Lead Engineer, Air

Job Description

UFORCE exists to make aggression unaffordable. Founded in Ukraine and headquartered in London, UFORCE is a defence-technology company with operations across Europe, the United States and Asia. UFORCE 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. About the role UFORCE is looking for a Lead Engineer, Air to take hands-on technical ownership of our first Western-facing air product, turning operational lessons from Ukraine into a reliable, manufacturable system that customers can test, deploy and reorder. Your initial focus will be one product. You’ll bring engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and field teams together around a controlled design and a clear delivery plan, resolving the reliability and integration challenges that stand between today’s product and repeatable production. This is a hands-on technical leadership role, not a management-only position. You’ll stay close to the hardware, own system-level engineering decisions and ensure that changes are proven through testing and reflected in what we build. As our air portfolio expands, there is potential to grow into broader technical leadership, including Chief Engineer, Air. Progression will depend on business need and demonstrated performance, rather than a fixed promotion timetable. What you’ll do Establish product ownership and a delivery plan. In your first 30 days, assess the current design, customer requirements and test evidence with engineering, manufacturing and field teams. Identify the highest-priority risks and agree a 90-day plan with clear owners, milestones and acceptance criteria. Create a controlled technical baseline. By day 60, establish practical requirements, configuration records, bills of materials, interface definitions and change control so teams know what has been approved, built, tested and deployed. Lead end-to-end systems integration. Own technical trade-offs across airframe, propulsion, power, avionics, flight control, communications, navigation, payload interfaces and ground systems, drawing on specialist expertise where needed. Improve reliability and demonstrate performance. During the initial three to five months, establish a failure-reporting and corrective-action process, address priority failure modes and verify improvements through repeatable ground and flight testing against agreed requirements. Prepare the product for repeatable production. Partner with manufacturing and supply chain on design for manufacture, component qualification, approved substitutions and supplier risks. Release a production package covering drawings, BOM, assembly requirements, inspection and acceptance tests, supported by a costed BOM and cost-reduction priorities. Enable credible customer trials and delivery. Define approved configurations, test plans and readiness criteria. Validate capability claims, document operating limits and provide clear engineering input on delivery feasibility, support needs and technical risks. Connect operational experience to product development. Work closely with Ukrainian product experts and international teams to preserve field knowledge, manage configuration differences and translate operator and customer feedback into prioritised product changes. Build a foundation for portfolio growth. Identify reusable architecture, components and engineering practices, recommend capability and resource needs, and review the scope for broader ownership with leadership as the portfolio develops. Required Skill Hands-on UAS engineering ownership: Experience leading delivery of a complete air vehicle or substantial integrated UAS product, with clear evidence of your own technical decisions and their impact on flight performance. Systems integration judgement: The ability to reason across mechanical, electrical, flight-control, communications, navigation and software interfaces, and recognise when specialist depth is needed. Prototype-to-production experience: Meaningful involvement in taking an aerial product into repeatable production, including design for manufacture, configuration control and production testing. Reliability and test discipline: A track record of diagnosing flight or field failures, identifying root causes and proving corrective actions through repeatable testing. Cross-functional technical leadership: The ability to set priorities, coordinate engineers and specialist partners, and drive delivery through influence as well as formal authority. Cost and component judgement: Practical understanding of how design decisions affect availability, qualification, unit cost, m