Software Solutions Engineer
Thales
Posted: May 14, 2026
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Quick Summary
As a Software Solutions Engineer, you will be responsible for designing and developing underwater software solutions for Thales' underwater systems.
Required Skills
Job Description
Location: Cheadle, United Kingdom
Thales is a global technology leader with more than 83,000 employees on five continents. With over 7,500 people in the UK, operating across defence, space, aerospace, and digital security, we help build a future we can all trust. Thales supports the security and stability of our nation by providing extraordinary technology to our customers, as well as delivering social value to the UK with our products and services.
Underwater Systems Software Engineer
Thales Underwater Systems provides a unique opportunity for you to create software that delivers a state of the art sonar capability for UK and international navies. Our systems are developed for a wide range of significant defence projects, including the latest autonomous Mine Countermeasures solutions, Royal Navy submarines, Merlin helicopters, the latest frigates and the Hunt Class Mine Countermeasures vessel.
You will join an energetic and growing team of Software Engineering professionals based at the Thales site in Cheadle Heath, Manchester and will have the opportunity to collaborate with some of the finest minds in sonar and digital technologies here and at other Thales sites in the UK and overseas.
We require an enthusiastic software engineer with strong software development skills and a passion for working in a team to deliver solutions to complex engineering problems.
Security Level
Full SC level + UK National
• Open to any candidate who is able to provide proof of their identity, their employment history and their right to work in the UK during the recruitment process.
• You must have been resident in the UK for the last 5 years with no significant periods overseas.
• In conjunction with the above you must be a UK National due to the nature of the work and associated customer(s). Important - For this role, due to government security requirements, the term ‘UK Nationals’ must exclude anyone who is a dual national or naturalised British (i.e. originally a foreign national)
Technical Skills
Essential requirements
• At least 3 years’ experience of contemporary SW development technologies on large scale systems
• Passion for shaping solutions out of complexity
• Experience working in an Agile or DevOps team with an iterative approach to software development
• Keen to champion new approaches and technologies to continuously evolve our SONAR products
• A proactive and dynamic attitude to working in a multidiscipline development team
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• A desire to take responsibility for your professional development
• Experience in developing software for regulated or high integrity/high availability systems.
• Strong appreciation of code craft as well as best practice software quality methods for unit testing, static analysis and cybersecurity.
• Working knowledge of software configuration control, branching strategies and build automation pipelines.
Minimum Educational Requirements
Degree or equivalent in a relevant subject e.g. Software Engineering, Computer Science, Maths, Physics or Engineering.
Job Content
• Make a key contribution to your agile software development team and champion agile best practices
• Implement state-of-the-art sonar solutions to allow our Royal Navy operators to undertake complex tasks in the most efficient way
• Remove the complexity of sharing data between bespoke systems to enable a digital revolution for our Royal Navy
• Hold yourself and your team accountable to the high standards that give Thales the reputation as a company that embodies engineering excellence
• Working with customer support functions to enable new capability to be deployed efficiently
• Build our strategy by working with the software management function to ensure that skills, technology and ways of working continue to engage and excite the team
Additional information
You will be primarily based at the Thales Cheadle office and work with the team on site for the majority of the time.
You should have the ability to work effectively within a team and to obtain co-operation and to lead change. You will be self-motivated, with the ability to see innovative solutions to problems and have the enthusiasm to drive them to a successful conclusion.
You will have the opportunity to travel to Thales and non-Thales sites throughout the UK and abroad when working on Thales projects. Therefore a willingness to undertake business travel is essential. #LI-DM1
At Thales, we ensure equal opportunities, pay and working conditions for all. The benefits we offer include private medical insurance, buying or selling annual leave, cycle to work schemes, employee discounts, paid volunteering day, stocks and shares, annual bonus and much more depending on the role. Read more about our benefits here.
We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued for who they are and the unique strengths they bring. Discover more about our programmes, employee networks, wellbeing policies, and inclusive features here.
If this role isn’t quite right for you, we encourage you to join our talent community where your details will be shared with our recruitment teams for other potential opportunities. Join the Talent Community here.
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