Autonomous Aircraft Safety & Certification Lead

Grid Aero, Inc.; San Leandro (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Grid.aero in San Leandro, CA is seeking a System Safety and Certification Engineer to lead airworthiness for its autonomous aircraft. This role focuses on defining the certification basis and safety criteria for novel platforms, deriving criteria from first principles rather than applying legacy standards.

You will tailor standards, perform hazard analyses, and coordinate with authorities to secure flight approvals while collaborating with engineering teams to ensure clear safety tradeoffs and

Qualifications

• 5+ years of system safety, reliability, or airworthiness experience.
• Direct experience developing certification bases or airworthiness criteria from foundational standards (e.g., MIL-HDBK-516, MIL-STD-882, ARP4754A/B, ARP4761).
• Ability to define safety criteria and means of compliance early in a design process.
• Experience engaging with military or civil airworthiness authorities (e.g., USAF, FAA).

Responsibilities

• Establish Airworthiness Criteria: Define and tailor certification bases and airworthiness criteria based on relevant military and civil standards tailored for autonomous aircraft.
• Define Safety Architectures: Derive safety requirements early in the design cycle to guide architectural decisions.
• Lead System Safety Analyses: Conduct FHA, FMEA, FTA, CCA and functional hazard evaluations from the ground up.
• Own the Certification Roadmap: Develop the certification plan, establish safety targets, and liaise with authorities to secure flight approvals.
• Allocate Assurance Levels: Work with software, hardware, and system leads to assign DALs and verification strategies.
• Drive Trade Studies: Evaluate safety and reliability tradeoffs to keep designs simple and safe.
• Help Define V&V Tests: Use analyses to define test cases for hardware and software components.

Skills

System safety engineering

Certification planning

Hazard analyses

First-principles thinking

Job description

Grid.aero in San Leandro, CA is seeking a System Safety and Certification Engineer to lead airworthiness for its autonomous aircraft. This role focuses on defining the certification basis and safety criteria for novel platforms, deriving criteria from first principles rather than applying legacy standards.

You will tailor standards, perform hazard analyses, and coordinate with authorities to secure flight approvals while collaborating with engineering teams to ensure clear safety tradeoffs and