Aircraft Performance Lead

Our Mission

At Vertical Aerospace, we are pioneering the way for electric aviation. The VX4, 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 of having the VX4 in service by 2030.

What to expect

In this role, you’ll be responsible for overseeing the Performance team, who are focused on delivering high-performance aerodynamic designs for our aircraft. This will involve both technical and people leadership tasks and good experience of aircraft performance, supporting aircraft development activities.

You will report into the Head of Flight Physics and be a key member of the Performance team, supporting the continued development of our in-house expertise, specialist knowledge and capabilities.

What you'll do

• Undertaking aircraft performance calculations to support aircraft system development

• Coordinating with project focals to understand programme priorities and deliverables in order to appropriately prioritise tasks and resources within their team

People leadership:

• Setting task and development objectives for the team and individual team members

• General mentoring and coaching of the team, including regular one-to-one meetings and identifying appropriate training and development activities and ensuring regular administrative tasks (i.e. holiday, sickness, probation) are completed

• Managing team governance, including running team meetings and representing your team at the department-level and meetings external to the department 

• Championing individuals for annual performance calibrations and recommending team members for promotion

• Developing multi-year plans for Aircraft Performance, which align with the company goals and ensure that there will be appropriate capability progression for processes, tools, methods, knowledge and skills within the team

• Communication with a range of internal and external stakeholders to present key technical and commercial messaging

What you'll bring

• Significant experience in aircraft performance supporting aircraft development, including advanced first principles analysis and performance methods.

• Experience managing or leading a technical team in an engineering environment.

• Experience in product requirements specification for systems engineering and the validation and verification process (ARP4754).

• Experience in developing standards and guides for diverse engineering activities.

• Experience in supporting data for aircraft flight manuals and for sales campaign/marketing.

• Experience in performance flight test campaigns and certification.

Desirable experience in:

• Preliminary design and Joint Definition Phases of an aircraft development.

• Safety assessment (aircraft performance criteria and determination of failure condition classification)

• Civil aircraft development or certification

• Clean-sheet aircraft development.

• eVTOL/powered lift/helicopter development.

• Numerical tool development using programming languages, such as Matlab.

What can you expect from us?

We're on a mission. Where others see limits, we see opportunity, and we work at pace. Working at Vertical isn't your average role but for those seeking a challenge, a flexible, supportive organisation and an incredible team; working here is an opportunity to do the best work of your career.

Our approach promotes ingenuity and courage, while our environment builds success through diligence in safety and being open in the way we work. The only way we're going to assure the next chapter of aviation history is by working as a team, relentlessly, towards our goal. 

Our benefits

Our people matter - we're not going anywhere without them. Which is why our company benefits go beyond the essentials.

• 26 days holiday, plus bank holiday

• 5 extra days per year to buy (or sell)

• 5 extra days holiday when you get married or enter a civil partnership

• Additional 4% of your salary to spend on extra benefits

• Award-winning digital health and wellbeing service (Help@Hand)

• Company Share Scheme - open to every Vertical employee

• Company Pension Scheme - 5% and we match it

• Breakfast on us, every day

We may just be the hardest job you've ever had, but we're confident it will be the most rewarding. Join the team today and help us shape the future of Advanced Air Mobility.

Disclaimer Statement

We encourage you to apply even if you may not have all the experience listed in the advert. We recognise that talent comes in various forms and we are committed to providing opportunities that create an environment of growth, diversity, and inclusion for everyone. As part of our desire to review and make our processes fair, we may ask you questions related to these aspects during the application process. For more information on how we will use your data, see our Legal section.