{"id":2958850,"url":"https://alion.io/job/dawn-aerospace-senior-flight-safety-engineer-spaceplane","title":"Senior Flight Safety Engineer– Spaceplane","company":{"id":50199,"name":"Dawn Aerospace","domain":"dawnaerospace.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/dawn-aerospace","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":null},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Christchurch, New Zealand"],"countries":["NZ"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":50000,"max_usd":113000,"period":"year","method":"global_role_cell_scaled_by_country","sample_n":8444},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Verification & Validation","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-20T21:18:14Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-20","last_verified_at":"2026-10-28T00:57:06Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":7,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":7},"description":"Join us in developing a remotely operated reusable spaceplane that combines the demanding performance of a rocket with the operational discipline of an aircraft.\nWe're looking for an experienced engineer to own the flight safety analysis. There is no established playbook for a high-performance aircraft that matches the performance of a rocket, so you will shape one. You will define the methodology, build, validate and verify the, and run the analysis for every mission profile, often while the system design is still maturing. Lead the system safety analyses, including FHA and FTA to ensure that aircraft architecture and system failure rates support the flight safety analysis. This role suits someone who enjoys digging deep into a vehicle design, makes pragmatic engineering judgements, and wants real ownership of how we fly safely. If you want a narrow, heavily structured role, this is probably not for you.\nWhat You'll Do\nOwn the Part 450 Flight Safety Analysis\nTranslate high-level target levels of safety into quantitative safety criteria for the flight safety analysis methodology.\nOwn the end-to-end implementation of flight safety analysis methodology, including trajectory modelling, malfunction flight modelling, failure probability analysis, debris modelling, population exposure analysis, and vulnerability modelling.\nLead development of the flight safety analysis tool and its verification and validation to software qualification standards.\nAssess the vehicle system design at a high level to derive and assign probabilities of failure.\nRun the flight safety analysis for each mission profile, determine flight hazard areas, prepare the analysis content for the Part 102 certification application, and support engagement with the regulator.\nLead Aircraft System Safety\nPerform system safety assessments in accordance with aviation industry practices, including ED-279 & ED-280 methodologies stemming from 14 CFR 25.1309.\nContribute and review Functional Hazard Assessments for .\nDevelop system-level safety requirements and ensure hazards are effectively mitigated.\nPerform or contribute to Fault Tree Analysis, Common Cause Analysis, and reliability analysis in conjunction with aircraft design SMEs.\nSpecify Flight Abort Behaviour\nSpecify the behaviour requirements for the flight termination and abort system, including flight abort rules, and the required response time.\nWork with the engineering teams on flight abort system design and qualification, ensuring it meets requirements and is consistent with the flight safety analysis and, where applicable, RCC319.\nWhat We're Looking For\nYou are an experienced engineer who takes ownership, enjoys working across disciplines, and is comfortable making sound technical decisions.\nWe are looking for strong experience in:\nFlight safety analysis for launch or re-entry under Part 450 (or Parts 417/431), or comparable range safety work.\nQuantitative risk, trajectory, or debris modelling, and the verification and qualification of analysis software, methods, and models.\nFunctional Hazard Assessment, Hazard Analysis, Fault Tree Analysis, or Common Cause Analysis.\nSystems engineering for complex aerospace or other safety-critical systems.\nAircraft, spacecraft, launch vehicle, or advanced unmanned aircraft development.\nDesirable:\nExperience with Range Commanders Council Standard 319 flight termination system requirements.\nDesign, build, or qualification of flight termination systems.\nWhat Makes You Successful\nYou quickly understand the strengths and capabilities of the team, adapt your approach accordingly, and raise the technical standard by leading through example.\nYou naturally take ownership and drive work to completion.\nYou can understand complex systems and make pragmatic engineering decisions.\nYou enjoy building practical engineering solutions rather than simply following process.\nYou communicate clearly and influence technical direction through sound engineering judgement.\nWhy Join Us?\nThis is an opportunity to help develop a first-of-its-kind aerospace vehicle operating at the intersection of aviation and spaceflight. You'll have genuine ownership of critical vehicle functions, work alongside highly capable engineers, and help solve technical challenges that don't exist anywhere else in the industry.\nDiversity & Inclusion\nAt Dawn Aerospace, we believe that diverse teams build better solutions. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where people of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences are valued and supported to do their best work.\nAbout Dawn Aerospace\nDawn Aerospace is a space transportation company with a purpose.\nOur mission is to enable the next generation of space users by providing more sustainable and scalable ways to access and move around in space. We believe this access, in the form of a transportation network, will fundamentally change what’s possible from space. We currently focus on three areas of space transportation:\nIn-space propulsionWe're a leading supplier of turnkey green propulsion systems for various classes of satellites. Our systems utilise safe, accessible propellants and we have over 170 of these propulsion units on more than 40 operational satellites already. A further 200 units are in production.\n\nIn-space servicingCoupled with our propulsion expertise, we are ensuring that our customers' satellites are refuellable. In the coming years, Dawn will offer a refueling service to enable life extension of customer satellites. This new market is aligned with our sustainability goal to ensue a clean and safe space for everyone! \n\nSpaceplaneWe are developing the fastest and highest-flying aircraft ever to take off from a runway, combining the extreme performance of rocket propulsion with the reusability of conventional airplanes to enable high-frequency, low-cost access to sub-orbital space.\n\nOur international teams are distributed across four locations: the Netherlands, France, New Zealand, and the USA.\nApply for this Job\nImportant!\nIf you think you have what it takes but are unsure that you check every box, we still want to hear from you.\nTo all recruitment agencies: Dawn Aerospace does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our job’s alias, our employees, or any other company location. Dawn Aerospace will not be responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6376,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Space & Aerospace","Space Services"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-20T22:20:02Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":6,"expected_fill_days":43,"reasons":["conf:3","velocity","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-27T05:46:45Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/dawn-aerospace-senior-flight-safety-engineer-spaceplane","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/dawn-aerospace-senior-flight-safety-engineer-spaceplane.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-28T05:29:28Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":7284,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-29T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":50199},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=50199"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fdawn-aerospace-senior-flight-safety-engineer-spaceplane"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fdawn-aerospace-senior-flight-safety-engineer-spaceplane"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fdawn-aerospace-senior-flight-safety-engineer-spaceplane"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/dawn-aerospace-senior-flight-safety-engineer-spaceplane\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fdawn-aerospace-senior-flight-safety-engineer-spaceplane"}]}