Systems Assurance Lead
- Salary
- £65K–£75K
- Hiring from
- United Kingdom
- Work type
- Hybrid
- Posted
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We’re building the UK's next generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience.
We specialise in turning advances in sensing, AI, and communications into operational capability for the edge, where connectivity may be degraded or denied. Our work focuses on accelerating the deployment of technology, improving decision-making for frontline teams, and protecting people and critical assets in demanding environments.
Headquartered in Bristol, Rowden employs around 200 people and operates over 20,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing facilities. We have a growing international footprint and are one of Europe’s fastest-growing engineering businesses.
Role purpose
The Systems Assurance Lead reports to the Head of Systems and leads Rowden's safety assurance and security assurance team and craft. These teams deploy onto live deliveries across all of Rowden's project and product lines. The role also shapes Rowden's approach to assurance within the wider Accelerated Systems Framework (ASF) initiative.
Security engineering applies to the products and systems Rowden designs, builds and deploys. It builds security architecture, operating procedures and the assessments and mitigations needed to show that residual security risk is understood and controlled, distinct from enterprise security accreditation for Rowden's own premises or facilities.
Safety engineering develops our safety approach, including functional and physical hazard identification and analysis, building to a safety argument that articulates residual risk to the risk holder.
The successful candidate is expected to spend the majority of their time on hands-on delivery as a working member of the assurance team while contributing directly to live programmes and supporting the codification of Rowden's assurance practices through the ASF initiative. Their second focus as a Craft Lead is expected to go toward building the safety assurance and security assurance team, with a focus to your people, their performance and maturing the Assurance craft.
Your role is to create the team and tools that gives the people who carry ultimate responsibility for a system, whether Rowden's Chief Engineers or a customer's equivalent, a balanced, evidence-based view of risk, alongside ensuring we’re deploying assurance focused engineers into the design process. Those risk holders rely on Rowden's technical Suitably Qualified and Experienced Person (SQEP) judgement so they can focus on front-line operations across defence, emergency response, critical national infrastructure (CNI) and other regulated sectors.
Candidates must be eligible for SC clearance.
More information about security clearance is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels
Team structure
The Principal Engineer Craft Lead line manages a highly capable team of systems focussed safety assurance and security assurance engineers, deployed onto Rowden's live projects and products with a mandate to support them through life. The team designs for safety and security, identifies technical and procedural mitigations to risk, and presents and advises the relevant Chief Engineer on the residual risk of the system. This role works as a hands-on member of that team, contributing directly to deliveries, and is the team's first port of call for advice or direction on assurance approach and for escalated support on assurance issues. As a craft lead, this role also carries career development, craft and performance management accountability for the team.
This team does not operate as a review function sitting above the delivery team. They are core engineers with broad systems engineering skillsets, and a specialism for safety and security. This distinction is a culturally significant, and the hands-on nature of our assurance teams is, in our view, what enables us to move fast on delivery whilst also increasing the overall risk mitigation and articulation given our assurance teams are deep in the technical detail. Retaining this approach as we scale the business is seen as a vital accountability for the role holder.
Key areas of responsibility
Safety Engineering
- Lead development of the safety approach, covering functional and physical hazard identification and analysis.
- Build the safety argument and secure risk holder sign-off on residual risk, whether the risk holder is Rowden or the customer.
- Maintain the hazard log and supporting evidence base for each product or system in scope.
Security Engineering
- Lead security engineering delivery, including where delivered as part of a Rowden service.
- Assess security risk against the applicable contractual and regulatory standard before submission to the risk holder.
- Work directly with programme and product engineers to capture the technical detail each security assessment depends on.
Risk Resolution and Escalation
- Act as first port of call for the assurance team on advice or direction for an assurance approach, and for escalated support on an assurance issue.
- Escalate unresolved risk to the risk holder, typically the relevant Chief Engineer, with clear technical justification.
- Maintain the assurance function's credibility when challenging design decisions on safety or security grounds.
Team Leadership and Development
- Line manage the safety assurance and security assurance engineers: 121s, career development, performance and resourcing across programme.
- Support recruitment into the team as programme demand requires.
- Coach engineers on safety and security engineering practice, applying whichever contractual standard the programme requires.
Assurance Methodology and Standards
- Define and maintain Rowden's safety and security engineering methodology, in line with the ASF initiative.
- Govern Rowden's compliance framework for systems safety and security engineering delivery across the contractual standards Rowden works to, working with the Head of Enterprise Security to ensure this is commensurate with our wider business approach.
- Support the Head of Systems on capability strategy and investment cases for assurance tooling, training and capabilities, specifically in contributing to our Test & Evaluation strategy for embedded assurance.
