Design & Certification Specialist

Design & Certification Specialist – Airborne Electronic Hardware and/or Aircraft Systems Development Assurance (5417)

Salary: up to £72,000, plus a Market Related supplement (MRS) - dependent upon experience

Contract Type: Permanent Full time

Security Level: SC

Location: Gatwick / Hybrid

Visa Restrictions: This position does not (currently) offer visa sponsorship

Closing Date: 31 July 2026

Interview Date: WC 24 August 2026

We are the UK's aviation and aerospace regulator and recognised as a world leader in its field. Our activities are diverse, enabling the aviation industry to meet the highest safety standards, and we pride ourselves on our ability to adapt to the constantly evolving aviation environment.

The Role

As a Design and Certification Airborne Electronic Hardware and/or Development Assurance Specialist, you will be responsible for supporting the overall business plan and supporting the wider CAA, specifically in establishing and delivering the UK’s ICAO State of Design responsibilities.

Reporting to the Design & Certification Principal Specialist for Avionics, Electrical Systems & Development Assurance, you will be accountable for the technical investigation/analysis and approval of certification projects and the continued airworthiness of aircraft, systems, engines and propellers, across all civil aerospace domains including commercial air transport, general aviation, certified unmanned air vehicles and innovation projects.

This is a varied role that will include significant interaction with industry representatives both remotely and in person. It will also involve the review and approval of new parts and products and their design changes, validation of other nations’ certifying authorities’ work as well as the investigation of the UK Design Organisations’ design approvals.

Industry and regulatory engagement will be required to ensure that the CAA keeps appraised of future projects, the proposed introduction and development of new and innovative technologies and any proposed regulatory changes

Core Accountabilities

1. Personal Accountabilities

• Promote a safety and learning culture that is risk based but also satisfies our basic statutory and international needs including compliance.
• Act in accordance with the CAA’s HR policies, applying our values and behaviours policies in their day-to-day role.
• Actively contribute to Personal Development Conversations, including future personal development and progression opportunities.
• Create time to learn and develop.
• Ensure that all recommendations and decisions are proportionate to the needs and safety expectations of the sector and are consistent with extant regulatory policy (using objective risk assessment techniques as necessary)

2. Design and Certification Accountabilities

Evaluate certification projects, as directed by the Principal Design and Certification Specialist, in relation to aerospace products.

These may include submissions from both UK Design Organisations and those provided for validation under bilateral arrangements.

• Determine compliance with airworthiness requirements and making recommendations for approval of product or change through sampling of submitted applicant data in accordance with Level of Involvement principles.
• Support applications for Flight Conditions, using your specialist knowledge and skills to make a recommendation whether an air or rotorcraft meets the intent of ‘safe flight and landing’ in lieu of full or partial certification compliance.
• Ensure that aerospace products, for which the CAA has responsibility, meet applicable initial and continued airworthiness standards and ensure in-service issues are adequately addressed to maintain the intended level of safety. Additionally, play a leading role in the development of associated airworthiness requirements.
• Clarify, where necessary, existing airworthiness requirements and contribute to the development of new requirements to cover new technology, novel applications of existing technology, and novel proposals for compliance demonstration (this could be through authoring Certification Review Items, as appropriate).
• Enact type design liaison responsibilities on aerospace products and make recommendations as appropriate to colleagues inside and outside CAA (including other Regulatory Agencies) to ensure continued airworthiness and safety standards are met.
• When required, act as Project Certification Manager (PCM) to coordinate projects or ‘specialists’ in specific technical disciplines.
• Identify and coordinate research or contribute into areas of significant airworthiness concern. Represent the CAA and / or Airworthiness in decision making committees and working groups, internally and externally, nationally and internationally from a design standpoint.
• Liaise with other regulators and accident investigation bodies in relation to accidents and events and their ICAO Annex 13 investigations or equivalent.

About You: Ideally, you will be able to demonstrate industry experience with an equivalent qualification, be a proven expert with detailed knowledge of the functioning and management of the aerospace industry, and have proven aerospace experience, preferably working for an approved aerospace organisation.

Essential Criteria: Proven knowledge of certification of highly complex systems and their development and integration, Airborne Electronic Hardware (AEH) and/or Aircraft System Certification, with experience in performing Stage of Involvement Audits (SOI) and/or System Reviews (SRs) with regulatory bodies. 

