Systems Safety Engineer - UAS/UAV

About the role

Senior / Principal Systems Safety Engineer

UK Defence Autonomy

South West England (Hybrid)

Our client, a fast-scaling autonomy business delivering uncrewed capability into UK Defence and Security programmes, is growing their safety assurance function.

They're looking for Systems Safety specialists to embed directly into cross-disciplinary product teams delivering live capability — not to sit at arm's length reviewing other people's work.

You'll belong to a central safety practice for your technical home and development, but work day-to-day as a trusted, embedded partner inside a delivery team — holding agility and compliance together rather than treating them as opposites.

What you'll be doing

• Building a proportionate, risk-based safety approach tailored to actual risk, not a fixed checklist
• Owning design safety artefacts (FHA, FMECA, CCA, PSSA/SSA) to a standard fit for regulatory scrutiny
• Tracking your programme's safety case end-to-end, flagging risk early
• Working closely with design and test teams, assessing safety impact of changes in real time
• Acting as the safety voice within a cross-disciplinary engineering team

What you'll bring

• Solid grounding in system safety techniques and reasoning, with working knowledge of the relevant UK/international regulatory landscape
• Familiarity with software/complex electronic hardware safety assurance
• ~10 years' experience for Senior, ~15+ for Principal — though exceptional pedigree with less time served is equally welcome
• Eligibility for UK security clearance
• Willingness to travel occasionally internationally

Pay and benefits

On offer: highly competitive salary plus bonus, pension matched up to 10%, private medical, 25 days leave plus Bank Holidays, hybrid working, and mission-critical work at the forefront of defence technology.