Delivery leadership across aerospace and defence.
I’m currently a Senior Engineering Manager in defence, with ~12 years across aerospace and defence programmes. My experience spans product delivery, bids, and engineering leadership in constrained, high-assurance environments.
I retrained into aerospace engineering in 2014, starting an apprenticeship with GE Aviation and later progressing into Commercial Engineering, supporting contracts up to ~$220m. In 2020, I moved to BAE Systems Maritime & Land - initially in Bid Management (bids up to ~£1bn), then back into engineering roles including Product Owner, Senior Product Owner, and Senior Engineering Manager, ending with a delivery portfolio focused on network-based capability insertion and associated design, development, qualification & manufacture (DDQ&M) (~£20m).
Alongside full-time roles, I completed a degree in Project Management.
See below for a summarised overview of my career history. Projects and outcomes are captured as cards on the Case Studies page.
My career path has been intentionally non-linear. I initially aimed for an aircrew route in the RAF/Royal Navy, but that plan ended on medical grounds. I went on to study a BSc in Computer Science and Geo-Informatics.
I completed my first year and acquired an HE Certificate, but left during my second year due to personal circumstances, which meant I wasn’t able to give it what it needed at the time. I stepped back into work, regrouped, and later made a deliberate move into engineering through an apprenticeship.
Working across retail, logistics and care gave me a practical understanding of real operations and people-first delivery. In 2013 I decided to retrain into engineering, starting an Aerospace Engineering apprenticeship in 2014.
From there my CV reflects progressive roles across delivery, governance, commercial/bids, product ownership, and engineering leadership - now complemented by hands-on cloud/architecture development through TacSA and portfolio builds.
timeline
title Career timeline (high level)
section Education and early direction
pre-2009 : 11 GCSE A-C
: A-Levels (Geography, IT, French, Biology)
2009 - 2012 : BSc Computer Science and Geo-Informatics
: Completed Year 1 and achieved HE Certificate
: Left during Year 2 due to personal circumstances
2009 - 2014 : Cross-sector work
: Retail, logistics, care
: Decision to retrain into engineering
section GE Aviation and early engineering career
2014 - 2018 : Aerospace Engineering Apprenticeship, Aircraft Fitter
: BTEC Level 3 Aerospace Engineering (Double Distinction*)
: HNC Aerospace Engineering (Distinction)
: Built strong delivery and quality foundations
2018 - 2020 : Commercial Engineer
: Retained Firefighter (HFRS)
: Costing, estimating, change, contracts
: Lean development + data and automation interest grows
: Started BSc (Hons) Project Management (sponsored)
section BAE Systems and leadership progression
2020 - 2022 : Bid Manager
: Bid governance, partnering, tooling improvements
: Professional memberships and structured development
2022 - 2023 : Product Owner / Senior Product Owner
: Completed BSc (Hons) Project Management (First Class)
: Product delivery and stakeholder alignment
2023 - Present : Senior Engineering Manager
: Engineering leadership, frameworks and governance
: Chartership development + continued technical build via TacSAThe following section offers additional detail to the above.
Over time, the work I enjoyed most was shaping systems and decisions across boundaries - which is what pulled me toward Solution Architecture.
Next: Solution Architecture (how I’m building depth and evidence through hands-on demonstrators).
Next: For how I work day-to-day (communication, decision-making, and stakeholder handling), see Working Style.