ll do\nOwn the air portfolio’s technical baseline. Establish controlled requirements, configurations, bills of materials and test evidence, starting with Platform N and extending across Western and Ukrainian air platforms. Put clear ownership and practical change control in place.\n\nLead end-to-end systems engineering. Make and coordinate technical decisions across airframe, propulsion, power, avionics, flight control, communications, navigation, payload interfaces, software interfaces and ground systems, bringing in specialists where needed.\n\nImprove reliability and performance. Establish a disciplined failure-reporting and corrective-action process, investigate priority field and test issues, and demonstrate improvements against agreed requirements through repeatable testing.\n\nTurn operational lessons into product improvements. Work with Ukrainian engineering and field teams to understand what has worked, capture operator feedback and agree a prioritised design-change roadmap for Western variants.\n\nBuild for repeatable production. Lead design-for-manufacture reviews and partner with manufacturing teams to release production-ready engineering packages for US and allied sites.\n\nStrengthen the supply chain and cost position. Work with supply-chain and compliance partners to assess component sourcing, qualification, capacity and critical supplier risks. Develop a unit-cost roadmap and evaluate where components and systems should be built across UFORCE locations.\n\nSupport go-to-market and customer delivery. Partner with Sales and Business Development on customer requirements, priority markets, product positioning and business cases. Provide technical input on configurations, capability claims, pricing, delivery and support assumptions.\n\nPrepare for trials and launch. Establish technical readiness gates covering demonstrations, compliance evidence, production readiness and handover to field support. Communicate product capabilities and limitations honestly to customers and test authorities.\n\nSet the direction and build the team. Work with founders, Ukrainian colleagues and global leadership to develop the air product roadmap. Hire and develop engineers, establish clear ownership and build the practices needed as the function grows.\n\nRequired Skill\nExperience leading the design and development of a complete UAS, with personal ownership of system-level technical decisions and demonstrated flight or field outcomes.\n\nStrong systems engineering judgement across airframe, propulsion, power, avionics, flight control, communications, navigation and software interfaces.\n\nExperience taking an aerial or comparable electromechanical product from prototype into repeatable production, including design for manufacture, configuration control and production testing.\n\nA track record of investigating field failures, identifying root causes and measurably improving reliability through verified corrective actions.\n\nPractical experience with applicable NDAA / Blue UAS sourcing requirements, restricted components and export-control considerations, including qualification or re-sourcing decisions.\n\nUnderstanding of how contested operating conditions, including GNSS denial, jamming and communications resilience, influence product requirements and testing.\n\nExperience supporting customer trials, competitions or tenders and communicating technical capabilities, limitations and risks to customers or test authorities.\n\nExperience hiring or developing engineers and leading multidisciplinary teams across organisational and geographic boundaries.\n\nSound judgement on cost, performance, production readiness and supplier trade-offs, with the ability to make decisions in an evolving startup environment.\n\nA hands-on approach, clear communication and the ability to balance speed with appropriate engineering discipline.\n\nWillingness to travel regularly to engineering teams, manufacturing sites, test ranges and customers.\n\nNice to Have\nDirect experience working with Ukrainian UAS teams, products or operators.\n\nExperience with military or Ministry of Defence contracts.\n\nExperience with military or civil airworthiness, qualification or certification.\n\nExperience with payload integration or payload-release systems.\n\nExperience coordinating engineering and manufacturing across multiple countries.\n\nThe nature of combat has changed.\nTomorrow’s battlefield success depends on autonomy, speed, and adaptability.\nAnd UFORCE is ready.\nAre You?","description_format":"text","description_chars":6217,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Cybersecurity","Military","Penetration Testing"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-06T05:47:16Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring 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