Airworthiness & Certification Engineer (Aerospace)

Overview:

The Airworthiness & Certification Engineer will support the development, verification, and certification of safety-critical airborne systems and products. The role works across systems, software, hardware, safety, quality, and program teams to plan, coordinate, and execute airworthiness and certification activities throughout the product development lifecycle.
The primary need is someone who can contribute to and, with experience, help manage the overall certification effort, including certification planning, compliance matrices, lifecycle data, verification evidence, audits, and certification documentation. Candidates with significant direct certification experience may take ownership of these activities; candidates with a strong aerospace engineering foundation and meaningful certification/design-assurance exposure may be developed into broader responsibility.

Key Responsibilities:

• Help plan and execute airworthiness and certification activities for safety-critical airborne systems and products.
• Work with engineering and program teams to identify certification requirements and required compliance evidence based on the applicable Airworthiness Certification Basis.
• Develop, maintain, and support certification plans, compliance matrices, verification evidence, lifecycle data, and certification documentation.
• Coordinate certification activities across systems, software, hardware, safety, quality, configuration management, suppliers, and program teams.
• Support preparation and maintenance of Airworthiness Certification Criteria Reports (ACCRs) and other required certification artifacts.
• Review engineering lifecycle data for traceability, completeness, and compliance with applicable requirements.
• Support certification reviews, audits, inspections, and interactions with customers, certification authorities, or delegated engineering organizations.
• Identify certification gaps, risks, and corrective actions and work with engineering teams to resolve them.
• Support safety-critical requirements and verification activities within MBSE and digital engineering environments.
• Contribute to improvements in airworthiness and certification processes, tools, templates, and practices.

• Support certification activities associated with RTCA/DO-178C for airborne software and RTCA/DO-254 for airborne electronic hardware.
• Support the development and/or review of certification planning and accomplishment documentation, including PSACs, PHACs, Software Accomplishment Summaries (SAS), Hardware Accomplishment Summaries (HAS), compliance matrices, and supporting lifecycle data.
• Assist with planning development and verification activities based on applicable Design Assurance Levels (DALs).
• Review requirements, design, verification, configuration management, quality/process assurance, and other lifecycle evidence for certification compliance.
• Support Software Quality Assurance (SQA), Software Configuration Management (SCM), hardware process assurance, supplier surveillance, and certification audits as applicable.
• Participate in selective lifecycle data reviews and audits against applicable DO-178C and DO-254 objectives.

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace, Electrical, Computer, Software, Systems, Mechanical Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
• Meaningful engineering experience supporting safety-critical aerospace or airborne products, including experience in systems, software, hardware, system safety, verification/validation, quality/process assurance, or certification.
• Direct exposure to airworthiness, certification, or design-assurance activities as part of an aerospace product development or certification program.
• Practical experience working within a safety-critical development environment governed by standards such as RTCA/DO-178C, RTCA/DO-254, ARP4754A/B, or ARP4761. Experience should extend beyond general familiarity or awareness of these standards.
• Experience contributing to or reviewing engineering lifecycle data used to demonstrate compliance, such as requirements, design data, verification/test evidence, traceability, configuration records, quality/process assurance records, compliance documentation, or certification artifacts.
• Understanding of requirements-based development, verification, traceability, configuration control, and/or process assurance as applied to safety-critical aerospace systems.
• Ability to review technical documentation and work across engineering disciplines to identify requirements, compliance evidence, gaps, and risks.
• Strong technical communication, organization, and documentation skills.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen and have the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Security Clearance.

• Direct experience supporting airworthiness or civil certification of airborne systems.
• Experience producing or formally reviewing PSACs, PHACs, SAS, HAS, certification plans, compliance matrices, accomplishment summaries, or similar certification artifacts.
• Working knowledge of both RTCA/DO-178C and RTCA/DO-254, including DALs, lifecycle data, verification, configuration management, and process assurance.
• Experience supporting certification audits, Stage of Involvement (SOI) reviews, or lifecycle data audits.
• Familiarity with ARP4754A/B and ARP4761.
• Experience with DOORS, MBSE, SysML, Cameo, or other digital engineering environments.
• Experience working with certification authorities, customers, DERs, ODAs, or military airworthiness organizations.
• Experience supporting multiple aircraft platforms, product variants, or integration spirals.