Product Manager - Safety Critical Systems

Stark Defence; Germany (OH); On-site; USD 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Stark Defence is looking for a Product Manager for Safety-Critical Systems to enhance their UAV and USV platforms. This strategic role involves owning the product vision and roadmap and leading safety analyses and compliance efforts.

The ideal candidate has a relevant degree and a proven track record of managing complex systems under rigorous safety standards. As part of the team, you’ll drive innovation in a high-stakes environment critical to enhancing defence capabilities.

Qualifications

• Proven track record delivering complex systems under safety or regulatory standards.
• Technical fluency in safety architecture, including redundancy topologies.
• Eligible for security clearance for defence work.

Responsibilities

• Own the product vision and roadmap for safety-critical systems.
• Lead contributions to Functional Hazard Analyses and Fault Tree Analyses.
• Champion the 'Digital Thread' for safety traceability.

Skills

Product management

Systems engineering

Safety standards knowledge

Cross-functional leadership

Education

Degree in Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or Computer Science

Job description

About Us

STARK is a new kind of defence technology company revolutionising the way autonomous systems are deployed across multiple domains. We design, develop, and manufacture high-performance unmanned systems that are software-defined, mass-scalable, and cost-effective — providing operators with a decisive edge in contested environments.

We are focused on delivering deployable, high-performance systems — not future promises. In a time of rising threats, STARK is bolstering the technological edge of NATO Allies and their Partners to deter aggression and defend Europe, today.

About the team

Your mission

STARK's autonomous platforms — aerial and maritime — operate in contested, high-stakes environments where safety systems must function without exception. As Product Manager for Safety-Critical Systems, you will own the vision, roadmap, and delivery of the systems that make that guarantee possible: from Flight Termination Systems on our UAVs to fire suppression and recovery on our USVs. This is a strategic, high-accountability role at the intersection of systems engineering, cybersecurity, and product — and the foundation of trust that enables everything STARK ships.

Responsibilities

• Own the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for all safety-critical systems across STARK's UAV and USV platforms
• Lead product-level contributions to Functional Hazard Analyses (FHA) and Fault Tree Analyses (FTA), translating identified risks into concrete product requirements
• Serve as the product bridge between cybersecurity and safety engineering — ensuring cyber threats are embedded as causal factors in safety analyses and mitigation strategies
• Champion a "Digital Thread" for safety: end-to-end traceability from MBSE-level safety requirements through development, verification, and post-mission analysis
• Define architectures that are mass-scalable and cost-effective — not bespoke, one-off solutions — enabling STARK to deploy safe autonomous systems at scale
• Collaborate with systems engineers, certification leads, and executive stakeholders to drive design decisions and communicate risk clearly
• Drive the company's "Digital-First Safety" posture, ensuring compliance with applicable standards (SIL-2/3, DO-178C, IEC 61508) while maintaining architectural resilience against emerging threats
• Shape STARK's approach to safe agentic autonomy — ensuring increasingly autonomous behaviour remains deterministic and verifiable

Qualifications

• Degree (B.Sc. or M.Sc.) in Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, or a closely related technical discipline
• Proven track record as a Product Manager, Product Owner, or Systems Engineer delivering complex hardware/software systems under rigorous safety or regulatory standards
• Deep working knowledge of safety standards and methodologies: IEC 61508, DO-178C, DO-254, ISO 26262, FHA, FTA
• Experience taking a hardware/software product from concept through certification and into field deployment
• Technical fluency in safety architecture concepts: redundancy topologies (1oo2, 2oo3), dissimilar architectures, real-time operating systems
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and drive decisions in ambiguous, high-stakes technical environments
• Eligible to obtain appropriate security clearance for defence work

Nice to have

• Experience with Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and standards such as MOSA or FACE
• Background in cybersecurity — particularly in understanding how offensive threat models translate into safety requirements
• Familiarity with autonomous systems or UAV/USV platforms
• Experience in a scaling defence-tech or aerospace startup environment