Principal/Lead Systems Safety Engineer – Raven

Leonardo; City of Edinburgh; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Leonardo UK Ltd in Edinburgh is seeking a Senior or Principal Systems Engineer specialising in Product Safety to ensure our products are safe, certifiable and fit for operational use across the system lifecycle.

You will identify and manage safety risks, provide robust evidence for engineering decisions and certification activities, and mentor engineers while contributing to continuous safety capability improvement.

Qualifications

• Degree in Systems Engineering, Safety Engineering, or related STEM field.
• Experience delivering Product Safety in complex engineering environments.
• Knowledge of lifecycle interactions between safety, systems engineering and design.
• Familiarity with FHA, PHA, FTA, FMEA/FMECA and safety cases.
• Ability to communicate complex information to stakeholders.
• Experience producing safety evidence and technical reports.
• Ability to work independently within multidisciplinary teams.

Responsibilities

• Deliver Product Safety activities across the system lifecycle.
• Develop hazard analyses, safety assessments, and safety cases.
• Identify and manage safety risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies.
• Support certification, qualification and acceptance with customers and authorities.
• Collaborate with systems, software, hardware, and integration teams to implement safety requirements.
• Lead or support safety work packages and progress reporting.
• Provide mentoring and peer review within the engineering community.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of safety processes and tools.

Skills

Product Safety

Hazard analysis

FHA/FTA/PHA

FMEA/FMECA

Technical reporting

Education

Engineering degree (STEM)

Job description

Job Description:

Your Impact

As a Senior or Principal Systems Engineer specialising in Product Safety, you will help ensure Leonardo's products are safe, certifiable and fit for operational use throughout the system lifecycle. You will contribute to complex defence and aerospace programmes by identifying, assessing and managing safety risks, providing robust evidence to support engineering decisions, customer acceptance and certification activities.

Working within multidisciplinary Integrated Project Teams (IPTs), you will influence system requirements, design, integration, verification and operational activities, ensuring safety considerations are embedded throughout programme delivery. You will also contribute to the development of Systems Safety engineering capability through mentoring, knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

As part of the Raven programme, you will apply sound engineering judgement to complex Product Safety challenges, supporting the resolution of emerging safety issues and helping to maintain a robust path to certification, acceptance and operational deployment. You will support both ongoing in-service activities for current versions and the development of future versions, including early lifecycle systems engineering activities such as requirements definition, architecture development and design reviews.

What you'll do

• Deliver Product Safety engineering activities across multiple phases of the system lifecycle.
• Develop and maintain hazard analyses, safety assessments, safety cases and associated evidence.
• Identify, analyse and manage product safety risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies.
• Support certification, qualification and acceptance activities with customers and assurance authorities.
• Work closely with systems, software, hardware and integration teams to ensure safety requirements are effectively implemented.
• Investigate and support resolution of safety incidents, safety arisings and emerging technical issues.
• Ensure traceability between hazards, requirements, mitigations and verification evidence.
• Support design reviews, gate reviews and engineering assurance activities.
• Lead or support safety work packages, planning activities and reporting progress against project objectives.
• Provide peer review, technical guidance and mentoring to engineers within the wider engineering community.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of safety engineering processes, methods and tools.

What you'll bring

We really need you to have the following in order to succeed in this role:

• Degree in Systems Engineering, Safety Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electronic Engineering or a related STEM discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Experience delivering Product Safety engineering activities within a complex engineering environment.
• Knowledge of multiple phases of the engineering lifecycle and the interaction between safety, systems engineering and design disciplines.
• Experience applying recognised safety analysis techniques such as:
  • Functional Hazard Assessment (FHA)
  • Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA)
  • Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)
  • Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA/FMECA)
  • Hazard Logs and Safety Cases
• Ability to communicate complex technical information to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience producing high-quality technical reports, safety evidence and engineering documentation.
• Ability to work independently whilst collaborating effectively within multidisciplinary teams.

If you have the above skills, the following will really help you stand out:

• Experience within the aerospace, defence or other highly regulated sectors.
• Knowledge of standards such as DEF STAN 00-056, MIL-STD-882, ARP4761, IEC 61508 or equivalent industry standards.
• Experience supporting safety certification and customer acceptance activities.
• Experience leading engineering work packages, planning activities and managing technical risks.
• Experience conducting peer reviews and providing technical mentoring.
• Membership of a relevant professional institution and working towards, or holding, Incorporated Engineer (IEng) or Chartered Engineer (CEng) status

Security Clearance

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV). For more information and guidance please visit https://careers.uk.leonardo.com/gb/en/security-and-vetting

Why join us

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We offer a comprehensive, company-funded benefits package that supports your wellbeing, career development, and work–life balance. Whether you're looking to grow professionally, care for your health, or plan for the future, we’re here to help you thrive.

• Time to Recharge: Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year.
• Secure your Future: Benefit from our award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution.
• Your Wellbeing Matters: Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Armed Forces, Carers, Wellbeing and Ethnicity).
• Rewarding Performance: All employees at management level and below are eligible for our bonus scheme.
• Never Stop Learning: Free access to 4,000+ online courses via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.
• Refer a friend: Receive a financial reward through our referral programme.
• Tailored Perks: Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.
• Flexible working: Flexible hours with hybrid working options. For part time opportunities, please talk to us about what might be possible for this role.

For a full list of our company benefits please visit our website.

Leonardo is a global leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. Headquartered in Italy, we employ over 53,000 people worldwide including 8,500 across 9 sites in the UK. Our employees are not just part of a team—they are key contributors to shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.

At Leonardo we are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.

Primary Location:

GB - Edinburgh

Additional Locations:

GB - Newcastle

Contract Type:

Employee-Permanent

Hybrid Working:

Hybrid