Success in the role:
First six months
First six months
- Will build working relationships with the Chief Engineers and delivery teams across Rowden's live system and product developments.
- Will assess the safety assurance and security assurance team's current capacity against programme demand, and begin recruiting to close any gap.
- Will establish a clear view of the safety and security posture, including hazard logs, security architecture and outstanding risk, across live programmes, influencing and driving assurance elements of the Accelerated Systems Framework.
- Will agree a reporting rhythm with the Head of Systems and Chief Engineers for programme-level risk and capability planning.
First twelve months
- Will have recruited and resourced the safety assurance and security assurance teams to meet identified programme demand.
- Will have put a clear career development framework in place for safety assurance and security assurance engineers, in keeping with the Engineering wide career development framework.
- Will have established Rowden's assurance methodology as a defined, consistently applied part of the ASF initiative.
- Will have earned recognition from Chief Engineers as the trusted, pragmatic and end user focused voice on residual risk across Rowden's products and systems.
Key skills, experience and behaviours
Essential
- A proven track record delivering safety engineering or security engineering in depth for complex products or systems, applying the relevant contractual or regulatory standard, with working awareness of the other discipline.
- Demonstrated experience delivering safety or security-critical systems within a regulated environment, whether defence, critical national infrastructure (CNI), emergency response or a comparable sector.
- Demonstrated experience articulating residual risk to a risk holder, typically a Chief Engineer or customer equivalent, and securing sign-off.
- Experience influencing programme and product decisions without formal authority over the design teams involved.
- Experience identifying and managing technical risk on live delivery programmes, working directly with systems, hardware and software engineers to resolve it.
- Experience in people leadership: career development, performance management and recruitment for a small team.
- Awareness of the safety and security implications of artificial intelligence (AI), including emerging AI-specific assurance approaches.
- Comfort operating as both a working assurance engineer and a team lead, with the credibility to engage directly on technical detail.
Desirable
- Experience operating in Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 2 contexts specifically.
- Engagement with Ministry of Defence (MOD) assurance processes, including Defence Engagement and Assurance Boards (DEABs) and other MOD assurance agencies.
- Exposure to edge, sensing or communications systems for constrained or contested operating environments.
- Experience embedding a safety or security assurance function within an existing engineering organisation.
Domain-specific technical skills
Credible fluency across the following areas allows the Principal Engineer to engage directly with programme and product engineers and hold their own on technical risk. Depth is expected in one of Security or Safety, with working awareness of the other.
Security
Security Architecture Document (SyAD) and Security Operating Procedures (SyOPs) development, risk assessment against Defence Standard (Def Stan) and Joint Service Publication (JSP) 440 (Defence Manual of Security) requirements, and articulation of residual security risk to a risk holder for products and systems delivered directly or as part of a Rowden service.
Safety
Functional and physical hazard identification and analysis under Def Stan 00-56 (Safety Management Requirements for Defence Systems), including environmental hazard analysis under Def Stan 00-35 (Environmental Handbook for Defence Materiel) and safety-related software assurance under Def Stan 00-55 where applicable. Safety argument construction, hazard log management, and articulation of residual safety risk to a risk holder for Rowden's products and systems. Awareness of the safety and security implications of artificial intelligence (AI), including the Ministry of Defence's emerging AI-specific assurance guidance under JSP 936 (Dependable Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Defence), applies across both domains.
Credible fluency across the following areas allows the Principal Engineer to engage directly with programme and product engineers and hold their own on technical risk. Depth is expected in one of Security or Safety, with working awareness of the other.
Security
Security Architecture Document (SyAD) and Security Operating Procedures (SyOPs) development, risk assessment against Defence Standard (Def Stan) and Joint Service Publication (JSP) 440 (Defence Manual of Security) requirements, and articulation of residual security risk to a risk holder for products and systems delivered directly or as part of a Rowden service.
Safety
Functional and physical hazard identification and analysis under Def Stan 00-56 (Safety Management Requirements for Defence Systems), including environmental hazard analysis under Def Stan 00-35 (Environmental Handbook for Defence Materiel) and safety-related software assurance under Def Stan 00-55 where applicable. Safety argument construction, hazard log management, and articulation of residual safety risk to a risk holder for Rowden's products and systems. Awareness of the safety and security implications of artificial intelligence (AI), including the Ministry of Defence's emerging AI-specific assurance guidance under JSP 936 (Dependable Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Defence), applies across both domains.
Working at Rowden
We are committed to building a flexible, inclusive, and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills, experience, and backgrounds, so please apply and come as you are!
We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible, hybrid-working model, with an average 3 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility, part-time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants.
Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company, and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.
Finally, if you feel that you don’t meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience, we’d still love to hear from you!
