System Engineer

Thales is a global technology leader trusted by governments, institutions, and enterprises to tackle their most demanding challenges. From quantum applications and artificial intelligence to cybersecurity and 6G innovation, our solutions empower critical decisions rooted in human intelligence. Operating at the forefront of aerospace and space, cybersecurity and digital identity, we’re driven by a mission to build a future we can all trust.

Responsibilities:

• Elicit, analyses, specify, and manage system and software requirements across the lifecycle, following ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148 (requirements engineering) and the INCOSE Guide to Writing Requirements (GtWR) — every requirement necessary, unambiguous, singular, feasible, and verifiable, and every requirement set complete, consistent, and able to be validated.
• Maintain bidirectional traceability: stakeholder need → system requirement → architectural element → implementation → verification evidence. This is the artefact an auditor asks for, and it must exist as a living structure, not a retrofit.
• Operate the requirements process within an ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 lifecycle-process frame (as codified in the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook, 5th edition): stakeholder needs & requirements definition, system requirements definition, architecture definition, verification, validation, transition, operation.
• Run a digital requirements engineering toolchain rather than documents-in-a-folder: requirements held in a managed repository with change control, baselines, and query-able trace links (e.g. Jama Connect, Polarion, DOORS or an equivalent the organisation standardises on.
• Author and own verification & validation strategy: define acceptance criteria at requirement-authoring time (not after the fact), and map each requirement to its verification method — inspection, analysis, demonstration, or test.
• Following Thales processes and practises and contribute to their improvement
• Contribute production code across the stack — able to read, review, and where needed write both service-side and client-side code well enough to keep requirements honest against implementation reality.
• Design and review APIs and service contracts as first-class interfaces (a system interface is a requirements artefact, not just a coding detail).
• Work fluently with the platform's delivery mechanics: version control, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and the review gates that make changes auditable.
• Translate abstract non-functional requirements (latency, availability, recoverability, security posture) into concrete, testable engineering targets and confirm they are met.
• Architect and review solutions on cloud infrastructure with an emphasis on security, data residency, resilience, and cost — and record those decisions as Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) with the trade-offs made explicit.
• Design for the platform's operating constraints: identity and access, secrets management, encryption with organization-controlled keys, network segmentation, and infrastructure-as-code as the source of truth.
• Own or contribute to non-functional architecture: availability and recovery targets, capacity and scaling models, and observability — and ensure they trace back to stated requirements rather than being asserted.
• Evaluate build-vs-buy and platform-component decisions on evidence (supportability, licence terms, security maintenance status), not vendor narrative

Requirements:

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, or a related discipline

Essential Skills/Experience

• Demonstrable experience across at least two of the three core stacks (systems/requirements engineering, full stack, cloud) at depth, with working competence in the third and a credible path to depth.
• Requirements engineering competence evidenced by real artefacts: requirement specifications, trace matrices, verification plans — ideally under a recognized standard (INCOSE GtWR, ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148).
• Hands-on software engineering experience: has written and shipped production code, understands testing, CI/CD, and code review as engineering controls.
• Cloud architecture experience on at least one major cloud, with security and resilience as design drivers rather than afterthoughts.
• Fluency with traceability and evidence as a working practice — comfortable being asked "how do you know this requirement is met?" and having an answer that points to an artefact.
• Clear technical writing. In a regulated context, the specification is the deliverable.
• Demonstrated experience in working in a multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary environment.
• Good communication skills.

Essential / Desirable Traits

• Possess learning agility, flexibility and pro-activity
• Comfortable with agile teamwork and user engagement

At Thales, we’re committed to fostering a workplace where respect, trust, collaboration, and passion drive everything we do. Here, you’ll feel empowered to bring your best self, thrive in a supportive culture, and love the work you do. Join us, and be part of a team reimagining technology to create solutions that truly make a difference – for a safer, greener, and more inclusive world.