Lead Systems Safety Engineer, Swarming UAS

Swarmaero; Oxnard (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in high-growth defense tech

Competitive base salary

Medical, dental, vision

PTO and paid sick leave

Wellness stipend

Daily catered lunch

Parental leave

Impact on national security mission

World-class team

Job summary

Swarm Aero is seeking a System Safety Engineer to embed safety into the design of autonomous swarming aircraft. You will lead SSA, FHA, FTA analyses and drive safety requirements across avionics, control, and power systems.

The role requires coordinating DAL allocations, safety inputs for reviews, and collaboration with systems engineering on critical architecture decisions. You will apply ARP4761/ARP4754 and DO-178/DO-254 standards, ensuring readiness for flight and airworthiness processes,

Qualifications

• 7+ years of system safety experience on aerospace/defense/UAS programs.
• Strong foundation in systems engineering principles and practices.
• Hands-on SSA, FHA, FTA on flight-critical systems.
• Understanding of failure mode classification and DALs.
• Experience applying safety objectives to software development.
• Experience with ARP4761 and ARP4754.
• Experience with MIL-STD-882 and JSSSEH.

Responsibilities

• Lead aircraft and system safety analysis (SSA), FHA, FTA, CCA, CMA.
• Develop safety requirements and work with subsystems to create mitigations across avionics, flight control, propulsion, and power systems.
• Define and justify development assurance level (DAL) allocations to mitigate software design errors.
• Support design, test readiness, and flight readiness reviews with safety inputs.
• Collaborate with systems engineering on architecture decisions with safety implications (e.g., automatic takeoff/landing, DAA, signal loss).
• Develop safety inputs for flight authorization packages; coordinate with airworthiness stakeholders.
• Lead root-cause analysis and corrective actions for safety issues found during analysis, simulation, integration, or test.

Skills

System safety

Aerospace/defense experience

SSA/FHA/FTA

DAL allocations

Software safety (DO-178/DO-254)

ARP4761/ARP4754

MIL-STD-882/JSSSEH

Safety architecture

Clear communication

Tools

DO-178/DO-254 tooling

Job description

Swarm Aero is seeking a System Safety Engineer to embed safety into the design of autonomous swarming aircraft. You will lead SSA, FHA, FTA analyses and drive safety requirements across avionics, control, and power systems.

The role requires coordinating DAL allocations, safety inputs for reviews, and collaboration with systems engineering on critical architecture decisions. You will apply ARP4761/ARP4754 and DO-178/DO-254 standards, ensuring readiness for flight and airworthiness processes,