Senior Principal Design Safety Engineer

About the role

BAE Systems, one of the world's leading defense contractors, is seeking a Senior Principal Design Safety Engineer to support explosive safety and Department of War (DOW) compliance at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant (RFAAP).

Primary Duties And Responsibilities

• Hazard Mitigation: Develop and maintain a comprehensive working knowledge of common hazards associated with processing energetic materials and implement effective prevention and mitigation strategies.
• Compliance & Regulation: Develop a deep understanding of applicable DOW requirements for RFAAP manufacturing processes to ensure full regulatory compliance.
• Safety Planning: Support overall explosive safety compliance, including the development of Explosive Safety Site Plans and associated documentation.
• Waivers & Approvals: Manage and support the site waiver and explosive site safety plan processes.
• Technical Advisory: Provide expert technical safety guidance to manufacturing areas and management teams.
• Policy Development: Establish and maintain safety policies and standards for the Hazards Analysis group and related areas of expertise.
• Change Management: Support manufacturing process and equipment changes by conducting code compliance reviews, technical analyses, and area inspections.
• Project Lifecycle Support: Partner with project teams throughout the design, build, and commissioning phases, providing Design and Process Safety analysis to ensure safe and compliant operations.
• Risk Analysis: Participate in internal design reviews, root cause analyses, and Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) meetings.
• Action Tracking: Collaborate closely with project teams to ensure the timely completion of all PHA-generated follow-up actions.
• Investigations: Lead and perform safety investigations as required.

Required Education, Experience, & Skills

• Typically a Bachelor's Degree in engineering or safety and 8+ years related experience. Adequate applicable work experience will be accepted in place of a formal degree.
• Experience in required practices for safe operations involving hazardous chemicals such as flammable liquids and gases, reactive solids and liquids, toxic materials, corrosive materials, poisonous materials, explosives and other shock/friction sensitive materials, etc.
• Experience in design and/or evaluation of required practices for safely operating hazardous chemical processes.
• Experience in reading, interpreting, evaluating, and specifying compliance with a wide range of regulations and codes including, but not limited to OSHA, NFPA, and IBC.
• Experience in hazard identification and mitigation through leading, conducting, and/or participating in Process Hazard Analysis studies, root cause failure analysis, Job Hazard Analysis, and other risk analysis methods.
• Experience providing process and industrial safety support. Experience in a chemical manufacturing environment preferred.
• Experience in reading, interpreting, evaluating, and specifying compliance with regulations and codes including, but not limited to OSHA, NFPA, and IBC.
• Good communication and reasoning skills.
• Attention to detail.
• Able to work effectively and constructively with others.

Preferred Education, Experience, & Skills

• Experience in safe design of facilities handling propellants and explosives.
• 12+ years relevant experience.
• Experience in performing qualitative and/or quantitative hazard analysis of impact, friction, static electricity, and shock hazards of propellants and explosives.
• Experience in supporting compliance with OSHA, NFPA, DOW, and other standards.
• Experience leading incident investigation utilizing root cause analysis techniques.
• CSP - Certified Safety Professional.