Software Design Authority (SDA)

Job Title

Software Design Authority (SDA)

Location

New Malden/Portsmouth

Salary

Circa £70,000 depending on skills and experience

Job Description

Act as the technical authority for software design, ensuring the integrity, safety, security, and compliance of all software solutions across the system lifecycle. Accountable for governing design decisions, assuring alignment with requirements and standards, and providing independent technical oversight to support certification, safety cases, and product security. Lead complex technical analyses, guide strategic design choices, and ensure robust, evidence-based solutions to capability challenges, ultimately enabling the safe, reliable, and effective delivery of system functionality.

Core Duties

• Own and govern software design integrity, ensuring all architectures and implementations meet defined requirements, standards, and lifecycle controls and assure the safe, secure, and compliant performance of delivered systems.
• Provide design authority approval and justification, compiling and endorsing engineering evidence to support compliance, assurance arguments, and subsystem certification.
• Be accountable for software inputs to the Software Integrity (SI) safety case, ensuring design decisions are robustly justified and aligned with safety requirements.
• Oversee and assure software contributions to SI product security certification, ensuring adherence to applicable security standards, policies, and risk mitigations.
• Lead technical governance of analyses and investigations, ensuring rigorous evaluation of options and selection of optimal, compliant solutions.
• Champion continuous improvement of software capability, guiding the development and implementation of technically sound, future proof design solutions.

Essential Skills

• Degree qualified in a technology, engineering or science related discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Significant experience from the IT/Software industry.
• Good knowledge in Software Development, Virtualisation, Containerisation and other high performance/density computing techniques.
• Ability to document high level design and rationale solutions for low level designers/implementation teams to consume.
• Ability to operate in a large, complex multi project environment.

The Shared Infrastructure - System Design team

The SI team provides the network and computing infrastructure solution (on COTS hardware) for Royal Navy (RN) warships across the Fleet, supporting Ship's Mission Systems. This role specifically looks after the Type 26 class, working to bring first of class into service.

This is part of the Combat Systems group which provides diverse Mission systems to every ship in the RN Fleet. This role interacts with these system providers as well as external system providers.

The Combat Systems SI team is currently developing the next generation of Infrastructure for all classes which will support the RN's move to a Hybrid Navy.

Inclusive Workplace

We are committed to building an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and supported. A diversity of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences strengthens our teams and is vital to the work we do.

Security and Export Controls

Many roles at the company are subject to both security and export control restrictions. These restrictions mean that factors such as nationality, previous nationalities and place of birth can restrict the roles you are eligible to perform. All applicants must, as a minimum, achieve Baseline Personnel Security Standard. Many roles also require higher levels of National Security Vetting where applicants must typically have 5 to 10 years of continuous residency in the UK depending on the vetting level required for the role.

Closing Date

22nd June 2026. Interviews will take place w/c 29th June 2026. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role.