AECOM is seeking an experienced Associate Director – Systems to join our Systems Engineering and Safety Assurance (SESA) team, supporting our growing rail portfolio across the UK and Ireland.
The role will form part of the UK & Ireland SESA leadership team, providing senior technical, capability and portfolio leadership for Systems Engineering and Systems Integration.
A key focus of the role will be to strengthen and develop AECOM’s Systems Engineering capability across multiple projects and programmes, improving technical consistency, capability resilience, resource depth and the effective deployment of Systems Engineering expertise across the UK and Ireland.
The successful candidate will combine strong systems-thinking capability with extensive practical experience of requirements, architecture, interfaces, integration, verification and validation and lifecycle engineering.
The role will work closely with System Safety & Interoperability, RAMS, Human Factors, Engineering Management and engineering discipline teams to support integrated delivery of complex railway systems.
Key Responsibilities
Here's what you'll do:
Systems Engineering & Integration Leadership
- Act as a Subject Matter Expert for Systems Engineering and Systems Integration.
- Lead, guide and assure the application of Systems Engineering across a portfolio of major railway projects and programmes.
- Champion a whole-system and system-of-systems approach, ensuring Systems Engineering improves engineering decisions and delivery outcomes rather than becoming a documentation-led compliance activity.
- Lead development and implementation of proportionate Systems Engineering Management Plans and lifecycle strategies.
- Lead system definition, context, boundaries, lifecycle and stakeholder analysis.
- Support translation of operational, business and stakeholder needs into structured system requirements.
- Balance technical performance, operability, safety, programme, cost and stakeholder needs in system-level decision-making.
- Provide senior intervention where project complexity, technical quality or integration risk requires additional support.
Requirements Engineering
- Lead Requirements Management strategies and plans.
Systems Integration-
- Lead Systems Integration strategies for major programmes.
Systems Capability and Resilience
- Develop and implement the Systems Engineering & Integration capability plan in alignment with the wider UK & Ireland SESA strategy and operating model.
Integrated SESA Delivery
- Work closely with System Safety & Interoperability and RAMS capability leads to ensure requirements, architecture, RAM performance, integration and assurance are coordinated through the lifecycle.
- Support cross-discipline resolution of system-level issues.
- Escalate significant resource, technical or portfolio issues through the wider SESA leadership structure.
- Work with SESA leadership to deploy Systems Engineering capability effectively across UK and Ireland projects, drawing on wider regional and global capability where appropriate.
Project and Commercial Leadership
- Lead significant Systems Engineering and Integration commissions where appropriate.
Clients, Growth and Work Winning
- Act as a trusted senior advisor to clients on Systems Engineering and complex-system integration.
- Develop existing and new client relationships.
- Identify opportunities for Systems Engineering, Integration and Technical Assurance services.
People Leadership
- Lead technical and professional development of Systems Engineering practitioners.
- Provide mentoring, coaching and competency development.