Safety & Mission Assurance EngineerDESCRIPTIONThe 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 RequirementThis 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.
