Spaceflight Certification Engineer — Safety Lead

Matchbox; Christchurch; On-site; NZD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Dawn Aerospace is seeking a Certification Engineer to join the Spaceplane Certification Team in Christchurch, NZ. You will own safety cases, coordinate with Civil Aviation Authorities, and drive risk mitigations across flight operations and engineering in a fast-moving environment.

You will lead end-to-end safety activities, develop operational risk assessments, and collaborate with flight operations, systems engineering, and external partners to ensure regulatory approval and safe operations

Qualifications

• Experience in safety-critical certification projects.
• Experience developing unmanned aircraft safety cases in medium/high risk categories.
• Knowledge of civil aviation rules, airspace designation and flight procedures.
• Background in launch safety and licensing processes.
• Familiarity with quality or safety management systems.

Responsibilities

• Engage with Civil Aviation Authorities and external stakeholders to agree on acceptable risk mitigations.
• Develop and maintain operational risk assessments and safety cases for UAS/spaceflight operations.
• Define mitigations and standards for design and flight operations to meet safety objectives.
• Lead requirements management with external stakeholders and flight test teams for certification.
• Provide safety leadership on procedure validation, crew training, and human factors.

Skills

Certification project management

Unmanned aircraft safety case

Civil aviation rules

Launch safety

Quality management systems

Job description

Dawn Aerospace is seeking a Certification Engineer to join the Spaceplane Certification Team in Christchurch, NZ. You will own safety cases, coordinate with Civil Aviation Authorities, and drive risk mitigations across flight operations and engineering in a fast-moving environment.

You will lead end-to-end safety activities, develop operational risk assessments, and collaborate with flight operations, systems engineering, and external partners to ensure regulatory approval and safe operations