Sr. Principal Safety Engineer

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time Description At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work — and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history. Aeronautics Systems is seeking a Sr. Principal Systems Safety Engineer to support the BQM-34 Targets program in Rancho Bernardo, CA. The selected candidate will apply systems engineering and safety engineering principles to identify, assess, and mitigate hazards across the system lifecycle, and will be responsible for planning and executing safety analyses and validating safety requirements and assumptions against design and test evidence. Responsibilities • Perform system safety engineering activities across the lifecycle, including hazard identification, analysis, tracking, and mitigation. • Develop and maintain system and subsystem safety requirements, and ensure they are properly allocated, implemented, and verified. • Conduct safety analyses such as Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA), Functional Hazard Analysis (FHA), System Safety Assessments (SSA), FMEA/FMECA, and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), as applicable. • Plan and execute safety validation activities, including defining safety acceptance criteria, identifying supporting test/analysis data, and confirming that system behavior satisfies safety requirements and assumptions. • Collaborate with systems, software, hardware, integration/test, and reliability teams to ensure safety considerations are incorporated into design decisions and verification plans. • Support preparation of safety-related documentation and artifacts (e.g., hazard logs, safety assessments, safety case/evidence packages) for internal reviews and customer deliverables. • Present safety findings, risks, and recommendations to program and customer stakeholders and support resolution of safety-related issues. Basic Qualifications • Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related STEM discipline and 8+ years of relevant experience. • Experience in systems engineering and/or systems safety engineering on complex systems. • Experience performing or supporting safety or reliability analyses (e.g., hazard analysis, FMEA/FMECA, FTA, or similar). • Active DoD Secret clearance, with the ability to obtain and maintain higher-level clearances if program needs evolve. Preferred Qualifications • Experience with system safety on aerospace, defense, or mission-critical systems (airborne ISR, mission systems, or similar domains). • Familiarity with applicable safety standards or guidance (e.g., MIL-STD-882 or similar system safety standards). • Strong analytical, documentation, and communication skills, with the ability to work across multiple engineering disciplines. • Experience contributing to and presenting material at systems engineering technical reviews (SETR) for safety specific topics. • Familiarity with systems engineering practices (requirements development, architecture, verification/validation) and how safety integrates into these activities.