Staff Engineer, Operational Safety Specialist (R6049)
Dallas · USD 120,000-180,000 / year · 3-5 years experience · Onsite · Posted Sep 24, 2026
At a glance
- Experience
- 3-5 years experience
- Workplace
- Onsite
- Location
- Dallas
- Salary
- USD 120,000-180,000 / year
About the role
- The Operational Safety Specialist plays a central role in strengthening both proactive and reactive safety programs across Shield AI’s flight operations and ground environments.
- This position focuses on the execution and continuous improvement of auditing, safety metrics, investigations, and safety promotion activities spanning multiple aircraft programs.
- The role is instrumental in preparing Shield AI’s safety programs for global scale and growth.
Responsibilities
- Develop, implement, and maintain operational safety policies, standards, and procedures for X-BAT flight, ground, maintenance, test, and field activities.
- Support the Airworthiness team in creating, reviewing, controlling, and maintaining documentation and objective evidence used for airworthiness and readiness decisions.
- Contribute to the development and maintenance of safety cases for all aircraft, including traceability among hazards, operational mitigations, procedures, training, and verification evidence.
- Maintain the Operational Risk Registry and conduct risk assessments for flight test, engine runs, ground operations, launch and recovery, maintenance, and field deployments.
- Support safety reviews, test and operational readiness reviews, fielding assessments, and approval activities by ensuring required artifacts are complete, current, and available to decision-makers and operators.
- Build and maintain Emergency Response Program readiness for X-BAT, including plans, notification protocols, roles, checklists, site coordination, training, exercises, and corrective actions.
- Conduct audits and field observations to assess compliance with approved procedures, identify process drift, and verify that corrective actions are effective.
- Lead or support mishap, near-miss, and emergency-event investigations, including evidence collection, root-cause analysis, reporting, and corrective-action follow-through.
- Develop safety metrics and readiness indicators, and support customer and government safety engagements, documentation requests, and reporting obligations.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in safety, aviation, engineering, emergency management, or a related discipline (or equivalent operational experience).
- 3-5+ years of experience in aviation safety, flight or test operations, UAS operations, military aviation, safety management systems, or emergency response.
- Experience developing or reviewing operational policies, procedures, risk assessments, readiness documentation, or emergency response plans.
- Working knowledge of safety management systems, operational risk management, mishap investigation, corrective action, and emergency preparedness principles.
- Strong technical writing, document-control, and analytical skills, with the ability to turn complex inputs into clear, usable operational products.
- Ability to work effectively across engineering and operational teams, support flightline and test-site activities, travel as needed, and work non-standard hours when operations require it.
Preferred qualifications
- Experience supporting UAS, autonomous aircraft, military aviation, or developmental flight-test programs.
- Experience supporting airworthiness documentation, safety cases, certification evidence, or operational approval packages.
- Familiarity with MIL-STD-882, DCMA 8210.1, FAA or ICAO safety management frameworks, or similar aviation safety standards.
- Experience developing or exercising aviation emergency response plans, incident command procedures, or emergency operations programs.
- Formal training in mishap investigation, root-cause analysis, human factors, emergency management, or safety auditing.
- Active or eligible security clearance.
Benefits
- Bonus
- Benefits
- Equity
- Temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)
Skills
- Safety Management Systems
- Operational Risk Management
- Mishap Investigation
- Technical Writing
- Root-Cause Analysis
- Emergency Preparedness
- Safety Auditing
- Human Factors
