Digital Aviation Solution Architect

Job description / Role

Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

In fast changing markets, customers worldwide rely on Thales. Thales is a business where brilliant people from all over the world come together to share ideas and inspire each other. In aerospace, transportation, defence, security and space, our architects design innovative solutions that make our tomorrow's possible.

Thales has built a presence in the United Arab Emirates for over 35 years, and today has over 300 employees. Thales in the UAE is part of our Middle East business that has 1,800 people across Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, KSA, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar and UAE. Together we delivered technology for the Dubai metro, the longest driverless metro network in the world and a fare collection system that processes up to 250,000 transactions per day. We make UAE a safer place by providing secure electronic payment solutions, cyber security systems and communications as well as security systems for Dubai International Airport and air traffic management and navigation systems for Abu Dhabi’s airport.

Roles & Responsibilities
The key responsibilities of the position are as follows:
- Support the ECOsystem pre-sales activities in the assigned region:
- Represent Thales on official bodies, industry working groups, conferences (e.g. ICAO, CANSO, etc.) on Aviation Digitalization.
- Contribute to the outcomes of such collaborations (presentations, roadmaps, white papers etc.), notably on ATFM and UTM with the relevant product teams.
- Analyse the customer technical environment, and establish the mapping of customer requirements to the Product features and roadmap, in order to: i) define the MVC (Minimum Viable Configuration) that will be sufficient for the Product service to go-Live for a particular customer, ii) and to identify potential adaptors that will be required to integrate the Product in the customer environment
- Influence potential customers by effectively understanding how ECOsystem solutions can address their business needs, operational concepts and priorities.
- Promote Thales advanced concepts and solutions, tailored to individual challenges.
- design and implement cost-effective ECOsystem demonstrations or pilot projects in relation with those concepts together with customers/partners and with the support of the ECOsystem team, in constant alignment with the Product Manager and Product development teams;
- In collaboration with Product Development teams, support the Engagement Manager in defining the scope of work that will be specifically required to configure, deploy and potentially customize the product for a particular customer
- Support the Regional ECOsystem sales & capture through:
- Supporting commercial teams in understanding customer needs and designing/articulating appropriate customer solutions;
- Participating to proposal activities including solution design, risk/opportunity assessment, costing and scheduling.
- Responsible for customer on-boarding and operational support objectives:
- Oversee the recruitment, development and mentoring of the regional Customer Success technical/operational team ensuring suitable team size and skills necessary to address the market opportunities;
- Coordinate, with the various ECOsystem Product Managers and Development Teams, the preparation and delivery of value-generating solutions for regional customers:
- Preparation of demonstrations to prospective customers/influencers in the region (e.g. seminars, conferences, etc.)
- Adaptation of ECOsystem to specific local environments (e.g. data interface) including the development and integration of specific SW customization or adaptors, if required
- Lead system configuration and testing in the customer specific environment and data set, and deployment until Go-Live
- Lead on-premises deployments and site acceptance tests, if required
- Maintenance activities during projects execution and customer lifecycle usage of ECOsystem applications.
- Maintain connection with Digital Aviation Product Development chapter leaders ensuring good alignment of regional technical activities with global strategy.
- Support the customers utilization of deployed solutions including:
- Support the delivery of the best quality service, according to the committed SLA, including system capacity and availability, and customer support, based on the Continuous Delivery pipeline provided by Product Development teams.
- Participate to Customer Support: responses to customer, characterization and triage of technical issues together with Product Development teams.
- Lead the periodic deployment of new product releases, according to the product strategy and the delivery governance agreed with the customer.
- Develop a sound understanding of the ECOsystem platform and maintain current, specific knowledge of application domains like ATFM and UTM.

Challenges
Several challenges characterise the job position and shape the required qualities of the job holder:
- A high level of interaction/collaboration with other regional and global teams.
- The Digital Aviation team is geographically distributed
- Culturally diverse customers/partners.
- Need to engage at commercial, operational and technical levels with domain and technology experts.
- Interaction with C-level executives.
- Operate in a true multi-cultural and international organization.
- Manage multi levels of internal senior stakeholders.

Key Communications
- Internal: Digital Aviation teams, ATM BL Sales, ATM BL Technical Directorates, local Thales country teams, KAMs from other GBUs (for airlines and airports).
- External: Aviation Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs), Civil Aviation Authorities (CAAs), Safety Regulators, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), Airlines, Airport Authorities, global and regional industry associations, trade unions and industrial partners.

Requirements

Qualifications / preferred skills & experience

General
- Assist in ensuring a harmonious work environment in all departments that you are working with by upholding Thales's key values.
- Comply with all relevant company Occupational Health, Safety and Environmental policies and framework and work practices with the intent of preventing or minimising accidental exposures to self, colleagues, visitors and/or the environment and to ensure safe work practises at all times.
- Comply with all relevant Company policies and procedures.

Qualifications
- Appropriate qualifications in technical disciplines (e.g. Systems Engineering)

Essential Experience/Skills
- A thorough knowledge of SW-based systems engineering and verification/validation
- Experience designing, developing, integrating and validating complex systems
- A good understanding and experience of Agile Development practices
- A good understanding of cloud technologies and DevOps principles
- Excellent interpersonal skills and a positive demeanour in order to effectively engage stakeholders at all levels of influence.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills.
- Ten years minimum experience holding senior positions in System Engineering or Technical Leadership.
- Five years minimum experience demonstrating proficiency in the aviation domain
- Prior experience in the geographic region or another similar one demonstrating an ability to generate results.
- A solid know-how in developing emerging markets and implementing new technologies.
- Proven ability to work in a multi-cultural environment and with a variety of international customers.
- Language: fluent English mandatory, French would be a plus, tertiary languages relevant to the assigned geography are helpful.

Desirable Behaviour
- Aptitude to work effectively as part of a team.
- Comfort in facing and managing ambiguity and uncertainty.
- Sound judgement and independent decision-making capability where necessary.
- Resilience under pressure.
- Capacity to learn quickly.
- Capability to engage various stakeholders having different objectives.

At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working. Great journeys start here, apply now!

About the Company

Thales is a global leader in advanced technologies, investing in digital and “deep tech” innovations – connectivity, big data, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and quantum computing – to build a confident future crucial for the development of our societies. The Group provides its customers – businesses, organizations and governments – in the defense, aeronautics, space, transport, and digital identity and security domains with solutions, services and products that help them fulfil their critical role, consideration for the individual being the driving force behind all decisions.

Thales has 81,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2020 the Group generated sales of €17 billion and Self-funded R&D 1B€.