Director-Safety Mission Assurance- Lunar
About The Position
Blue Origin is seeking a Mission Assurance Director to lead the safety and mission assurance function for the Human Landing System (HLS) program within the Lunar Permanence business unit. HLS is Blue Origin's crewed lunar lander, developed under NASA's Artemis program. The role provides independent assurance of safety, quality, and mission success for a human-rated spacecraft system, from design and qualification through integration and test, launch campaign support, and crewed lunar operations. The Director serves as the mission assurance authority across program milestones, partnering with program, engineering, system safety, reliability, quality assurance, and EHS organizations, and working directly with NASA. The role also covers budget planning, organizational strategy, senior-level communication, and structured change management. It reports to the Vice President of Safety, Quality, and Mission Assurance.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in a technical field.
- 15+ years of experience in mission assurance, quality, reliability, or product integrity for complex hardware.
- Human spaceflight or launch vehicle certification experience, including familiarity with human-rating requirements and processes.
- Strong proficiency with safety and mission assurance processes, analysis, and tools, including risk management, hazard analysis, FMEA, reliability analysis, and root cause analysis.
- Demonstrated success providing independent technical judgment and establishing risk thresholds that drive mission success on complex aerospace systems.
- Technical leadership experience driving workforce culture and process change and leading through influence.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including communication with senior executives and external customers.
Nice To Haves
- Direct NASA interface experience, including familiarity with NASA mission assurance and safety requirements.
- Experience on NASA crewed or human-rated programs.
- Launch vehicle and associated ground systems development experience.
- Experience supporting launch operations.
- Continuous Improvement, Lean, or Six Sigma knowledge and experience.
- Working knowledge of AS9100 or an equivalent quality standard, including audit and conformance experience.
Responsibilities
- Serve as the mission assurance authority for the Human Landing System program, providing independent oversight and technical judgment across the program lifecycle.
- Define, implement, and monitor the HLS mission assurance program, specifications, and processes for design, test, launch, and crewed mission success.
- Coordinate safety, quality, and mission assurance efforts across matrixed system safety, reliability, and quality engineering teams.
- Provide inputs to program, test, and mission planning so safety and mission assurance objectives are addressed at development and certification gates.
- Work with the program to establish and refine risk thresholds and goals for safety and mission success, and disposition relevant risks.
- Represent Mission Assurance at program, design, test, and material review boards.
- Ensure safety, reliability, hazard, and FMEA analyses are thorough and correct, and that derived requirements and mitigations are verified and closed.
- Serve as a non-advocate for design, qualification, production, and flight readiness reviews, and test and integration facility activation.
- Independently review failure and defect root cause analyses, anomaly investigations, and mishaps, and provide non-advocate support to corrective and preventive action processes.
- Provide technical expertise to manufacturing and test activities to improve product safety, reliability, and quality.
- Interface directly with NASA on mission assurance requirements, compliance, and human-rating certification activities.
- Establish, track, and report key performance metrics to SQMA and Lunar Permanence leadership.
- Support budget planning, organizational strategy, senior-level communication, and structured change management.
Benefits
- Medical insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- Basic and supplemental life insurance
- Paid parental leave
- Short- and long-term disability
- 401(k) with company match of up to 5%
- Education Support Program
- Stock options for regular employees working at least 20 hours per week
- Paid time off of up to four weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours
- Up to 14 company-paid holidays
- Employees may be eligible for benefits and bonuses based on role type and job level; bonus amounts and eligibility are not guaranteed.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
