Safety & Mission Assurance Engineer (remote considered)

Lever, Inc.; Huntsville (AL); Remote; USD 125,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401k match

Paid parental leave

Life insurance

Medical/dental/vision benefits

Job summary

Long Wall Company is seeking a Safety & Mission Assurance (SMA) Engineer to provide independent oversight of reliability, safety, configuration compliance, and mission readiness for major programs. This role collaborates with systems engineering, quality, and operations to embed disciplined safety practices and ensure readiness across design and test campaigns.

The ideal candidate has substantial aerospace experience, strong analytical skills, and the ability to communicate clear, defensible

Qualifications

• Experience supporting readiness reviews, reliability analyses, hazard assessments, or risk management.
• Solid knowledge of reliability, safety analysis, verification planning, and risk management for flight-critical systems.
• Ability to assess technical maturity and readiness for integration, test, and flight.
• Experience with hazard analyses, fault trees, and FMEA.
• Ability to work independently while partnering with engineering and program leadership.
• Excellent written and verbal communication to defend assessments with teams and customers.
• Strong organizational discipline across multiple verification flows and risks.
• Experience in fast-paced aerospace or defense environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead reliability and safety evaluations, supporting hazard analyses and risk mitigation.
• Develop and execute mission assurance processes, including readiness criteria.
• Support system readiness reviews: design, integration, TRR, FRR.
• Provide independent evaluation of technical maturity and verification completeness.
• Partner with systems engineering to ensure requirements align with mission assurance.
• Coordinate with chief engineering on design changes and safety implications.
• Track program risks in the risk register and drive risk communication.
• Validate test plans and configurations meet safety and readiness requirements.
• Evaluate supplier quality and reliability risks; assist supplier assessments.
• Capture lessons learned from flight attempts and apply to future designs.
• Support environmental and manufacturing test activities; ensure verification alignment.
• Maintain independent oversight while integrating with engineering, manufacturing, QA, and ops.

Skills

Readiness reviews

Reliability engineering

Technical readiness

Hazard analysis

Independent work

Communication

Organization

Aerospace environment

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace/Mechanical/Systems Reliability Engineering

Job description

Long Wall Company was created in 2024 to accelerate missile defense technology for the U.S. and our allies. We specialize in ballistic missile defense and are developing Cyclops, a low-cost, mass-producible interceptor. We also produce containerized launchers and offer low-cost targets for threat replication. The future of global security depends on defensive technology that redefines cost, magazine depth, and distribution to deter and defend against evolving threats. Join us.

WHAT WE LOOK FOR

Mission-Driven Problem Solvers – The problems in missile defense demand ingenuity. We want engineers who approach challenges with curiosity, embrace failure as a learning opportunity, and stay focused on delivering the best solution for the mission.

Total Ownership – We seek engineers who take full responsibility for delivering flight-ready work while recognizing that no one succeeds alone. The best engineers make their teammates better, knowing that complementary skills create force multiplication and drive mission success.

Safety & Mission Assurance Engineer

DESCRIPTION

The Safety & Mission Assurance (SMA) Engineer provides independent oversight of reliability, safety, configuration compliance, and mission readiness for Long Wall’s major programs. This role ensures that every design decision, integration change, and test plan preserves system reliability and safety, aligns with verification requirements, and supports mission success for internal and government programs.

The SMA Specialist partners closely with systems engineering, chief engineering, program management, quality, and integration/test operations to evaluate technical risk, approve readiness criteria, and embed disciplined safety and reliability practices into a fast-paced development environment. They maintain independence while being deeply integrated with engineering and program execution, a core principle of Long Wall’s mission assurance philosophy.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead reliability and safety evaluations, supporting hazard analyses, risk assessments, and mitigation planning.
• Develop, maintain, and execute mission assurance processes for programs, including reliability expectations, configuration compliance checks, and readiness criteria.
• Support system level readiness reviews: design reviews, integration reviews, test readiness reviews (TRR), and flight readiness reviews (FRR).
• Provide independent evaluation of technical maturity, configuration stability, and verification completeness prior to major test campaigns.
• Partner with systems engineering to ensure requirements, verification plans, and architecture support mission assurance and safety expectations.
• Coordinate with chief engineering to evaluate the technical impact of design changes, ensuring reliability and safety implications are understood and documented.
• Track program wide risks through the company risk register; lead risk boards and drive structured risk communication across engineering and program management.
• Validate that test plans, procedures, and configurations meet safety, hazard mitigation, and readiness requirements for government funded activities.
• Evaluate supplier quality and reliability risks; support supplier assessments for hardware impacting programs.
• Learn from previous flight and integration attempts, ensuring technical lessons are documented and incorporated into future designs, processes, and readiness criteria.
• Support environmental and manufacturing test activities by ensuring configuration stability, verification alignment, and risk awareness.
• Maintain independent oversight while integrating closely with engineering, manufacturing, program management, quality, and operations.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Reliability Engineering, or related technical discipline.
• 5+ years of experience in aerospace, defense, or complex hardware development focusing on reliability, safety, mission assurance, or test readiness.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Experience supporting structured readiness reviews, reliability analyses, hazard assessments, or risk management activities.
• Strong understanding of reliability engineering, safety analysis, verification planning, and risk management for flight critical systems.
• Ability to evaluate technical maturity, configuration stability, and readiness for integration, test, and flight.
• Experience contributing to hazard analyses, fault tree analyses, FMEA, or similar structured safety processes.
• Ability to work independently while partnering closely with engineering, test, quality, and program management leadership.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills to deliver clear, defensible assessments to engineering teams, leadership, and government customers.
• Strong organizational discipline and ability to maintain clarity across multiple verification flows and risk items.
• Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in fast paced aerospace or defense environments with shifting priorities and rapid development cycles.

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Experience supporting missile, interceptor, launch vehicle, or military system development.
• Familiarity with government customers, test readiness processes, and structured milestone reviews.
• Knowledge of reliability tools, safety analyses, configuration control systems, and mission readiness frameworks.
• Experience working with manufacturing quality, supplier assurance, or environmental test operations.
• Active or recent U.S. security clearance (Secret or above).

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Ability to sit or stand for extended periods.
• Ability to use a computer for assignments and communicate effectively in person, telepresence, and phone.
• Ability to travel between customer and company sites as required

$125,000 - $185,000 a year

• P3: $135,000 to $165,000/yr
• P4: $160,000 to $185,000/yr

The posted pay range reflects the base salary range for this role in California only, and is the lowest to highest compensation range we reasonably and in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range, and the range may be modified in the future. An employee’s pay position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, performance, and business or organizational needs.

In addition to base pay and equity, we offer:

• Heavily employer-subsidized medical, dental, and vision insurance plans
• Long Wall paid life insurance and LTD coverage
• 4% 401k match
• Student loan repayment assistance program
• Paid parental leave
• Family planning assistance program
• Long Wall paid financial wellness program
• Paid time off for non-exempt employees and flexible vacation policy for exempt employees

ITAR Requirement

This position requires access to information protected under US export control laws, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and/or the Export Administration Regulations. As such, US person status (including US citizens,U.S.permanent residents,individuals granted U.S. asylum status, or individuals admitted in U.S. refugee status)is a required qualification for this position.

Equal Opportunity Employer

We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, genetics, or citizenship status (when otherwise legally authorized to work and access export-controlled data) and will not be discriminated against on the basis of such characteristics or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. We encourage applicants of all ages.