Mission Safety Engineer

Outlier; Auckland; Hybrid; NZD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Outlier, an innovative high-velocity aerospace company in Auckland, seeks a Mission Safety Engineer. You will address complex analytical and safety challenges across all mission phases from design to recovery, collaborating with diverse engineering teams to ensure safe, compliant operations.

You could be developing expertise alongside senior engineers or taking technical ownership of major analyses to shape mission safety strategy at Outlier.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics or related field.
• 4+ years in engineering analysis or aerospace systems.
• Experience owning analytical workstreams or safety-critical modelling.
• Strong knowledge of launch vehicle dynamics and mission analysis.

Responsibilities

• Develop mission safety analyses across trajectory, debris, toxic hazards, casualty expectation and probabilistic risk.
• Build and improve the models, simulations and analytical tools that help understand vehicle behaviour and risks.
• Turn complex analysis into clear, defensible engineering evidence for mission approval and regulatory submissions.
• Develop and verify modelling assumptions, methods and outputs for traceability and review readiness.
• Support safety assessments and methodologies for regulatory requirements like FAA Part 450.
• Collaborate with GNC, avionics, propulsion, mechanical and mission ops engineers.
• Support mission reviews, flight operations and anomaly investigations with rapid analysis.
• Challenge and improve tools and processes to scale mission safety capabilities.

Skills

Flight dynamics

Orbital mechanics

Numerical modelling

Python

C/C++

MATLAB

Technical writing

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics

Tools

MATLAB

Python

C/C++

Job description

Outlier is an innovative high-velocity aerospace company, on a mission to lead innovation in orbit through reusable satellite platforms and secure payload returns .

Our vision is to enable a sustainable orbital economy where reusable technologies unlock results unattainable on Earth.

We provide significant autonomy and flexibility for our team, choosing to hire world‑class talent that can deliver world‑leading outcomes. Our people are tenacious and specialists in their field. Most importantly, they are always looking for opportunities for improvement.

At Outlier, we move fast and develop ‘savvy’ but elegant solutions. We hold ourselves to our own standards of excellence that our competition is simply unable (and unwilling) to meet. We bring our true selves to work, but what binds us are our shared principles:

• Own the Yellow Jersey : We don’t follow the competition; we set the standard of excellence required. With discipline and work ethic, we strive to be the best in the world at what we do. By prioritising quality and mission assurance, execution follows.
• Create the Future We Want to Occupy : We invent what doesn’t exist yet, solve the hardest problems first, and do it with moral clarity and long‑term vision. We do solutions not complaints, increasing productivity. We're continuously looking for opportunities to be better.
• We Scale the Wall Together : We lean into the challenge. Every single team member takes extreme ownership and responsibility while fostering critical collaboration. We succeed together or we fail together, through a culture of trust, transparent communication, and looking out for each other. The team’s success is your success.
• Savvy Outcomes, Achieved Rapidly : We apply savvy, frugal, first‑principles thinking to solve problems without ever compromising on quality. We deliver 10× the impact with less resources than anyone else. We experiment to answer unknowns and de‑risk the path forward early.

Your opportunity at Outlier

At Outlier, mission safety isn’t something that happens at the end of a programme. It’s part of how we design, test and fly. As a Mission Safety Engineer, you’ll help solve the complex analytical and safety challenges behind our missions, from early modelling and mission design through launch, on‑orbit operations, reentry and recovery.

You’ll work alongside engineers across the business, developing the models, analysis and evidence we need to understand risk, make good engineering decisions and demonstrate that our missions can be flown safely.

We’re open to intermediate through to principal‑level engineers with the scope of the role aligning with your experience. You could be developing your expertise alongside experienced engineers or taking technical ownership of major analyses and helping shape how we approach mission safety at Outlier.

What you'll do

• Develop mission safety analyses across trajectory, debris, toxic hazards, casualty expectation and probabilistic risk.
• Build and improve the models, simulations and analytical tools that help us understand how our vehicles behave and where the real mission risks sit.
• Turn complex analysis into clear, defensible engineering evidence that supports mission approval, flight readiness and regulatory submissions.
• Develop and verify modelling assumptions, methods and analytical outputs so our work is robust, traceable and ready for technical and regulatory review.
• Support safety assessments and methodologies associated with FAA Part 450 and other mission approval requirements.
• Work directly with GNC, avionics, propulsion, mechanical, manufacturing and mission operations engineers to solve problems across the complete mission lifecycle.
• Support mission reviews, flight operations and anomaly investigations, including rapid analysis when things don’t go exactly to plan.
• Challenge and improve our tools, methods and processes as we build a mission safety capability that can scale with Outlier.
• As your experience allows, take ownership of major analytical workstreams, lead technical reviews, define approaches and mentor other engineers.

Your Capabilities

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or a related discipline.
• 4+ years of experience in engineering analysis, numerical modelling, simulation, aerospace systems analysis, or related technical domains.
• Demonstrated experience owning complex analytical workstreams or safety‑critical modelling activities.
• Strong understanding of launch vehicle flight dynamics, orbital mechanics, guidance, navigation and control, and mission analysis principles.
• Advanced capability in Python, C/C++, MATLAB, or equivalent analytical programming environments.
• Strong technical writing skills, including experience producing review‑ready and regulatory‑quality documentation.
• Experience reviewing technical work and mentoring junior engineers.
• Strong understanding of verification, validation, configuration control, and engineering assurance principles.
• Able to balance rapid execution with high analytical rigour and traceability.
• Proven ability to deliver technically sound analysis products that withstand independent review.

Ideal Additional Capabilities

• Master's degree or PhD in Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, Aerospace Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 8+ years of experience in aerospace analysis, mission safety, flight dynamics, modelling, or simulation.
• Experience supporting FAA, NASA, New Zealand Space Agency, or United States Department of Defense regulatory requirements.
• Experience developing or reviewing flight safety packages and regulatory submissions.
• Experience supporting launch, reentry, or mission operations decision‑making.
• Background in probabilistic risk assessment, debris modelling, toxic hazard modelling, or range safety analysis.
• Experience leading technical reviews or acting as a subject matter expert for a major analysis domain.

If you wake up every day wanting to out‑engineer the entire industry, solve problems that matter for humanity’s future, and do it with a tight team that trusts you completely, then this is the opportunity you’ve been seeking.

Kindly note: You’ll need to have the right to work in New Zealand to be considered for this role.