Principal Data Control Engineer

Salary: £76,000 - 94,000 per year

Requirements:

• Proven experience in data management within defence, aerospace, or other highly regulated industries.
• Thorough understanding of data lifecycle control, document management, and information governance.
• Experience creating and working to Data Management Plans and organisational procedures.
• Experience working with sensitive, classified, or export-controlled data.
• Understanding of, or willingness to learn about, cryptographic data security.
• Experience integrating data management with configuration and change control is desirable.
• Knowledge of airworthiness, safety-critical systems, or certification environments is desirable.
• Familiarity with PLM and document management tools is desirable.
• Experience supporting audits and compliance activities is desirable.
• A good attitude and willingness to learn are important; experience in every listed area is not required.
• The role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Governments Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). National Security Vetting (NSV) may also apply, potentially including eligibility requirements for Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV).

Responsibilities:

• Deliver data management activities in line with approved Data Management Plans (DMPs).
• Ensure engineering and programme data is correctly identified, structured, version-controlled, approved, and accessible.
• Maintain accurate data status, integrity, and visibility across programme datasets.
• Ensure compliance with organisational governance, contractual requirements, and DMPs.
• Lead the development, implementation, and maintenance of programme DMPs.
• Monitor compliance, manage deviations, and provide evidence for audits and reviews.
• Lead integration between data management and configuration management systems.
• Ensure data security, export control, protective marking, and access controls are correctly applied.
• Lead internal, customer, and regulatory audits, including corrective actions.
• Manage data throughout the full product lifecycle, ensuring its completeness, accuracy, and approval status meet programme milestones.
• Collaborate with engineering, configuration, quality, and programme teams.
• Provide guidance and mentoring to Data Management Engineers.

Technologies:

• Support
• Security
• Cryptography

More:

Join us at Leonardo as a Principal Data Control Engineer, reporting to the Lead Configuration & Data Manager. You will help safeguard the integrity, control, and governance of critical engineering and programme data across defence and aerospace programmes, supporting compliance, audit readiness, and continuous improvement. We are a global Aerospace, Defence, and Security company headquartered in Italy, with more than 53,000 employees worldwide and 8,500 across nine UK sites. This is a permanent, full-time, onsite role based at our Cap. Green 300 location in Luton. We offer a company-funded benefits package, including generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 flexi-days annually, an award-winning pension with up to 15% employer contribution, wellbeing support, a bonus scheme for employees at management level and below, access to more than 4,000 online courses, a referral programme, and flexible benefits. Flexible hours and hybrid working options are available; part-time possibilities can be discussed. We are committed to an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace and can support accessibility requirements during recruitment. Our salary framework uses grade-based bands benchmarked against the external market.

last updated 40 week of 2026