Senior Design Engineer - Airframe

Our Mission At Vertical Aerospace, we are pioneering the way for electric aviation. The Valo, our eVTOL (electric, vertical, take-off and landing), 'zero emissions' aircraft will set a new safety standard for how we will navigate the sky. We won't realise our mission following the same legacy processes and traditions our predecessors followed, instead, we want to 'redefine' aerospace best practices. We are growing quickly from a prototype business to a scaling SME, and the next few years will be critical to our success and delivering on our ambitious goals. Valo is targeting airliner-level safety certification in 2029 ahead of entering service with our airline and operator customers. What to Expect We are looking for a Senior Design Engineer who can take ownership of airframe designs and close the gap between design intent and physical hardware. Working within our central Airframe team, you will take inherited and developing designs through design for manufacture, release, build, installation and flight test. You will work across airframe structures, powerplant and fuel-system interfaces across our all-electric and hybrid aircrafts, making pragmatic decisions where requirements, evidence and hardware do not always align neatly. This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You will coordinate a team of Design Engineers to set priorities and maintain both partner alignment and delivery momentum without relying on direct line authority. What You’ll Do - Own airframe designs from incomplete or inherited definition through design for manufacture, release, build and installation - Develop pragmatic design solutions that balance structural, manufacturing, integration, certification and programme requirements - Approve and release engineering drawings, design data and technical reports - Act as a checking signatory, ensuring released data is accurate, complete and supported by appropriate evidence - Coordinate internal engineers and contractors - Integrate airframe structures with powerplant, fuel-system and other physical aircraft systems - Work directly with manufacturing, assembly and flight-test teams to resolve issues quickly and safely - Build and collate the verification and certification evidence needed to support safety-of-flight readiness - Challenge weak assumptions or insufficient evidence, manage technical interfaces and escalate safety risks clearly - Mentor junior engineers and support their technical development What You’ll Bring - Established experience delivering complex mechanical or structural designs in a safety-critical or highly regulated environment - Strong theoretical understanding of airframe structures, combined with the judgement to apply engineering principles pragmatically - Evidence of taking an inherited or incomplete design through design for manufacture, release, build or installation - Experience approving or checking engineering drawings, design data or technical reports - Broad structural design experience with exposure to physical systems installation and multidisciplinary interfaces - An understanding of the full product development lifecycle, including verification and certification - Experience delegating technical work, setting priorities and coordinating delivery across engineers or contractors - The confidence to make sound decisions under scrutiny and challenge work that is not supported by sufficient evidence - Strong communication and organisation skills, with the ability to maintain focus in a fast-moving delivery environment Experience within aerospace would be valuable, particularly across eVTOL, prototype aircraft, MRO, aircraft modification or special-mission programmes. We will also consider relevant experience from other safety-critic