Head of System Engineering & IVV: People & Performance…

Lead Systems Engineering and Verification for a multibillion Euro programme protecting Europe’s maritime future — Thales Netherlands, Hengelo

Join Thales Netherlands to lead the Systems Engineering & Integration, Verification & Validation (IVV) discipline for the F126 Frigate Programme — a long-term, multi-billion-euro effort delivering next-generation frigates for the German Navy. This role is about people, capability, and engineering ways of working: you’ll lead ~150 engineers through ~7 team managers, owning the hierarchical and functional leadership of the discipline while partnering with programme delivery teams.

This is a high-impact leadership role for someone who combines deep systems engineering knowledge with a proven talent for growing people, improving engineering performance, and shaping resilient, maintainable platforms. If you want to make a tangible contribution to Europe’s defence capability and mentor the next generation of leaders, this is the chance to do so at scale.

What you’ll own — impact & purpose

• Lead and develop the Systems Engineering & IVV community across the F126 programme, setting the vision for technical excellence, engineering culture and sustainable lifecycle solutions.
• Own and drive the Systems Engineering Performance Plan: improve predictability, reduce technical waste, raise process maturity, and increase the customer value delivered by engineering teams.
• Be the people leader for team managers and technical leads: create coaching pathways, career development, and an inclusive environment where diverse talent thrives.
• Translate strategic goals into practical engineering practices: adopt and scale model-based systems engineering, lean engineering practices, robust IVV frameworks, and knowledge management.
• Represent the systems engineering discipline in cross-functional governance: align architecture, product lines, ship-system integrators and technical stakeholders to deliver coherent, testable solutions.
• Drive culture change: foster collaboration, psychological safety, and continuous improvement across legacy and next-generation systems.

Key responsibilities (practical)

• Define and steward long-term systems engineering strategy for F126, aligned to programme objectives and Thales’ technology roadmap.
• Lead capability building: define training, mentoring, and leadership development for team managers and engineers.
• Operationalise engineering excellence: standardise practices, reduce rework, raise IVV effectiveness and increase engineering predictability.
• Execute the multi-year performance programme: set metrics, run pilots, scale improvements, and demonstrate measurable gains.
• Enable MBSE adoption and architecture discipline to support system-of-systems thinking and long-term maintainability.
• Build and maintain a strong engineering community: cross-team knowledge sharing, engineering guilds, and lessons‑learned loops.
• Collaborate with security, procurement, product lines and customer representatives to ensure compliant and integrated delivery.

Who you are — ideal profile

You combine technical authority in systems engineering with strong people leadership and change experience:

• Significant experience in systems engineering and IVV for large, complex engineering programmes (preferably naval, defence, aerospace or similar safety-critical sectors).
• Track record leading large engineering communities (100+ FTEs) and mentoring managers to grow inclusive teams.
• Strong systems thinking: architecture, requirements, integration, modelling, testing and lifecycle sustainment.
• Practical experience with, or leadership of, model-based systems engineering and modular platform approaches.
• Experienced change leader: able to design and scale performance improvements across multiple teams and stakeholders.
• Excellent communicator and collaborator in matrixed, multinational environments.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Systems Engineering, Engineering, Computer Science or related discipline.
• Fluency in English and Dutch; familiarity with German programme contexts is a plus.
• Willing and able to meet customer security clearance requirements (personal security clearance will be needed).

Why this role is compelling

• Meaningful mission: Contribute to safeguarding Europe’s maritime security on a next-generation frigate programme.
• Scale & influence: Shape systems engineering for a large programme with long-term strategic impact.
• People focus: Lead and enable a large engineering community — create career pathways, mentoring, and inclusive leadership.
• Professional growth: Opportunities to broaden technical, commercial and international experience across Thales global networks.
• Flexible & supportive environment: Hybrid working model (typically ~60/40), attractive leave (≈40 days), personalised benefits (bicycle plan, fitness, relocation support) and competitive compensation.

Security & eligibility

In line with Thales’ Baseline Security requirements and programme customer requirements, candidates must provide proof of identity, eligibility to work in the Netherlands, and employment/education history. This role requires a personal security clearance as part of programme eligibility.