Head of Combat Systems Engineering

Want to influence the bigger picture? At Saab, you can realise amazing innovations that keep people and societies safe. Together, we can truly make an impact – and your part matters.

Your role

Defence and security are changing fast. Saab, and Naval Combat Systems, are investing for growth and adapting to this shift. With a large existing portfolio of projects, we need to harmonise our ways of working to remain efficient in the delivery of our services and projects.

The Combat Systems Engineering department is responsible for Systems of Systems architecture, verification and integration. It is also responsible for overarching Cyber Security. We are looking for an experienced and visionary leader to lead our CS Engineering department into its next phase of development and growth.

As Head of CS Engineering, you will have overall responsibility for a department consisting of highly skilled and senior specialists. You will lead a line organisation of seven managers, who in turn manage teams within:

• Systems of systems integration

• Combat system to ship integration
• Architecture and requirements
• Cyber security
• Acceptance & verification
• Commissioning

Your main task will be to initiate and drive a transformation journey for our CS Engineering department. Today, we have many parallel projects and a strong delivery focus. In that context we need to further harmonise our ways of working and strive for efficiency on a global scale. Your mission is to develop and strengthen common ways of working across the organisation, driving greater reuse, harmonised processes, methods and tools from a CS/LSI perspective. You will build cyber security competence with a holistic lifecycle focus, increase ownership within the line organisation, and improve onboarding and knowledge sharing to help new employees become productive faster while reducing dependency on key individuals.

You will also have a dotted-line responsibility for a team in Germany where you play a key role in strengthening cooperation and harmonising ways of working between our Swedish and German units. You are part of the management team for the wider Product Unit organisation and report to the Head of PU Combat Systems.

Key responsibilities:

• Set the direction for the CS Engineering department and translate strategy into clear goals, priorities and concrete actions.
• Drive the transformation towards more reuse, standardisation and process ownership in the line.
• Ensure that methods, tools and processes within Verification & Acceptance, Commissioning, Architecture, Systems Integration, Cyber Security are fit for purpose and consistently applied across projects.
• Act as a bridge between projects and line organisation, balancing operational delivery with long-term capability development.
• As we are transforming into a true global organization, strengthening collaboration with our German, Finnish and Australian units, aligning ways of working and leveraging synergies across sites.
• Contribute actively to the engineering management team, including strategic planning, resource balancing and competence development.

This change is driven by our current situation: many ongoing projects, high demand, and significant resource constraints. We are convinced that greater reuse, clearer ownership of processes and more structured onboarding will be key to securing our long-term capacity and competitiveness.

Your profile

As a person, you are clear, trustworthy and engaging. You create participation, set direction and dare to challenge established ways of working – always with the business, the customer and your people in focus.

We believe you have:

• Solid experience from systems development in a complex, regulated or safety-critical environment.
• Proven leadership experience, preferably with responsibility for managers and senior experts.
• Experience of driving change and improvement work in engineering organizations, for example within verification & acceptance, commissioning
• An understanding for or experience with running large and complex projects.
• A structured and analytical working style, with the ability to see the big picture and at the same time understand operational challenges.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills in English, both spoken and written. Knowledge of Swedish, Finnish or German is an advantage but not a requirement.

This position requires that you pass a security vetting based on the current regulations around/of security protection. For positions requiring security clearance additional obligations on citizenship may apply.

What you will be a part of

Explore a wealth of possibilities. Take on challenges, create smart inventions, and grow beyond. This is a place for curious minds, brave pioneers, and everyone in between. Together, we achieve the extraordinary, each bringing our unique perspectives. Your part matters.

Saab is a leading defense and security company with an enduring purpose, to help nations keep their people and society safe.

Empowered by talented people, Saab constantly pushes the boundaries of technology to create a safer and more sustainable world.

Saab designs, manufactures and maintains advanced systems in aeronautics, weapons, command and control, sensors and underwater systems. Saab is headquartered in Sweden. It has major operations all over the world and is part of the domestic defense capability of several nations. Read more about us here.

Kindly observe that this is an ongoing recruitment process and that the position might be filled before the closing date of the advertisement.