Generally a good place to work, but with some major flaws
Pros
The decent benefits are decent (for engineering) and the flexitime scheme gives a respectable work life balance by UK standards. There is a limited training budget, but overall the training opportunities are above average. By and large there is a friendly working environment. There are some very interesting projects to work on. For (prospective) systems engineers and project managers, I would say MBDA is a good place to be.
Cons
Most of the recruitment is via the graduate scheme, with interviews conducted to assess general skills and behaviours. Unfortunately, in my experience, this approach is also applied to experienced candidates, so don't be surprised to not see your prospective line manager in your interview. On your first day at work you may also be surprised to find that your role bares little or no similarity to the one for which you applied and that your line manager wasn't entirely behind your employment. Be warned, you may end up as a square peg in a round hole! There is limited room for progression once you've reached level 4, which you should reach with 3-4 years experience post-graduate scheme. In order to move higher, you have to be managing a set number of people meaning that people that want to follow a purely the path to Technical Expert, rather than project management, are likely to be stuck at this level for many years, if not permanently. This is a systems engineering company, so if you're looking to do 'hands on' engineering, technology or scientific research be very careful because although there are areas of the business within which you can pursue these disciplines, on the whole they are are few and far between.