Senior Naval Architect

Gibbs & Cox Australia (GCA) provides world-leading naval and marine engineering expertise for Australia's maritime enterprise. Our vision is a vibrant, sustainable, sovereign Australian shipbuilding, design and maritime enterprise.

GCA is a subsidiary of Leidos Gibbs & Cox, an international leader in naval ship design, providing naval engineering and design services on a range of major combatant and surface autonomy programs. Gibbs & Cox has a proud history of excellence, serving naval, government, commercial, and private marine clients since 1929. GCA leverages support from Gibbs & Cox's international network of expertise to offer world's best practice in naval ship design and engineering.

In Australia, we operate a select, highly skilled, internationally diverse engineering team, providing engineering and design advisory services to Australia's naval programs, and maritime autonomy system development. Our team holds expertise across Naval Architecture, marine engineering, systems engineering, integrated logistics support, engineering consulting and acquisition program management.

We are an innovative and experienced multi-disciplinary team, passionate about engineering in the maritime sector, and Australian sovereign capability. We offer a dynamic, flexible work environment. We value diversity and encourage applicants to bring their unique skills and capabilities to our growing team.

Our new opportunities are focussed on a new project delivering maritime autonomy technology and capabilities with tight timeframes and a dynamic engineering environment. We are seeking candidates who ideally can demonstrate a strong operational engineering skill set as well as a design background with a focus on design for manufacture. Creativity, flexibility and positivity through challenges are characteristics we are seeking in our team.

We are seeking a mid-career Naval Architect to join their next major challenge delivering advanced marine autonomous systems. In this role you will see it all, from early design, systems engineering, physical integration, productionisation, through to commissioning and complex test events.

The position may include the following responsibilities:

• Platform design – Structure, stability compliance, auxiliary systems, system arrangement, speed/range performance
• Mission systems integration – Special stability cases, physical interface design, deployable launch dynamics, deployable launch and recovery system design
• Design, integration, and acceptance of autonomous vessel mechanical systems, including  propulsion, auxiliary systems, cooling systems and electro-mechanical mission systems
• Collaborate with design and production partners in development of systems to support vessel mission systems and payloads, and establishing the associated physical interfaces
• Weight management – under the guidance of the engineering team leadership, define, document, communicate, manage and enforce the weight management program
• Development of production engineering artefacts, production site liaison, and inspection and survey of build program
• Support the definition and execution of set to work, commissioning and platform trials activities
• Assist with the specification and procurement of vessel equipment and system components

• Define and participate in testing to verify and evaluate system performance
• Share experiences / lessons with project team personnel to advance engineering knowledge and skills within the project’s technical team
• Participate in project and technical risk management processes (including Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment) and contribute to safety program development

This is a creative, fast-paced project which requires the right mindset. We are seeking candidates with the following attributes:

Critical Attributes

• Degree-qualified Naval Architect
• Delivery Experience – demonstrated responsibility for, or contribution to, designing, integrating and delivering vessels successfully
• Intact, damaged, complex and dynamic stability analysis and vessel motions analysis using industry-standard tools.
• Collaborative – able to quickly establish productive and positive working relationships with a range of stakeholders who have different approaches, interests and styles
• Strong communicator – ability to engage with stakeholders and explain complex issues concisely. Clear and accurate writer
• Accountable – keeps commitments, adapts to challenges to maintain progress, openly addresses errors and shortfalls
• Positive Outlook – A positive, solution-orientated attitude, supportive of other team members and stakeholders, criticism is constructive and builds the work and the team forward

Desirable Attributes

• Experience designing marine aluminium structures
• Experience with weight management processes in design and production
• Adaptability – Able to adapt to evolving requirements and changing operational conditions in a dynamic program environment
• An ability to rapidly assimilate information and describe viable concepts for solutions
• Experience in waterfront engineering, commissioning or set-to-work in a marine vessel new build or sustainment context
• Clear understanding of systems engineering process - from requirements analysis, specification writing, through to system and sub-system level design/interface description
• Professional Engineering credentials, for example, MIEAust, MRINA, Chartered Engineer

Location: we operate a nationally-distributed team. The project is centred around our Newcastle, Canberra and East Melbourne teams / locations. All east-coast mainland locations will be considered, but a moderate amount of domestic travel should be expected as part of the role.

Employment type: Permanent full time, with flexible work arrangements available.

We offer a broad range of employment benefits and flexibility provisions. Please see https://www.gibbscox.com.au/careers/ for an overview.

The successful applicant will be required to hold a valid NV1 security clearance or have the ability to obtain and maintain a valid security clearance as well as other mandatory background checks including a National Police check.