Professor in Digital Design

The Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics within the School of Engineering at the University of Southampton is looking to strengthen and expand in the area of digital design, model-based engineering and model-based systems engineering withfocus on new systems and processes required for lifecycle design and the tools required to achieve this. The chair is partially funded by Airbus and is a strategic long-term investment aimed at enhancing collaborative activities with the University. Our current Airbus funded research includes developing new strategies for Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted automated design rationale capture, development of parametric geometry tools and reduced-order models for rapid calculations of aerodynamic/aero-structural performance. You will work closely with colleagues at Airbus and the department to leverage external funding opportunities and develop a diverse and world-renowned research team that maximises the value of this strategic investment. In addition, you will develop a broad academic network at Southampton and across the wider research ecosystem and collaborate with industrial partners beyond Airbus.

You will join a very active department and school with inter-disciplinary research interests across all areas of Aeronautics and Astronautics where fundamental and industrially relevant problems are addressed with theoretical, experimental and computational methods. The Department is part of the School of Engineering where complementary work in aerodynamics and propulsion, battery technologies, unmanned aerial and underwater vehicles, computational engineering and design, mechatronics, materials science and additive manufacturing are carried out. The School has recently made major investments in new experimental facilities across different departments in experimental aerodynamics, propulsion, structural mechanics, material science and additive manufacturing. The University also hosts one of the most powerful supercomputers in the UK. We are home to two Rolls-Royce University Technology Centres (UTC), one in Computational Engineering and the other in Propulsion Systems Noise. We also host the Airbus Noise Technology Centre. You will have the opportunity to collaborate with academic colleagues within these research centres.

To be successful you will have interests, and a background and experience and identity that can broaden and enhance the diversity of our department. This is a full-time permanent post and the successful applicant must have a PhD or equivalent professional qualifications in any area of Engineering/Applied Mathematics.

You should be able to evidence:

• research experience in any area relevant to digital design and/or model-based systems engineering with the motivation to expand your research/innovation activities across a range of new topics in aerospace design.
• academic reputation demonstrated by high quality journal publications and a portfolio of external funding
• your ability to work in a diverse team and can create opportunities for colleagues at different career stages
• your ability to develop and deliver new modules with innovative teaching and assessment approaches
• that you are caring and approachable and can support students (UG/PG) and staff (researchers and colleagues)
• your leadership potential and/or experience in pro-actively and positively contributing to management
• your ability to participate in collegial activities relevant to the department (open days, outreach activities etc).

For details about the department and the different research groups, please visit

For more information about our undergraduate programmes, please visit .

All applications should include a research vision statement, a teaching statement highlighting ideas for innovation in education and a diversity statement addressing your commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity in higher education.

Note that the online application form will also require you enter the text in corresponding text boxes. If you are unable to use the text box, please upload PDFs of these three statements (no more than 1 page per statement) and provide a summary of these statements in the online form.

For informal enquiries, please contact Head of Department, Prof. Bharathram Ganapathisubramani, g.bharath@soton.ac.uk.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion is central to the ethos in the University and within School of Engineering. We particularly encourage women, Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME), LGBTQ+ and disabled applicants to apply for this position. In recognition of our continued commitment to improving equality for women in science we were awarded an Athena SWAN bronze in 2013 and 2016. We also give full consideration to applicants that wish to work flexibly including part-time and due consideration will be given to applicants who have taken a career break. The University has a generous maternity policy (subject to qualifying criteria) and onsite childcare facilities.

The University of Southampton is in the top 1% of world universities and in the top 10 of the UK's research-intensive universities. The University of Southampton is committed to sustainability and being a globally responsible university and has recently been awarded the Platinum EcoAward. Our vision is to embed the principles of sustainability into all aspects of our individual and collective work, integrating sustainable development into our business planning, policy-making, and professional activities. This commits all of our staff and students to take responsibility for managing their activities to minimise harm to the environment, whether this is through switching off non-essential electrical equipment or using the recycling facilities.

We aim to be an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all sections of the community.