Focus on Futures: ISR Careers

Children, young adults and aerospace and defence professionals are talking passionately about the products on display. And as you stand in the shadow of the vast A380 you can see why.

It’s at events like Farnborough where we are reminded of how exciting the work we do at Thales is. The people admiring the aerial displays might not know that our air traffic management systems help two thirds of the world’s planes take off and land safely. Equally, they might not be aware that Thales teams are behind the cockpit technology of the iconic Hercules A400M transporter. But we are, and standing in the impressive Thales pavilion you get a real feel for just how advanced our solutions are – something that’s all too easy to forget when you don’t see the end result of our work up close every day.

One man who does is Edward Jackson, an Intelligence Analyst working in Optronics at the Bury St. Edmunds site. From qualifying as a civil engineer to joining the RAF and becoming an electrical engineer and then retraining as an intelligence analyst, his career path was far from typical. In fact, along the way he has been awarded the Bronze Star by the US Government and travelled extensively supporting Thales customers as they implement our Intelligence, Surveillance, Targeting and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) solutions all over the world.

So what would he say to young people considering a career in reconnaissance and targeting?

There are a few graduate positions out there, but most intelligence analysts are trained through the military. The one constant in what we do is people; you can’t train a computer to do what we do. The technology, the science, the equipment – they’re all constantly evolving. So there’s always something new to learn.”                             

While Edward’s path to his current career was through the military, Thales offers a number of graduate roles that could pave the way to a career as an intelligence analyst. If you or someone you know is a recent graduate interested in pursuing a career in this highly technical and crucially important area, please refer them to our graduate website.

To learn about other opportunities in Aerospace and Defence, please visit our internal job board.