Product System Design Authority Lead

Roke Manor Research Limited; Romsey; On-site; GBP 60,000 - GBP 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology firm in Romsey seeks a Product System Design Authority Lead to oversee the solution architecture and ensure compliance across all products. The role involves strategic technical leadership, managing a multidisciplinary team, and acting as a primary technical authority. Candidates should have a relevant engineering degree and substantial experience in product development, with excellent analytical and communication skills essential. The position offers a competitive salary and flexible benefits in a supportive work environment.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Access to flexible benefits

Health and Wellbeing support

Qualifications

• Proven experience in technical leadership within product development or systems engineering.
• Experience across the full development lifecycle: requirements capture, modelling, system design, product development, IV&V.
• Desirable: experience operating as a technical authority in research or low TRL technology development.

Responsibilities

• Lead systems engineering activities, including requirements capture and modelling.
• Ensure design integrity and compliance with standards.
• Act as the primary technical authority for the product.

Skills

Technical leadership

Systems engineering

Analytical thinking

Communication skills

Interpersonal skills

Education

Degree in engineering or relevant scientific discipline

Chartered Engineer status (or progress towards it)

Job description

Roke, Roke Manor, Romsey, Hampshire, United Kingdom

Job Description

Posted Friday 30 January 2026 at 01:00

Great ideas come from different minds. That’s why we bring together engineers, scientists, analysts, and creatives from every background — and give them the trust, tools, and freedom to make a difference. What connects us is the mission: solving meaningful problems and building capability that protects what matters most.
And as the challenges evolve, so do we — working on the technologies that will shape tomorrow, not just today.

About Roke

Roke offers specialist knowledge in sensors, communications, cyber, and AI and ML. We change the way organisations think and act – through dynamic insights from the analysis of multiple layers of data. We take care of the innovative, technical stuff that keeps everyone safe – that’s our mission, passion, and motivation.

Joining a team united by purpose and ambition, you’ll be at the heart of an exciting growth journey: having doubled in size over the last 4 years. We push technical boundaries, together. We re-invest in product innovation, and we empower our people to make a difference.

The Role

The Product System Design Authority Lead is the technical authority responsible for ensuring full Solution Compliance acrossLine of Business (LoB)Products.Acting as the primary technical leaderreporting to the DeputyHead of Engineering (DHoE), this role safeguards the integrity, suitability, and coherence of the solution architecture throughout the lifecycle. The DesignAuthority serves as the lead technical interface with the customer and may also act as the Principal Systems Engineer whererequired.

This position provides strategic technical leadership across multidisciplinary engineering teams and ensures that all design, verification, validation, and qualification activities meet customer needs, product policy, regulatory requirements, and organisational standards.

Key Responsibilities & Tasks

Technical Leadership & Solution Governance

• Analyse customer needs and requirements, solution architecture and technicaldesign trade-offs.
• Ensure solution compliance with customer requirements, Product Policyas well asapplicable legislation, rules, and regulations.
• Act as the primary technical authority for theproduct, ensuring design integrity and lifecycle coherence.
• Lead systems engineering activities, including requirements capture, modelling, system design, and IV&V.
• Maintain a strong understanding of the development lifecycle and lifecycle products.

Design Integrity & Lifecycle Management

• Lead design reviews, verification, validation, and qualification activities.
• Ensure all engineering deliverables meet required standards.
• Approve technical specifications and sourceselectionfor outsourced subsystems, considering Make/Buy policy, export controls, and offset requirements.
• Ensure production, maintenance, and service considerations are embedded in the solution design.

Risk, Compliance & Engineering Environment

• Review technical risks and opportunities, ensuring robust mitigation plans throughout theProduct lifecycle.
• Ensure thesuitableEngineering Environment aligns with companypolicyand supports cost, schedule, and riskobjectives.
• Ensure product safety, security, environmental, and HSE requirements are fully addressed, withappropriate certificationactivities completed.

Stakeholder Engagement & Communication

• Act as the lead technical interface with internal and external customers.
• Lead engineering reviews and decision milestones, escalating issues appropriately within the organisation.
• Organise technical meetings and peer reviews with the Engineering Delivery Manager and other experts.
• Maintain awareness of emerging technologies and industry developments.

Strategic Decision-Making

• Ensureoptimaltrade-offs between customer requirements, product policy, cost, schedule, and risk.
• Provide clear, evidence-based technical leadership to guide teams through complex engineering challenges.

Technical & Analytical Skills

• Strong ability to draw clear conclusions from complex numerical and analytical data.
• Ability to apply physical principles (electrical, thermal, mechanical, optical) to diverse engineering problems.
• Technicalexpertisein one or more relevant domains (e.g., Sensors & Communications,Cyber & Information Security,Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning,Data Science & Analytics,Electronic Systems & Hardware Engineering,Autonomy & Robotics,Systems Engineering & Integration,National Security & Defence Solution.
• Deep understanding of systems engineeringand productlifecycles for complex systems.

Leadership & Communication

• Strong communicator with excellent interpersonal and technical writing skills.
• Natural leadership ability, capable of building and sustaining effective relationships at all levels.
• First-class presentation skills and the ability to influence, negotiate, and build consensus.
• Highly organised, composed under pressure, and focused on delivering highquality outcomes.

Professional Experience

• Proven experience in technical leadership within product development or systems engineering.
• Experience across the full development lifecycle: requirements capture, modelling, system design, product development, IV&V.
• Desirable: experienceoperatingas a technical authority in research or lowTRL technology development.

Qualifications

• Degree in a relevant engineering or scientific discipline.
• Chartered Engineer status (or working toward it withstrong evidenceof progression).
• Experiencewith the MOD.

Why You Should Join Us

Roke offer a competitive salary and access to a number of additional flexible benefits covering Health and Wellbeing, Savings and Protection & Life, Leisure and Entertainment.

Roke has a great community of groups with shared interests across a wide range of domains. We are a people‑first business, and fostering and developing the talent of our people is core to our continued success. Our approach to knowledge‑sharing and interest groups enables people to share ideas and be passionate about tools, technologies & techniques, which interest them, supporting fulfilment and professional development.

We are committed to a policy of Equal Opportunity, Diversity and Inclusion. Our working environment is friendly, creative and inclusive and support a diverse work‑force and those with additional needs.

Clearances

Due to the nature of this role, we require you to be eligible to achieve SC clearance. As a result, you should have resided in the U.K. for the last 5 years for SC.

The Next Step

Click apply, submitting an up‑to‑date CV. We look forward to hearing from you.

Roke, Roke Manor, Romsey, Hampshire, United Kingdom