This could have been gained from working within Industry as an expert and/or gained through relevant experience within an Airworthiness Authority. We anticipate you will have demonstrable knowledge and experience in or both of the following technical areas:

Airborne Electronic Hardware (AEH) up to IDAL A

• Hands-on experience of Hardware Architectures and design processes related to hardware RAM/Flash Based FPGAs, ASICs, COTS processor/devices, PDH.
• Familiarity with avionics communications protocols including ARINC, AFDX and serial interfaces.
• Hands-on experience (preferably leading) SOI audits.
• Experience in verification methods, RTL, Post-Layout, Hardware integration. Experience with Advanced Verification Methods is a plus.
• A process-oriented mindset, but with the capability to assess technically complex hardware and certification aspects for AEH

Development Assurance (DA) up to FDAL A

• Experience in defining the scope of and leading System Reviews per ARP4754A/B.
• Familiarisation with various safety analysis techniques per ARP4761 and how they are applied to derive safety objectives.
• The ability to review and analyse aircraft, system, sub-system and item architectures with respect to safety objectives (including a good understanding of the decomposition of Functional to Item Development Assurance Levels).
• An understanding of system life‑cycle processes.
• Confidence in critiquing proposed requirements analysis, decomposition and traceability.
• Experience in managing interfaces and ensure cross‑discipline consistency – decomposition through indenture levels from aircraft to items.

You will also be:

• Able to operate in various cultural business environments at all levels.
• Capable of using experience and making sound judgments.
• Able to think laterally to identify any wider implications.
• Able to effectively manage your own workload with a wide variety of projects with differing priorities.
• Able to understand specialist issues and modulate technical views to account for wider business and political considerations.
• Able to challenge information, propositions or assumptions, often of a deep technical nature and across a range of disciplines, affecting safety.
• Capable of making timely, reasoned decisions.
• Able to decide when enough information is available to make a decision affecting safety.
• Able to identify when to escalate issues to their Line Manager and others as appropriate.
• Confident communicator at all levels, having the ability to conduct technical conversation and engage with all stakeholders.
• Able to perform report writing and co-ordination of reports in support of your day-to-day role.
• Capable of using multiple IT systems and infrastructure to fulfil the objectives of your day-to-day role.
• Able to act in a professional and collaborative manner with both internal and external stakeholders.

Desirable Criteria:  

• The desire to continually develop experience through project involvement and dedicated training.

Travel:

As part of delivering the essential responsibilities of this role, such as through to support the audit activities (SOIs and/or SRs) which you will be participating in and/or leading, both UK and International travel will be required.

Additional Information

For many appointments within the CAA, these roles require access to operationally sensitive infrastructure and/or Nationally Protected information. For these roles the post holders must undergo National Security Vetting and achieve the appropriate level of clearance.

To be vetted we will usually expect a reasonable period of residency in the UK so that meaningful checks can be undertaken. For this role this will need to be 5 years.

If you do not meet these requirements, we may not be able to accept your application.

For more information on CTC and SC clearance please visit - Vetting explained - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The CAA values high ethical standards and personal integrity among employees. If invited for interview you will be asked to complete a declaration of interest.

Relocation & Property

The CAA will be relocating from Aviation House (Our Gatwick Office) to new premises in a few years’ time. Our move is driven by strategic, operational and environmental considerations.

We will be moving to a new local home, up to a 15-mile radius of Aviation House, to minimise disruption for our valued colleagues and customers.

We are now working with colleagues and visitors to understand what we need in our new office, before we start our property search. We will sell Aviation House and land, vacate the site and move to new premises, but we do not expect to move before 2028

Inclusive Recruitment

We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome applications from all backgrounds. As a Disability Confident employer, candidates who meet the minimum requirements will be guaranteed an interview. Find out more about the Disability Confident Scheme. If you require any adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.

Use of Artificial Intelligence by candidates in the CAA recruitment process

We recognise that many of our candidates find Artificial Intelligence to be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be rejected on that basis.

Working With Us

Explore What We Offer section on our careers website to find out about our benefits and how we support work-life balance.

Our Values

Do The Right Thing, Never Stop Learning, Build Collaborative Relationships, Respect Everyone – For more information please Click Here

Closing Date: 31 July 2026

Interview Date: WC 24 August 2026

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

No recruitment agencies please.