Forward Deployed Engineer

Job Description:

Your Impact

Leonardo UK Engineering is building internal AI Engineering Capability with engineers who deploy into Integrated Project Teams for short, scoped engagements. The role uses AI-enabled tooling to improve how a programme handles requirements, architecture, modelling, design, implementation and related engineering work. You will work within a small multi-disciplinary team in deep collaboration with our AI platform development team.

Where this vacancy is being recruited across more than one grade, the successful candidate will be appointed to a specific assessed grade, and the applicable salary range will be that associated with the grade of appointment.

What You’ll do

• Deploy into a project – help to discover, scope and solve high value engineering problems with the platform’s tooling.

• Collaborate with the AI platform team to make architecture and design decisions and with company process owners to change how we engineer

• Build custom applications, workflows and templates to enable development, improvement of engineering products – from specifications to product implementation to supporting engineering modelling & simulation tooling.

• Become an expert user: know the tooling’s opportunities and failure modes better than anyone else in the company.

• Skill up the IPT’s engineers as you go — the team should be more capable after you leave than it was while you were there.

What we’re looking for

• High agency. You are curious, purposeful and proactive – you learn quickly and find ways to navigate complex organisational structures.

• Outcome oriented and data driven – you care about effecting real change for our engineers and our end customers.

• Write well enough that anything you leave behind is usable by a stranger six months later.

• Comfortable being measured on whether other people adopted something.

• Able to enter an unfamiliar programme, earn trust with a variety of stakeholders quickly, and leave without having become indispensable.

What you’ll bring

• Familiarity with LLMs, SLMs and Agentic AI as a user
• Programming and scripting, such as MATLAB, Simulink, Python, Bash
• Product and systems thinking

Why this is interesting

• You work across several programmes a year instead of one, and see how the business really engineers.

• You become the company’s expert user of tooling that will be everywhere in three years.

• The process change your project exposes becomes the new company standard — you change the method, not just the output.

• Your output is measured in other people’s capability, which is a rarer and more portable thing to have done.

Security Clearance

You must be eligible for full security clearance.  For more information and guidance please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vettingclearance-levels

Why join us

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We offer a comprehensive, company-funded benefits package that supports your wellbeing, career development, and work–life balance. Whether you're looking to grow professionally, care for your health, or plan for the future, we’re here to help you thrive.

• Time to Recharge: Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year.
• Secure your Future: Benefit from our award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution.
• Your Wellbeing Matters: Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Armed Forces, Carers, Wellbeing and Ethnicity).
• Rewarding Performance: All employees at management level and below are eligible for our bonus scheme.
• Never Stop Learning: Free access to 4,000+ online courses via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.
• Refer a friend: Receive a financial reward through our referral programme.
• Tailored Perks: Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.
• Flexible working: Flexible hours with hybrid working options. For part time opportunities, please talk to us about what might be possible for this role.

For a full list of our company benefits please visit our website.

Leonardo is a global leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. Headquartered in Italy, we employ over 53,000 people worldwide including 8,500 across 9 sites in the UK. Our employees are not just part of a team—they are key contributors to shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.

At Leonardo we are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.

Be part of something bigger - apply now!

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Primary Location:

GB - Edinburgh

Additional Locations:

GB - Basildon, GB - Bristol - Coldharbour Lane, GB - Luton - Cap. Green 300, GB - Newcastle, GB - Southampton

Contract Type:

Employee-Permanent

Hybrid Working:

Hybrid