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Safety and Mission Assurance Engineer III

Playa Vista, California, United States

Turning Space into a Transportation Layer for Earth

Who We Are:

Eras of humanity can often be defined by a dominant transportation mode - horse drawn chariots, ocean going boats, or aircraft. These were spurred by a small group of people rigorously focused on building technology to achieve faster access to more of the world.  We seek to usher in a new era of humanity defined by universal access to the whole globe free of borders and the presence of a routine way from space to Earth. To do this, we are building highly maneuverable re-entry vehicles that can loiter in orbit before precision landing back on Earth. 

 

What you'll do: 

As a Safety and Mission Assurance Systems Engineer, you'll play a vital role in ensuring the safety and success of the Arc program. Your focus will be on implementing a companywide safety and mission assurance philosophy as well as conducting detailed safety and mission critical analyses at both vehicle and component levels. You will identify and mitigate technical risks to protect Inversion personnel and the public, in addition to guaranteeing mission success.   

This hands-on position requires attention to detail and strong interpersonal skills. Your responsibilities will include identifying critical safety and mission operations and performing the necessary analyses to demonstrate to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that our system is safe for public operation and around personnel. These analyses may include but are not limited to: 

  • Hazard discovery and identification 
  • Fault tree analysis 
  • Failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) 
  • Manage system safety processes 
  • Participate in hardware and software design reviews to identify and track safety hazards and associated risks 
  • Maintain a risk database in a lean, efficient manner that directly contributes to design maturation 
  • Develop risk and hazard mitigation plans alongside the design and operations teams, and track implementation 
  • Ensure risks are mitigated prior to test and launch operations 
  • Facilitate mission readiness reviews 
  • Gather vehicle-specific metrics on requirements, risks, manufacturing, quality, test status, and as-built vs. as-designed configuration and present status/recommendations 
  • Participate in hardware and software design reviews with a focus on identifying, documenting, and mitigating safety and mission assurance risks throughout the development lifecycle 
  • Utilize and enforce change management and revision control systems to ensure traceability, accountability, and consistency across safety-critical systems and documentation 
  • Document processes, analyses, and reports in a sufficient manner to include as part of an FAA reentry license 
  • Develop and use tools to determine the public safety impact on proposed reentry trajectories 
  • Participate in/conduct mishap investigations 
  • Performs other duties as assigned 

Required Qualifications 

  • Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline with 5+ years of experience 
  • Experience performing hazard analysis such as fault tree analysis and/or FMEA 
  • Demonstrated performance working with complex systems such as aerospace, aviation, or automotive systems 
  • Demonstrated success in technically focused projects involving hardware design, build or test 
  • Clear communication and presentation skills 
  • Ability to work independently and with minimal supervision 
  • Ability and willingness to thrive in a fast-paced, rapidly changing work environment 
  • Driven, highly motivated, and committed to improvement 

Desired Qualifications 

  • Master’s degree in an engineering discipline with 5+ years of experience 
  • Demonstrated ability to lead the development, analysis, or verification of large, complex systems 
  • Familiarity with federal safety regulations for launch and reentry (14 CFR Part 450) 
  • Familiarity with common aerospace industry standards such as RCC-319, MIL-STD-810, SMC-S-016, MIL-STD-461, NASA-STD-5001, NASA-STD-5012, and/or ANSI/AIAA S-080A-2018. 
  • Demonstrated ability to convey complex information for technical and non-technical audiences.

 

Our office headquarters is located in Playa Vista, CA. This position requires in office presence.

 

The California annual base salary for this role is currently $121,000-$142,000.  Pay Grades are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data.  Individual pay will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: interviews and an assessment of several factors that are unique to each candidate, job-related skills, relevant education and experience, certifications, abilities of the candidate and internal equity. 

ITAR Compliance:
To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.  
 
Equal Employment Opportunity:
Inversion provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, veteran status, or disability.  
 
Inversion collects and processes personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws.  If you are a US Job Applicant see the CCPA Privacy Policy Notice for further details.

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