Energetics Safety & Assurance Lead

Destinus; Katwijk; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Destinus seeks an Energetics Safety & Assurance Officer to own safety, quality, and regulatory assurance across missile and UAS platforms. You will identify risks early, challenge designs, and embed safety throughout the product lifecycle, coordinating with engineering, manufacturing, testing, and compliance teams.

You will lead hazard analyses, safety investigations, and ensure compliance with explosives safety standards while interfacing with authorities and customers.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical discipline with relevant defense safety experience.
• 8+ years in defense systems safety or explosives safety in a defense manufacturing environment.
• Strong knowledge of MIL-STD-882E or equivalent system safety frameworks.
• Experience with insensitive munitions standards and range safety practices.
• Hands-on hazard analyses, FMEA, fault tree analysis, and safety case documentation.
• Experience with safety-critical hardware and multidisciplinary engineering systems.
• Familiarity with export control regimes for munitions and dual-use technologies.
• Strong technical documentation skills and ability to translate complex assessments into actions.
• Professional working proficiency in English.
• Master's degree is a plus.
• CSP certification is a plus.
• Direct experience with missile propulsion, energetic materials, warhead integration, arming and fuzing systems, or UAS flight test safety is highly valued.
• Experience with government authorities in airworthiness, range safety, ordnance certification is a strong advantage.

Responsibilities

• Develop, implement, and maintain the System Safety Program Plan SSPP in line with MIL-STD-882E and relevant standards.
• Conduct and lead hazard analyses including PHA, SSHA, and OSHA, plus FMEA and fault tree analysis across weapon and aerospace subsystems.
• Own and maintain the hazard tracking process, driving risks through assessment, mitigation, verification, and closure.
• Lead investigations into safety incidents, near misses, test anomalies, and other safety-critical events; define CAPA actions.
• Oversee explosives safety requirements covering siting, storage, handling, transportation, and quantity-distance criteria.
• Collaborate with range safety officers for live-fire and flight test campaigns.
• Ensure energetic materials, warheads, propulsion systems meet certification requirements before integration and testing.
• Coordinate export control and end-use compliance documentation with legal teams per arms export and dual-use regs.
• Interface with certifying authorities, government representatives, and customer quality teams during qualification and acceptance.
• Maintain configuration control and end-to-end traceability for safety-critical components and systems.
• Act as safety authority within IPTs and provide input during PDR, CDR, TRR reviews.
• Advise engineering on safety margins, fail-safe/OP architectures, arming and fuzing logic, risk mitigation.
• Train and support production, integration, and test personnel in safe handling of live/inert ordnance.
• Provide leadership to government safety boards with clear visibility of safety status and risks.

Skills

System safety engineering

Explosives safety

MIL-STD-882E

Hazard analysis

FMEA

Fault tree analysis

Safety case

Export controls

Arming and fuzing risk

English proficiency

Education

Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering

Master's degree in Engineering (preferred)

Certified Safety Professional CSP

Job description

Destinus seeks an Energetics Safety & Assurance Officer to own safety, quality, and regulatory assurance across missile and UAS platforms. You will identify risks early, challenge designs, and embed safety throughout the product lifecycle, coordinating with engineering, manufacturing, testing, and compliance teams.

You will lead hazard analyses, safety investigations, and ensure compliance with explosives safety standards while interfacing with authorities and customers.