London

Principal Safety Engineer

Posted on Friday, 12th June 2026

Defence and Military
London
Negotiable
Permanent

Job title: Principal Safety Engineer
Location: Southwest London
Working pattern: Hybrid (3 days on-site)
Salary: up to £75,000

The Opportunity
As a Principal Functional Safety Engineer (Marine), you’ll lead safety assurance activities across the design, development, and in-service support of advanced platform management / control infrastructure for naval vessels (surface and sub-surface environments).

You will be a key member of the Safety Engineering team, working closely with engineering and programme stakeholders to deliver robust safety arguments and high-quality assurance outputs for mission-critical operations.

What you will be doing

  • Derive safety activities and delivery plans aligned to programme milestones and safety requirements.
  • Lead safety assurance activity to ensure customer and derived safety targets are achieved through system design (hardware, software, firmware).
  • Lead/participate in safety audits at internal and external design reviews and safety governance forums.
  • Ensure technical documentation is produced to a high standard in line with company/customer processes.
  • Lead analysis that influences engineering design decisions and proposed solutions.
  • Present clear, evidence-based safety arguments to internal and external stakeholders to support safe decision-making.
  • Collaborate within multi-disciplinary teams (systems, hardware, software, ILS, project management, customer and supplier engineering).
  • Maintain awareness of relevant standards and best practice to drive continuous improvement.

What we are looking for

  • Relevant experience in a safety-related engineering environment.
  • Experience leading technical activities (work-package leadership, assurance leadership, or equivalent).
  • Understanding of standards such as IEC 61508 and defence-sector safety standards (e.g., Def Stan 00-056) (Essential)
  • Experience assuring COTS processing-equipment-based systems and/or high-integrity software.
  • Ability to understand hardware/software failure modes, causes and effects.
  • Experience with safety/reliability methods: hazard identification/analysis, FMECA, FTA, FFA.
  • Experience with risk assessment techniques and developing ALARP justifications.

If you’re ready to join a global leader within defence, challenging yourself on highly complex and sensitive projects then this could be the opportunity for you!

Due to the nature of this role, you must be a Sole UK National with active SC clearance, or with willingness to obtain SC Clearance.

Apply with your CV and if you’re a match, we can set up a quick call to discuss further.

Benefits summary:

  • Flexible/hybrid working options (including compressed fortnight option)
  • Private healthcare / cash health plan
  • Holiday buy/sell
  • Performance-related bonus
  • Training, mentoring, and career development opportunities

Daniel Badman

Advertised by:

Daniel Badman
Senior Consultant
LinkedIn

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