Principal Engineer – Product Safety
// Role Summary
Lead product safety initiatives as a Principal Engineer, identifying hazards, analysing risks, and developing safety cases to ensure the creation of safe and effective defence solutions.
// Key Responsibilities
- Lead hazard identification, risk analysis, and safety case development.
- Provide engineering expertise to Technical Authorities.
- Manage product safety assessments for major subsystems and complex technologies.
- Organise and facilitate HAZIDs and review meetings.
- Manage and review the work of junior engineers.
- Ensure hazards are eliminated or risks are managed effectively.
// Role Specification
About the Role
Join BAE Systems as a Principal Engineer within the Product Safety Discipline, working as part of the Programme Product Safety team. In this crucial role, you will be responsible for leading hazard identification, risk analysis, and the development of the scheme of safety in collaboration with subsystem Technical Authorities.
You will provide essential engineering support and expertise to the Technical Authority, enabling them to deliver a safe product. A key responsibility will be the creation of a robust safety case argument, underpinned by a solid foundation of assurance evidence and other relevant artefacts. The overarching objective of the product safety team is to ensure that all identified hazards are either eliminated or that associated risks are managed to the greatest extent reasonably practicable. As a Principal Engineer, you are expected to act as a thought leader and facilitator in achieving this vital goal.
Core Duties
- Provide comprehensive support to Technical Authority teams in the management of hazards, risks, and associated mitigations, contributing to the development and maturity of the hazard log.
- Take responsibility for product safety assessments of major subsystems or key complex technologies.
- Verify the quality and accuracy of submissions to the Hazard Log.
- Organise and facilitate Hazard Identification (HAZID) sessions and review meetings, and contribute to other HAZID activities as required.
- Assume leadership for all product safety activities related to your allocated equipment area, with the potential to delegate, manage, and review the work of more junior engineers.
Product Safety Team Context
You will be joining a dedicated team of Product Safety practitioners working on significant programmes, such as the River Class Destroyer project, which is part of a substantial fleet renewal initiative for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). This role offers the opportunity to work within a small, focused team spread across two sites. Depending on the programme needs, you may collaborate on large, complex projects or work more independently on smaller initiatives.
While the Technical Authority holds accountability for the safety of the design solution, your role is instrumental in supporting their decision-making processes. You will develop activity plans to ensure that risks are systematically identified and managed within the Product Safety Management framework, to the greatest extent reasonably practicable. This position will expose you to a diverse range of technical disciplines, enhance your ability to follow technical arguments, and empower you to influence the integrity of the final product.
Essential Skills and Experience
- Demonstrated knowledge of product safety management processes and techniques.
- Experience working across multiple phases of the Life Cycle Management (LCM) framework, with sufficient overall LCM experience to understand adjacent phases and through-life engineering issues.
- Awareness of key customer (Ship/System Safety) standards, including but not limited to: DSA-02 JSP430; Def. Stan 00-56; Mil Std 882E; BS EN 61508.