Lead Safety Engineer

Your impact

Are you looking to be part of a company driving innovation and creating cutting edge technology? At Leonardo you could be part of one of the UK's most exciting and challenging projects. Do you think you are up to the challenge?

We are looking for people that are and who relish the buzz of a busy schedule to join our Design Integrity team. In this role you will work as part of a multi disciplined team, learning, developing and enhancing your Safety Engineering skills.

Responsibilities

As a Lead Safety Engineer, you will:

• Support Test Engineering to assure that appropriate safety governance (internal and external), legal and regulatory obligations are met.
• Collaborate with Systems Engineering and the Sector Engineering Safety Managers to ensure that the safety requirements of the Project are met.
• Define Product Safety and Environmental requirements (including any product, contractual, legal and/or regulatory requirements).
• Participate in the planning and execution of appropriate test programme to ensure that the design safety issues are addressed.
• Contribute to the development of Product Test Strategies for all new products and associated Test Solutions. Support the test strategy and development of Technology Type Tests from a safety perspective.
• Maintain and approve the Product Safety and Environmental Impact Management Plan - Test Engineering.
• Ensure test equipment safety certification (e.g. jigs, fixtures, facilities) and readiness for test such that compliance status is accurately reported in the Declaration of Design and Performance Certificate.
• Support lifecycle readiness reviews including the Design Certification Review. Provide independent assessment through Product Design Reviews and Software and Firmware gate reviews.
• Provide specialist guidance and information on Product Safety and Environmental best practices, standards and legislation within Test Engineering.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of test processes and documentation, jigs, fixtures, test facilities.
• Provide independent Safety Management Specialist input across the Sectors within the Line of Business.
• Participate in Product Safety Panels as a specialist advisor in the management and resolution of Product Safety and Product Environmental incidents and ensure that the data associated with Sector Product Safety incidents in the Company corrective action management system is correct and up to date.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams demonstrating ability to handle diverse test programmes.
• Promote the specialism and safety culture within the LoB.

What you'll bring

• Demonstrable and relevant experience analysing complex systems from a Product Safety and Product Environmental Impact Management perspective (as well as analysing the impact of contribution(s) from a Product Security perspective) with the ability to scope and deliver high quality outputs to time and cost against developed programmes of work.
• Demonstrable experience using a range of safety tools and techniques, to provide specialist advice and guidance on complex projects within an Electronics or Avionics discipline.

e.g. Hazard Log Management; Hazard Identification; Functional Failure Analysis, Fault Tree Analysis, Risk Assessment and ALARP justifications.

• Strong teamwork and collaboration skills.
• Knowledge of electronic testing standards and compliance requirements
• Experience of one or more of the following:
  • Integration, Test, Evaluation and Acceptance processes
  • Verification activities and testing in relation to ARP4754 or equivalent in other domains.
  • Accepted certification of a software product to RTCA/DO-178C Level C through all Stages of Involvement.
  • Accepted certification of a firmware product to RTCA/DO-254 Level C through all Stages of Involvement.
  • Equivalent experience from an adjacent sector.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to coach and develop others.
• Ability to obtain SC security clearance and work within UKEO and US ITAR TAA restrictions.
• Experience of working with a variety of internal and external stakeholders of varying seniorities to achieve Product safety certification in a regulated environment.
• Ability to identify and direct improvements to complex technical and business processes, judging the balance between the cost and impact of change and its resulting benefits.
• Ability to understand complex engineering processes and the inter-dependency of the process components
• Passion for promoting and improving the safety of complex systems.

Key Skills

Test, Verification, Systems Engineering, Electronics, Safety Engineering, Leadership, Project Management.

It would be nice, but not essential, if you had:

• Chartered Engineer status
• A 2:1 or higher in a relevant engineering or science-based honours degree.
• Awareness of Information Security.
• Working knowledge of one or more of the following:
  • Tool qualification.
  • Verification and testing in relation to ARP4754 or equivalent in other domains.
  • Current generation SRAM FPGAs and Firmware Design Methods, Tools and Languages.
  • Current generation Model Driven Engineering with auto-coding and applicable software standards for airborne or adjacent hi-reliability sectors.
  • Functional domain architectures for partitioning complex systems implementing multiple mutually non-interfering functions.
  • Safety legislation of EU and non-EU countries.
• Experience with any of the following tools:
  • Microsoft Office Tools;
  • SAP;
  • Siemens Teamcenter;
  • Cameo System Modeller;
  • IBM DOORS.

Security Clearance

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government's Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV). For more information and guidance please visit:

Why join us

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We offer a comprehensive, company-funded benefits package that supports your wellbeing, career development, and work-life balance. Whether you're looking to grow professionally, care for your health, or plan for the future, we're here to help you thrive.

• Time to Recharge:Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year.
• Secure your Future:Benefit from our award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution.
• Your Wellbeing Matters:Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Armed Forces, Carers, Wellbeing and Ethnicity).
• Rewarding Performance: All employees at management level and below are eligible for our bonus scheme.
• Never Stop Learning: Free access to 4,000+ online courses via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.
• Refer a friend:Receive a financial reward through our referral programme.
• Tailored Perks: Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.
• Flexible working:Flexible hours with hybrid working options. For part time opportunities, please talk to us about what might be possible for this role.

For a full list of our company benefits please visit our website.

Leonardo is a global leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. Headquartered in Italy, we employ over 53,000 people worldwide including 8,500 across 9 sites in the UK. Our employees are not just part of a team-they are key contributors to shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.

At Leonardo we are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.

Be part of something bigger - apply now!

Primary Location: GB - Edinburgh

Additional Locations: GB - Newcastle

Contract Type: Permanent

Hybrid Working: Hybrid