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Dawn Aerospace is seeking an experienced Certification Engineer to join the Spaceplane Certification Team in Christchurch, New Zealand. You will take ownership of safety risks and mitigations in the flight operations domain for a remotely piloted reusable spaceplane that combines rocket performance with aircraft reusability.
In this role, you will directly contribute to the safety case demonstrating that frequent unmanned, rocket-powered flights to space are safe. You will work within a fast-moving environment, reporting to the Certification Team Lead, with high-level interaction across Flight Operations and Systems Engineering teams.
Key Responsibilities:
Manage certification projects and liaison with civil aviation authorities and external stakeholders. Engage directly with authorities to reach agreement on acceptable risk mitigations, resolve disagreements on safety approaches, work closely with Flight Operations and Systems Engineering teams to provide requirements and review work packages, and ensure certification deliverables are provided efficiently.
Develop operational risk assessments and safety cases. Systematically identify risks associated with unmanned aircraft operations using industry practices (JARUS SORA), decide mitigations and standards to meet safety objectives in the flight operations domain, take end-to-end ownership of operational constraints to protect the public (e.g., special-use airspace, marine navigation warnings, surveillance), ensure safety case mitigations are implemented and verified, and develop and maintain exposition and supporting procedures.
Derive appropriate mitigations in the operations domain. Build relationships and manage requirements for external stakeholders (aerodrome operators, air traffic service providers, training organisations), develop flight test and operations risk management practices, provide leadership and mentorship on acceptable standards for procedure validation, crew training, human factors, and establish requirements for detect-and-avoid systems.
Serve as Safety Observer. Provide independent monitoring of flight operations for compliance with procedures, identify unsafe conditions and safety risks during pre-flight and post-flight activities, manage crew duty and rest periods, and ensure emergency response plans are adequate.
You are practical, organised, and capable of taking ownership in a dynamic environment. You enjoy working embedded with flight operations and engineering teams and are comfortable presenting succinct safety cases for complex operations. You can take vague safety objectives in unprecedented use cases and provide clear direction to teams on how to meet them.
Requirements:
You must be an experienced certification engineer, flight test engineer, flight safety specialist, or launch safety official with experience in UAS operations or rocket launch operations who provides leadership and influence across engineering and operations disciplines. You should bring strong experience in at least two or three of the following areas: certification project management in safety-critical applications; unmanned aircraft operations safety case development in Medium or High-risk categories; civil aviation rules, airspace designation, and flight procedures; launch safety and launch licensing; quality management and/or safety management systems. You are highly motivated to solve complex safety risk challenges, comfortable balancing trade-offs across technical, aviation safety, commercial, and schedule domains, able to work well with diverse teams, receptive to feedback from peers and regulators, and creative in finding paths to certification.
