System Safety Engineer

Role: Systems Safety Engineer

Location: Fairfax, VA (On Site)

Salary: Up to $220K DOE

Clearance: Clearable US Citizen

Benefits:

• 25% 401K contributions (zero vesting period - no personal contribution required)

• Additional 25% of salary paid into Individual Benefits Account

• Up to 8 weeks PTO

• Flexible working

• Annual Salary increase

• Annual Bonus

• 100% Paid learning and certifications up to PhD!

Relocation assistance if applicable.

About

Our client is a prime contractor, delivering reputable contributions to critical programs in safeguarding the US and beyond. Seeking a System Safety Engineer with strong familiarity with SAE ARP4754A, with a preference on those with general System Engineering and Programming experience in the defense and avionics sectors.

Key Responsibilities

Apply applicable safety and development assurance standards (e.g., ARP4754A, ARP4761) to system development and lifecycle processes.

Define and validate system safety requirements, ensuring traceability through hardware and software implementations.

Collaborate with systems and design engineers to prepare, review, and maintain safety documentation and analyses, and provide regular status updates to project leadership.

Support the creation of comprehensive System Safety Assessments (SSA) and supporting analyses:

Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)

Common Cause Analysis (CCA)

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)

Conduct ongoing Safety Risk Management (SRM) activities, including:

Hazard identification

Risk assessment and classification

Mitigation planning and tracking

Participate in and contribute to the System Safety Working Group (SSWG), including safety presentations and technical discussions with the program’s customer and stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.

Minimum of 5 years professional experience in system safety engineering for safety-critical systems.

Demonstrated experience with the following industry standards:

SAE ARP4754A (System Development Assurance)

SAE ARP4761 (Safety Assessment for Aircraft Systems)

RTCA DO-178C (Software Certification)

RTCA DO-278A (Ground-based CNS/ATM Systems)

RTCA DO-254 (Hardware Certification)

Familiarity with systems engineering and software development processes for complex, integrated systems.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with GNSS technologies (e.g., GPS, Galileo, SBAS systems).

Background in safety and reliability engineering for civil or military avionics, particularly navigation systems or other safety-critical platforms.

Previous experience collaborating with safety certification authorities or regulators.

Knowledge of Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) principles and tools.

Strong written and verbal communication skills, especially in cross-functional and customer-facing environments.