Axient is seeking a Remote, Casual Part-Time Lead Flight Safety Engineer in support of our Product Development Center.  This work will involve Flight Safety analysis, assessment and documentation of hazardous flight systems and operations - identifying the resulting safety risks associated with the flight of a wide variety of aerospace vehicles and payloads. This involves performing aerospace flight systems and safety risk analyses for a wide range of vehicle types and missions. Typical missions include expendable and small launch vehicles, guided and spin-stabilized suborbital multi-stage rockets, military guided missiles, scientific high-altitude balloons, aircraft and Uninhabited Aerial Systems, ground-launched gun systems/projectiles, military aerial target systems, and directed energy systems. This process is documented in Range Safety Process for Programs and Projects (800-PG-8715.5.1A).

In addition, the work will involve support to Flight System Safety to address the functionality and reliability of flight systems, whose failure during flight may adversely affect public safety. The greatest portion of this system safety effort is directed towards the certification and check out of launch vehicle Flight Termination Systems (FTSs). These systems may be commanded or autonomous. This process is documented in 803-PG-8715.1.5, Range Safety System Certification Process.

Specific Activities/Tasks:

Flight Safety team members support all operations as part of the Project Team.  As a member of the Project Team:

• Represent the flight safety group at project meetings and reviews,
• Present flight safety results and issues at reviews,
• Document comments, questions, actions, and concerns and track and report the status of all actions from project meetings, reviews, and panels.
• Function as an operations team member as designated by the Flight Safety Branch Head.

Support to Flight Safety Analysis will involve the following specific activities and tasks:

• Define data requirements for missions and collect vehicle and mission data and report status as requested by the Government,
• Perform or peer review the flight safety risk analysis for assigned missions and document the results of the analysis in a flight safety risk analysis report and prepare a flight safety plan. This is done for both preliminary and final data. Analysis products for each missions include but are not limited to aircraft and ship hazard area analysis, flight safety limits, flight termination criteria, launch area risk assessments, and COLA.
• For guided vehicle launches, perform or peer review inputs required in the configuration of the Risk Assessment Center (RAC) for Wind Drifted Debris Analysis, Toxics, and/or Distance Focused Overpressure (DFO). The contractor shall assist in the preparation and analysis using National Atmospheric Model (NAM) forecasts.
• For unguided vehicle launches, perform or peer review the pre-mission wind weighting analysis. The analysis shall be performed using both the preliminary and final flight safety data inputs.
• Develop information required to configure mission graphics displays to support launch operations.

Support to Flight System Safety will involve the following specific activities and tasks:

• Participate in Technical Interchange Meetings (TIM) and other design reviews, to gather the information necessary to conduct analysis.
• Review acceptance and qualification test reports on Flight Termination System (FTS) components for compliance to the Wallops Range Safety Manual.
• Employ analytical techniques during the systems safety analysis effort, to include but not limited to: Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), fault tree analysis, Preliminary Hazards Analysis {PHA), sneak circuit analysis, and other techniques.
• Evaluate the Mission Data Load (MDL) provided by the range user. The contractor shall conduct a peer review of the MDL and provide recommended changes to NASA.
• The contractor shall validate the MDL logic through a series of software in the loop (SWIL) tests. Test validation shall ensure compliance with the Range Commander’s Council FTS Commonality Standard Section 3.19.2 Flight Termination Criteria (RCC-319).

• Experience: At least 10 years related experience
• Education: BA/BS/Equivalent in Engineering or Science. Advanced degree in Engineering or a related academic field preferred.
• Experience performing Flight Safety Analysis (FSA) for space launch and/or reentry operations.
• Expeirence using JARSS/Sentry Mission Planning (MP) tool suite, Flight Analyst Workstation (FAWS) or RRAT and TTK or expeirence in launch range operations or launch range safety (not occupational safety) can be used in place of the required tools expeirence. 

Must meet applicable COVID safety requirements and protocols