A day in the life of a systems engineer at Inzpire
28 Mar 24
GECOMission Support Systems and Services OBU
BY Stuart Macintosh
Meet Stuart Macintosh, one of our exceptional systems engineers who works on our safety enhancing GECO mission planning software. We caught up with him to find out more about his role and what it’s like to be part of our award-winning Mission Systems team.
Please tell us a little bit about your job.
My role is very diverse and supports many elements of the software development lifecycle for GECO mission planning software, such as requirements capture, design, development, testing and deployment.
One of my primary responsibilities is to develop software test tools. This can cover a variety of applications such as GPS simulation and data injection, as well as setting up test environments and servers.
When not directly programming I am often employed in the role of requirements management, which involves analysing software releases and extracting appropriate requirements for us to test our software. I then construct and write test procedures that ensure we deliver a quality product. This role also provides an excellent opportunity to discover software bugs or potential new features that I can highlight within our tracking system.
The Mission Systems team is also incredibly supportive of my further development. I am constantly improving my programming skills with additional courses and training sessions.
What’s your typical day like?
Every day is different, which is one of the things I love about my role. There’s always a new problem to solve or a new challenge to overcome.
I start my day with an engineering standup meeting, which is an open forum to ask questions, raise any issues or concerns and to share findings or discoveries from the previous day. The meetings give each member of the team a clear indication of what their priorities are. Then, we are given a fair degree of latitude to manage our time in a flexible and effective way to complete our taskings.
Testing is an easy task to get stuck into thanks to our well-written procedures and can vary from a relatively simple test that may take a day or two, to a more complex test that can sometimes take over a week to complete.
When deriving requirements and writing tests, a lot of my time can be taken up reading through the software update notes and gaining a full understanding of the change at hand followed by organising the requirements tests into a logical flow and structure. The real challenge here is to make a simple, comprehensible test that is easy to repeat.
When developing software, it’s often tempting to dive straight into the code, but there’s a lot of value and benefit in doing research into the software you’re planning to write. Taking time to pour through design documents and configuration manuals is a must to gain a proper understanding of the problem that you are trying to solve. I often enjoy planning out the code that I’m going to write beforehand, even if it’s just a simple sketch of what the application might look like or a simple flow diagram of how the software will behave. Coding is my favourite part of the job, and when I find myself ‘in the zone’ I can often complete a whole day in what feels like a blink of an eye.
The element I most enjoy about my role, is knowing that what we produce is really making a difference. © UK MOD Crown Copyright 2022, SAC Iain Curlett RAF
How does your previous experience and background in the RAF help you to add value for our customers?
In the RAF I served as an avionics technician by trade however, I was fortunate to spend the last decade of my career as a member, and eventually a manager of a software team delivering aircraft maintenance software. Although somewhat of a unique role for the avionics trade, I found this gave me an ideal footing when starting with the Mission Systems team.
My former role gave me a solid foundation in software development and testing techniques as well as implementing and delivering software to the RAF on a global scale. I earned an in-depth knowledge of the standard of software expected as well as the rigorous process of validation and accreditation expected for new in-service software, especially when used on aircraft.
What’s the team dynamic like within Mission Systems?
The team dynamic is brilliant. I was really taken aback when I started with the team. I feel trusted to get my tasks done, and that my contributions are truly valued. You really get a sense of the “work hard, play hard” ethos and we enjoy a variety of non-work activities. We have an active lunchtime ‘bimble’ club for our resident runners and walkers, we hold a weekly Toasty Tuesday and have recently started regular team meals and activities. All of which really foster a kind and friendly workplace.
The team dynamic is brilliant… we hold a weekly Toasty Tuesday and have recently started regular team meals and activities.
We have many highly skilled members with amazing technical ability but also fantastic project managers, technical support representatives and a thorough safety team to keep us on track and focused. Everyone is approachable and willing to help at any moment.
The management are extremely supportive and eager to help us grow and achieve our personal objectives and goals. I’ve recently started enhancing my programming skills with a six-month package of advanced programming courses and one-to-one training sessions.
How does life at Inzpire compare to your time in service, and how was the transition to a civilian career?
The transition was seamless and easy from my perspective. I knew I was ready for new challenges and new projects to further hone my skills and the timing was just right to make the move from service person to civilian. I think I was also fortunate to have been slightly older when joining the forces, and I had held several jobs prior to joining the RAF which meant I had a little experience and knowledge of what to expect within a civilian career.
Inzpire feels very similar to my service career, but a lot more organised and focused. It’s comforting to be around so may ex-service people, but also refreshing to work alongside people with no military experience where I’m able to discover different ideas and views. It’s a perfect mix and I’m extremely happy at Inzpire. I have no doubt in my mind that I made the right move.
What do you enjoy most about working at Inzpire?
The element I most enjoy, is knowing that what we produce is really making a difference. We are making peoples’ jobs easier and delighting our customers by providing new features and tools that haven’t been seen before. I think that must be the most satisfying element of any software developer’s role; knowing that people potentially all over the world are making use of something that you’ve shared a part in creating.
Beyond that, the people, and the culture within both the Mission Systems team and Inzpire as a whole make my role and workplace a really enjoyable place to be.
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