The variety of electronics engineering jobs available within the
avionics, defence and aerospace sectors greatly depends on the type
of company an engineer works for.
In defence-related and avionics engineering, for instance, much
of the work in the UK comes from the MoD which is a major
outsourcer of components design to suppliers like Lockheed Martin,
BAE Systems and Thales. Some of these will further outsource
projects to lower tier suppliers.
This means the number of engineering jobs is dependent on the
MoD so when it does decide to award contracts it can mean an eight
to ten year project involving millions of pounds of expenditure and
the generation of lots of jobs.
The commercial avionics and aerospace industry, characterised by
giants like Boeing or Airbus, is less reliant on government and
more on major airfreight companies like Virgin and British
Airways.
The jobs currently available would have to include systems
engineer, project management, design and development, test and
qualification, and installation. And for a new product R&D
engineers are likely to be in sudden demand.
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| Testing a digital engine control at BAE
Systems |
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Particular skills and requirements for engineers depends on the
nature of the job, but at the moment systems engineers who
understand systems design or requirements-capture and/or full
systems lifecycle are in particular demand. This is not just true
of avionics but across the whole spectrum of defence
programmes.
There are a finite number of engineers in the defence sector,
and an assumption that most candidates will need to get
defence-related clearance, which can cut out a percentage of
available engineers.
Overall, systems engineers in both commercial and defence
sectors wield a lot of pulling power. This is due to companies
becoming more flexible with their requirements for previous
avionics and/or aerospace experience.
In many cases defence companies are looking specifically to
recruit engineers from more commercial backgrounds, such as
telecoms and automotive, because of the difference in working
practices and the competitive nature of the defence industry
today.
Suddenly defence giants are beginning to look further afield for
staff. Companies are streamlining their business and looking to
produce systems competitively because the MoD may have a number of
companies all tendering for the same contracts and competing on
price.
Many companies closely linked to the MoD have had to adopt more
commercial processes than before to slough off the red tape
associated with the defence industry's product lifecycles. Qinetiq
is one such example.
Traditionally, the defence avionics sector differed from the
commercial sector in that it favoured previous sector experience
and/or current MoD clearance.
For its part, the commercial sector did not have an overriding
security manifesto affecting the recruitment of engineers, but 11
September has changed that with many commercial airlines moving
security up the manifesto.
As the commercial sector adjusts its stance to become a little
more like the defence industry, the reverse is truer still. The old
stereotype of the defence industry as a grey institution shrouded
in red tape, which engineers from the cutting edge commercial
sectors avoided like a haunted house, is changing. In some cases,
this sector is trying to attract those very engineers, largely due
to the industry's need to streamline and come into line with
commercial practices.
One manifestation of the MoD's new commercialism is its
favouring of open systems architecture. By ensuring that components
can be replaced easily by any vendor, Whitehall guarantees not only
more freedom of choice for itself, but crucially, the ability to
respond as quickly as necessary to a demanding and unpredictable
world.
How does this national overview impact on the nitty-gritty of
job specifications? One way is in the importance of open system or
MoDular architecture knowledge in engineers' CVs.
Career prospects for electronics engineers in these sectors
depend on how busy the market influences are. At the moment it is
safe to say the aircraft industry is picking up after the post-9/11
slump when people were afraid to fly. In 2001 stock orders dropped
and suppliers down to the fifth tier and beyond experienced hard
times, with redundancies rife. But now the industry is in a state
of recovery.
For many UK companies this will depend on the MoD's next move
and, for others, on whether Boeing or Airbus are looking to develop
new aircraft or instrumentation.
Aerospace and defence has always been perceived as a reliable,
slow-moving industry but it is currently almost as prone to swing
as the telecoms or automotive sectors. Whether this will be
sustained is anybody's guess but current market dynamics suggest it
may do.
If the current trend for flexibility from employers continues -
and we would expect this with the candidate-short market - then
engineers would only sell their most transferable skills.
This means electrical and systems engineers working on safety
critical systems in the rail or automotive sectors may well be able
to secure positions in avionics and aerospace because of the
emphasis on safety in their current roles. The reverse is also true
- automotive manufacturers are producing vehicles which are more
reliant on electrical systems, so safety critical roles from other
sectors may be seen as relevant.
Expect more migration from one sector to another in a market
more flexible than ever before. If one sector is flying and the
other is slumping, then engineers will likely as not be able to
transfer from one to the other.
This is a future vision though. Currently, lots of companies
still feel that to work in avionics an engineer should have
avionics experience. This is unlikely to change at the top levels -
to work on systems design for an aircraft company there is a need
to understand the end product or system.
Nevertheless, our candidate-short market means we can expect
more flexibility in the components level. The further away we move
from the specifications provider in the design schedule, the less
knowledge about the end product is needed. A steering wheel needs
to be round but that does not mean you need to be able to dream up
a wonder-car in order to make a steering wheel.
Simon Withers is marketing and publicity executive at
recruitment consultancy ARM.