Head of Human Machine Teaming

Location: Reading, United Kingdom

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.

Together we offer fantastic opportunities for committed employees to learn and develop their career with us. At Thales UK, we research, develop, and supply technology and services that impact the lives of millions of people each day to make life better, and keep us safer. We innovate across the major industries of Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space. Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

Head of Human Machine Teaming

Location: Reading

Hours of work: 37 Hrs/Week (Monday-Friday) – Minimum 3 days at office

Our Opportunity

Thales Group designs a range of state-of-the-art solutions for some of the most technically advanced defence and security platforms in the world, and we’re seeking a Head for Human Machine Teaming Research who can apply their knowledge and lead the Human Factors Capability and Engineering projects/programs.  As an expert in Human Factors Engineering, you will be responsible for implementing Human Factors best practice methodologies.

The RTI (Research, Technology and Innovation) function is at the centre of Thales UK supporting growth in all of the key market areas, and spearheading activity into future markets identified as growth opportunities. Creating an environment where staff find working with RTI an enjoyable, empowering and creative experience. As a key capability in RTI, the Human Factors Team are responsible for shaping the future user experience of Thales technology.

In this role you will lead the Human Machine Teaming (HMT) research agenda for Thales UK, coordinating HMT research across the UK and actively accelerating the core, strategic research programmes. Identify and securing external funding to complement this research agenda. The goal is to create technology and a user experience that drives forward Thales as a business and develops technical capability across Thales’ existing and future market segments.

Key responsibilities & Tasks:

• Represent Thales as a Human Factors & User Centred Design Champion, both within Thales and externally with existing and future customers.
• Leading a core team accelerating HMT core research in-particular Proof of Concept Development, Future HMI/HCI and Experimentation in Thales UK.
• Lead internal and external “guerrilla usability” evaluations of equipment, software tools and processes.
• Apply insights from the human sciences, including qualitative or quantitative research methods and UX/design thinking approaches, to understand and solve problems.
• Coordinating core research with other research groups namely AI and Autonomous System teams.
• Coordinate with product lines across Thales (we work on a lot of things) to identify HMT use-cases.
• Develop external contacts within Human Factors and R&D, focusing on user interface design and human factors.
• Help grow HMT research team capability and personnel.
• Plan, write, and deliver research outputs at a level suitable for publication

Under the governance of the Thales corporate technical strategy, investigate and develop new technologies and concepts up to TRL6 of relevance across multiple market domains and a wide range of application areas.

• Carry out fundamental feasibility studies, state-of-the-art surveys and modelling/simulation.
• Develop proof of concept demonstrators using appropriate software and hardware implementations
• Work within a research team to invent and explore new concepts and technologies and demonstrate their applicability to the Thales businesses.

The successful candidate will be expected to be at the forefront of defining our research and development strategy within the area of HMT, whilst being comfortable to work within and lead a group of researchers to deliver this strategy.

About You

• Have a real passion for empathising with our end users, helping others to express their issues with equipment/software and ability to develop ‘real trust’ with users.
• Show strong strategic thinking and technical leadership in HMT;
• Be self-motivated to drive the work forward;
• Have excellent communication skills, with the ability to understand and convey complex concepts, particularly when working with end users/customers;
• Have an ability to listen to customers, interpret their needs, seek clarification and reach agreement, with a view to developing long lasting relationships;
• Ability to work with ambiguity – due to our R&D work and early stage interventions, the work we do as a team can sometimes be less well defined, or for us as a team to define. You will be flexible in your approach to problems and willing to adapt to changes. You will also have the ability to take on-board feedback and respond positively, not fearing a proactive approach and seeking help from others when needed. Most importantly, you will be a person who does not struggle to adapt to change.
• Be able to support higher management;
• Most importantly will: Be passionate for, and a demonstrable deep interest and continual hunger to develop in the area of HMT.

Skills:

Mandatory Skills:

• Experience in a technical role - having specialised in one or more of the following areas:

Human Factors

User Experience

Applied Psychology

User centred design

System Engineering

• Prior experience of defence projects and working on Human Factors Integration (HFI) activities – knowledge and experience of JSP 912, DefStan 00-251 and relevant ISO standards.
• Track record of working in, and delivering research in HMT.
• Proven ability to plan and lead a number of large research projects, with 5+ years experience.
• In-Depth understanding of HMT research, in-particular deep learning techniques. E.g. Understanding of what foundation models are , how they can be trained with self-supervised learning and how they can be adapted to various downstream tasks.
• Python with deep understanding of Pytorch.
• Domain knowledge in various Imagery, acoustic and time-series datasets.
• Ability to understand complex new data and adapt existing technology to work with new datasets.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to understand and convey complex concepts.

Desirable skills:

• Experience in deployment of deep learning into production (developing robust ML-OPs pipelines).
• C++, Matlab, Java experience.
• Deployment of deep learning into edge devices, GPUs and FPGAs.

We also expect candidates to be proficient in the use of standard PC-based office tools. We currently use Microsoft tools: Windows, Word, Excel, Powerpoint. Access, Project & Visio.

Experience:

The successful candidate will typically have a significant experience in an appropriate ML/AI research or advanced development environment role, and have a good awareness of the Thales businesses, structure, governance and processes.

Qualifications:

We are open to a candidate from a wide variety of backgrounds. Your qualifications may include:

• A BSc, MSc or PhD in Psychology, Ergonomics, Human Factors or other relevant human science
• BEng Engineering with experience of Human Factors
• Chartership in a relevant area (Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors or British Psychological Society, for example)

Security Clearance statement

Due to the nature of the work that we do at Thales, many of our roles are subject to security restrictions. This role requires you to be a sole British National from birth and achieve Security Clearance (SC) without any caveats . It would be advantageous if currently held, however, if not currently held, it is a requirement that the successful applicant undergo, achieve, and maintain SC Clearance prior to commencing employment. Please visit the UKSV website for further guidance. United Kingdom Security Vetting - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
To be eligible for full SC, you generally need to have resided in the UK for the last 5 years. In some circumstances, a minimum of 3 years’ residence in the UK over the last 5 years may be accepted, with additional overseas checks.

What We Can Offer

We’re committed to giving you opportunities to be your best. We believe in embracing the passion and potential of our people, and to achieve this we offer market leading training, development and experiences, along with the opportunity to be mentored and coached by some of the smartest minds in the industry. We hire from within as our first priority, so you’ll have a myriad of opportunities within our diverse, global organisation.

Flexibility

Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

Benefits at Thales

Alongside a competitive base salary, we offer a variable compensation plan bonus and benefits package, which includes;

• Half day every Friday, usually finishing around 13:00pm
• Pension Scheme
• 28 days annual leave (Plus Bank Holidays) 
• Life Cover
• Progression and Development Opportunities
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Program and access to mental wellbeing app
• Employee discount shopping schemes on major brands and retailers

Thales is an equal opportunities employer and diversity and inclusion are integral to the success of Thales.

#LI-RS1

In line with Thales' Baseline Security requirements, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK and employment and/or education history for up to three years. Some vacancies may require full Security Clearance which can require further evidence to be provided. For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the Defence Business Services National Security Vetting (DBS NSV) Agency.

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.

Thales UK is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. We will provide reasonable adjustments and support to ensure neuro-diverse applicants or those with a disability or long-term condition can be their best during the recruitment process. To request an adjustment, if you need this job advert in an alternative format or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Resourcing Ops for mid to senior roles, or the Early Careers Team for graduate and apprentice roles.

Great journeys start here, apply now!