Technical Designer - Lead

NATS is the UK’s leading air navigation service provider, handling over 2.4 million flights each year. We provide air traffic control services from two control centres and at airports around the UK. We also provide a wide range of commercial products and solutions internationally. Our people are at the heart of our purpose to advance aviation and keep the skies safe.

Hiring Manager: Kath Ellis-Lac

Closing Date: 18/06/2026

Salary: £77,480.13 - £103,306.83

Please include a cover letter with your application.

Job Purpose/Overview

Responsible for the Technology (Technical) Solution Design for a specific Service or Assets that make up the service. Leading the Technical Solution Design elements as part of the Overall Service Design Pack for the Service.

Other Duties Include

• Within the NATS SI Framework, responsible for the end to end Technical Design of a large scale \ high criticality, or Enterprise wide solution representing the Service Design organisation to both its Programme and Service Operations customers and stakeholders.
• Leads the creation, review and maintenance of the Service Design process for operational methods, procedures, facilities and tools. Ensuring they meet the strategic requirements of the business (Enterprise & Business Arch (STPL) Level 6).
• Responsible for Technical Design for a Service and \ or Asset group supporting the Service Designer in meeting their accountabilities for their Service Design components.
• Puts in place and maintain governance practices. Determine the appropriate of Governance required when reviewing and approve High Level and Low-Level Technical Designs. Approve “exceptions” identified in Low Level Designs for underpinning Capabilities and prepare submissions to the relevant design governance mechanisms. (Enterprise IT Governance (GOVN) Level 6).

Impact assess Operational Change Requests to ensure changes are within the Design Envelope and escalate through the Design Processes where not. (Business Risk Management (BURM) Level 6).

Provide Technology Design representation across the service and wider with a knowledge of each of the systems and assets that make up the system/thread.

Autonomy

• The ability to identify Design issues and challenges before they impact project or service delivery as well as any corrective change actions required.
• Be able to coordinate large disparate teams to tight timescales with little or no additional support.
• Expected to apply own judgement and expertise to determine the course of action required to resolve complex Technical (Technology) Design decisions within the Design Governance processes.
• Determines when issues should be escalated to a higher level.
  
  

Job Scope

• The job of Technical Designer fits into the ITIL role for Service Design Management reporting to the Service Designer (Service Design Manager) specific roles are technical design, architecture and design authority for the technologies used in the service.
• Tactical Planning Be able to identify short term Design decisions that can resolve Programmatic challenges in a way that does not undermine the Safety assurance or undermine the Roadmap for the Service.
• Review Change Requests and associated plans as raised by the Service Operations team to identify whether the proposed change is within the Design envelope.
• Strategic Planning Negotiate on a national and international scale with such organisations as ICAO, European Union and Eurocontrol to further NATS business interests for Technical Design.
• Liaise with Project Managers, Service Transition Managers, customers and other stakeholders to agree technical performance requirements, timescales, work plans and other matters that affect the execution of project tasks.

Produce engineering papers using predictive modelling techniques to highlight possible service improvement, technology end of life and mitigate technical or operational problems of the future.

Develop technology strategies in conjunction with the Service Owners, Service Delivery Managers and Enterprise Architects to meet NATS business objectives, highlighting possible future technical or operational benefits and risks

Experience

Essential Skills and Experience

• The post holder must be highly motivated and able to communicate clearly both orally and in writing, understanding and reviewing reports written by others and writing documents forming part of the formal documentation of a change, minutes of a formal meeting or a formal report.
• The post holder must have good interpersonal communication and management skills.
• The ability to lead, coach, motivate and develop members of the design and service team to maximise their contribution, including Work Package delivery to projects and the operational teams in coordination with Practice Managers.
  
  

Skills

• Degree in an Engineering or IT subject and equivalent knowledge acquired through experience in a safety critical environment.
• Qualification and experience must balance technical engineering with business acumen to meet both the technical and business management requirements of this role.
• Applicants not holding the above qualifications but who have undertaken structured Engineering training (recognised by a professional body) and have extensive engineering experience will be considered.
• Ability to operate at level 6 (Initiate, Influence) of the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).
• Experience in a Service Design Organisation delivering and developing technologies for safety critical Services to meet operational commitments.
• Demonstrate Leadership in technology design focused on the continual improvement of the service designed to fit a market need whilst balancing all stakeholder requirements.

Is comfortable operating under circumstances where there is a high degree of uncertainty, particularly early in the service lifecycle.

A proven track record of balancing risk with reward/return.

An accomplished, credible and respected leader with well-developed communication, influencing and negotiation skills gained in a complex organisation undergoing significant transformation.

Proven leadership of multi-disciplinary teams (that could span marketing, sales, architecture, engineering, suppliers and service operations) across the full service lifecycle and through a matrix based, safety related organisation.

Career record of leading technology design in successful business change programmes.

Excellent appreciation of ITIL methodologies and standards; ideally accredited to Foundation and Practitioner standards.

Good understanding of the NATS operating environment and our strategic intent / objectives.

Extensive Engineering/IT/Business management experience in a fast paced, customer centric and multi-site business.

Strong interpersonal skills with an inherent ability to effectively communicate with and influence internal and external stakeholders up to a senior level. High levels of energy, drive and resilience, with the flexibility to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

Drive and determination to champion and improve customer satisfaction.

Desirable

• The candidate must demonstrate extensive experience in the design and delivery of complex communications systems - ideally within Air Traffic Management (ATM) environments.
• This should include deep knowledge of VoIP and SIP‑based architectures, as well as proven experience migrating from legacy platforms and developing resilient, safety‑critical communication services.
• The individual should be capable of contributing to overall service design, while also leading and providing authoritative technical oversight for ATM communications system design.
  
  

Additional Vacancy Information

We are proud to offer a fantastic total reward package to help you thrive both personally and professionally - for more information on what NATS can offer you please visit - Why NATS?

We have adopted agile working to provide greater flexibility and increased choice over working arrangements, with the opportunity for this role to work in our modern office facilities as well as remotely. We also welcome discussions on flexible and part-time working arrangements. Find out more  here .

If you share our passion to advance aviation and keep the skies safe – we would like to hear from you whatever your age, sex, race, faith, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, visible or invisible disability. Individuals that bring different perspectives, skills, life experiences and backgrounds help us be at the forefront of our industry.