Safety Engineer

Safety Engineer

Location: UK
Sector: Defence / Naval Systems
Security Clearance: SC Clearance required

UK Citizenship required.

We are seeking an experienced Safety Engineer to join a specialist Defence Engineering team, supporting the development and assurance of mission-critical Platform Management Systems for naval vessels, including surface ships and submarines.

This is an excellent opportunity to work on technically complex, high-integrity systems supporting critical Royal Navy and international defence programmes.

The Role

As a Safety Engineer, you will lead safety assurance activities across the design, development and maintenance of safety-critical systems, working closely with systems, hardware, software, firmware, ILS and project engineering teams.

You will be responsible for developing safety activities and assurance plans, influencing engineering design decisions and providing robust safety arguments to internal and external stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and manage safety activities and work schedules to support programme milestones and safety requirements.

• Lead safety assurance activities across hardware, software and firmware.

• Conduct and lead HAZOP, Functional Failure Analysis (FFA), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), FMECA and LOPA studies.

• Lead safety audits, design reviews and safety committee meetings.

• Identify hazards, assess risks and develop appropriate ALARP justifications.

• Produce and review high-quality technical safety documentation in line with customer and company procedures.

• Analyse system failure modes, causes and effects to influence engineering design decisions.

• Develop and present clear, evidence-based safety arguments to customers, engineering teams and other stakeholders.

• Work collaboratively across multidisciplinary engineering teams and with customers and suppliers.

• Keep up to date with relevant safety standards, regulations and industry best practice.

• Support the development and mentoring of junior engineers where required.

About You

We are looking for an experienced Safety Engineer with a background in safety-critical or high-integrity engineering environments, ideally within Defence, Aerospace, Rail, Nuclear, Automotive or another regulated industry.

You should have:

• Proven experience in Safety Engineering / Safety Assurance.

• Experience leading technical safety activities and working with multidisciplinary engineering teams.

• Knowledge of relevant international and defence standards, particularly IEC 61508 and Def Stan 00-056.

• Experience with COTS programmable electronic systems and/or high-integrity software.

• Strong understanding of hardware and software failure modes, causes and effects.

• Practical experience with HAZOP, FMECA, FTA, FFA, LOPA and hazard analysis.

• Experience in risk assessment and developing ALARP justifications.

• Strong technical report writing and communication skills.

• The ability to present complex technical safety arguments clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• A Master’s degree, Degree, HND or HNC in Engineering, Safety Management or a related discipline.

Security Requirements

Due to the nature of the work, candidates must be UK nationals and be able to obtain and maintain SC (Security Check) UK Government security clearance.

Benefits

• Flexible and hybrid working

• Compressed working arrangements, including the option of every other Friday off

• Private healthcare

• Cash health plan

• Holiday buy and sell scheme

• Performance-related bonus

• Career development, training and mentoring opportunities

• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge, mission-critical naval defence programmes