Systems Safety Engineer - All Levels

About The Role

You’ll join Allen Control Systems’ Systems team - one team, three tracks (Systems, Systems Test, and Systems Reliability) reporting to the Director of Systems Engineering. We work cross-functionally across mechanical, electrical, software, controls, test, and operations to build ACS’s autonomous weapon platforms including Bullfrog. We hire across all experience levels - from interns and new grads to senior engineers - and seek to grow the team’s technical breadth and depth. There will be opportunities for management roles in the future as the team grows.

We are looking for a Systems Safety Engineer to join our team, focusing on system-level reliability, verification, and risk reduction for our next-generation autonomous weapon platforms.

This role sits closer to systems engineering than a traditional full-time reliability function and is responsible for defining how we evaluate system performance, analyze test data, identify failure modes, and drive clear pass/fail conclusions across hardware and software.

The ideal candidate is hands-on, technically rigorous, and able to own the full loop from test planning through analysis, with particular strength in structured validation, environmental and performance testing, and safety-minded systems thinking.

This role sits inside the systems engineering group and can be filled with a Reliability or Safety focus - tell us which lane fits you best; strong generalists are welcome too.

We’re hiring across multiple experience levels, including

• Associate Engineer
• Engineer
• Senior Engineer
• Staff Engineer
• Senior Staff Engineer

Your title and level will be determined based on your experience, skills, and the scope of responsibility appropriate for the role.

What You’ll Do

• Own the ACS MIL-STD-882E safety process: SSPP (System Safety Program Plan), risk matrix, hazard tracking, mitigation, verification, and risk acceptance. Tailor it to the program.
• Perform hazard analyses across programs, including PHA (Preliminary Hazard Analysis), FHA (Functional Hazard Analysis), SSHA/SHA (Subsystem/System Hazard Analysis), and O&SHA (Operating and Support Hazard Analysis).
• Build FTAs (Fault Tree Analysis) and FMECAs (Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis) that drive design decisions.
• Own the hazard log. Every hazard has a risk level, mitigations, verification evidence, and documented risk acceptance.
• Derive safety requirements from the analyses and trace them into system requirements and verification.
• Write safety deliverables, including the SAR (Safety Assessment Report), and present the safety case to customer and government review boards.
• Work with software and controls to apply software system safety, including software criticality and LOR (Level of Rigor) tasks.
• Automate and reuse: hazard and failure mode libraries, templates, scripts that generate and check analyses, and a hazard log linked to requirements.
• Build a safety culture. Train engineers, add safety to design reviews and test readiness, and make it normal to raise hazards early.
• Support test safety for integration and live-fire events, and lead mishap investigations with the reliability team.

What You’ll Need

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering or a related technical field.
• 4+ years in system safety on defense, aerospace, or other safety-critical programs.
• Hands-on MIL-STD-882 experience (or ARP4761, IEC 61508). You have written hazard analyses, not just reviewed them.
• Working knowledge of FTA and FMECA, both qualitative and quantitative.
• Experience running hazard tracking and risk acceptance through closure.
• Enough breadth across ME, EE, SW, and controls to find hazards at the interfaces.
• Clear technical writing for government customers.

You’ll Stand Out

• Startup experience, especially standing up a safety program from scratch.
• A track record of building safety culture, not just safety documents.
• A bias toward automation and reuse, including Python automation and AI-assisted development for hazard analyses, fault trees, and FMECAs.
• Weapon system safety experience, including review boards such as the WSESRB (Weapon System Explosives Safety Review Board) or service equivalents.
• Software system safety experience (JSSSEH, AOP-52), especially on autonomous systems.
• Experience with JAMA, DOORS, or MBSE tools (Cameo/SysML).

What We Offer

• Competitive salary
• ACS Equity Package
• Health, Dental, Vision Insurance
• Paid Time Off