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Long Wall Company, founded in 2024, accelerates missile defense technology for the U.S. and allies, specializing in ballistic missile defense systems including the Cyclops low-cost interceptor, containerized launchers, and threat-replication targets.
The Safety & Mission Assurance (SMA) Engineer provides independent oversight of reliability, safety, configuration compliance, and mission readiness for Long Wall's major programs. This role ensures that every design decision, integration change, and test plan preserves system reliability and safety, aligns with verification requirements, and supports mission success for internal and government programs.
You will partner closely with systems engineering, chief engineering, program management, quality, and integration/test operations to evaluate technical risk, approve readiness criteria, and embed disciplined safety and reliability practices into a fast-paced development environment. The role maintains independence while being deeply integrated with engineering and program execution.
Key responsibilities include:
- Lead reliability and safety evaluations, supporting hazard analyses, risk assessments, and mitigation planning
- Develop, maintain, and execute mission assurance processes including reliability expectations, configuration compliance checks, and readiness criteria
- Support system-level readiness reviews: design reviews, integration reviews, test readiness reviews (TRR), and flight readiness reviews (FRR)
- Provide independent evaluation of technical maturity, configuration stability, and verification completeness prior to major test campaigns
- Partner with systems engineering to ensure requirements, verification plans, and architecture support mission assurance and safety expectations
- Coordinate with chief engineering to evaluate technical impact of design changes, ensuring reliability and safety implications are understood and documented
- Track program-wide risks through the company risk register; lead risk boards and drive structured risk communication
- Validate that test plans, procedures, and configurations meet safety, hazard mitigation, and readiness requirements for government-funded activities
- Evaluate supplier quality and reliability risks; support supplier assessments for hardware impacting programs
- Learn from previous flight and integration attempts, ensuring technical lessons are documented and incorporated into future designs and processes
- Support environmental and manufacturing test activities by ensuring configuration stability, verification alignment, and risk awareness
- Maintain independent oversight while integrating closely with engineering, manufacturing, program management, quality, and operations
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Reliability Engineering, or related technical discipline
- 5+ years of experience in aerospace, defense, or complex hardware development focusing on reliability, safety, mission assurance, or test readiness
- Experience supporting structured readiness reviews, reliability analyses, hazard assessments, or risk management activities
- Strong understanding of reliability engineering, safety analysis, verification planning, and risk management for flight-critical systems
- Ability to evaluate technical maturity, configuration stability, and readiness for integration, test, and flight
- Experience contributing to hazard analyses, fault tree analyses, FMEA, or similar structured safety processes
- Ability to work independently while partnering closely with engineering, test, quality, and program management leadership
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills to deliver clear, defensible assessments to engineering teams, leadership, and government customers
- Strong organizational discipline and ability to maintain clarity across multiple verification flows and risk items
- Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in fast-paced aerospace or defense environments with shifting priorities and rapid development cycles
- US person status required (US citizens, permanent residents, individuals granted asylum, or admitted as refugees) due to ITAR export control requirements
PREFERRED:
- Experience supporting missile, interceptor, launch vehicle, or military system development
- Familiarity with government customers, test readiness processes, and structured milestone reviews
- Knowledge of reliability tools, safety analyses, configuration control systems, and mission readiness frameworks
- Experience working with manufacturing quality, supplier assurance, or environmental test operations
- Active or recent U.S. security clearance (Secret or above)
