Systems Safety and Certification Engineer
Required skills
- System Safety
- Airworthiness
- Hazard Analysis
- System Safety Assessments
- FHA
- FMEA
- CCA
- Fault Tree Analysis
- ARP4761
- ARP4754
Nice to have
- Military airworthiness
- Uncrewed aircraft
Role summary
Grid.aero is seeking a System Safety and Certification Engineer to lead safety and airworthiness for their autonomous aircraft systems. This role involves defining safety approaches, conducting analyses (hazard, reliability, maintainability), and managing the path to airworthiness, flight approval, and certification. The engineer will work with government authorities, set safety targets, and assign design assurance levels. The ideal candidate is a first-principles thinker with 5+ years of experience in aircraft system safety, reliability, or airworthiness, familiar with FHA, FMEA, fault tree analysis, and standards like ARP4761/4754. Experience with military airworthiness or uncrewed aircraft is preferred. This is an onsite role with a salary of $150k-200k and equity.
Job Title: System Safety and Certification Engineer
Company: Grid.aero
About Grid.aero
Grid.aero is building the next generation of autonomous aviation systems for defense and commercial applications. Led by experienced aerospace and technology operators and backed by leading venture investors, we solve hard operational problems at the intersection of autonomy, resilient logistics, and scalable air mobility. We move quickly, operate with urgency, and build systems designed for real-world deployment where small teams own meaningful problems end-to-end.
Read this, we mean it → Above all, we look for exceptional builders with deep internal drive, massive throughput, hopeless optimism, and a relentless growth mindset. The people who thrive at Grid operate with urgency, learn quickly, adapt fast, and are energized by hard problems with no obvious answers. We value individuals who continuously push themselves and the team around them to improve.
This is an opportunity to work on products with national and global impact alongside a collaborative team that values technical excellence, execution, and mission focus.
Role Overview
We are seeking a System Safety and Certification Engineer to lead safety and airworthiness for our autonomous aircraft. You will define the safety approach, run the analyses, and own the path to airworthiness and flight approval, and certification. You will reason from the failure modes up, look for designs that are both safe and simple, and push back on complexity that does not buy safety.
What You’ll Do
- Lead system safety activities, including hazard analysis and system safety assessments
- Set safety and reliability targets and drive the design changes that meet them
- Identify applicable airworthiness criteria and own the certification plan
- Work with government airworthiness authorities to secure flight approvals
- Run reliability and maintainability analyses and feed the results back into the design
- Assign design assurance levels for hardware and software with the engineering leads
Key Qualifications
- First-principles thinker who finds the simplest path to the goal and thrives in a fast-paced environment
- 5+ years of experience in system safety, reliability, or airworthiness for aircraft
- Experience with hazard analysis and risk assessment, including FHA, FMEA, CCA, and fault tree analysis
- Familiarity with ARP4761, ARP4754, or MIL-HDBK-516 required
- Experience with military airworthiness or uncrewed aircraft preferred
- Ability to explain safety tradeoffs clearly to engineers, leadership, and regulators
- Legal Requirement: Due to U.S. export control laws, candidates must be U.S. persons (U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents).
Compensation $150k-200k | .1-.5 Equity
Equal Opportunity Employer Grid.aero is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees regardless of race, color, religion, gender, orientation, or status.
Legal Notice:
Grid.aero is committed to complying with U.S. export control laws. Due to the nature of our work, candidates must be U.S. persons (U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)).
