Software Assurance Engineer

ARES Corporation•Wallops Island, VA

11h•Onsite

About The Position

This position supports the ARES Safety and Mission Assurance Support (SMAS) III contract to provide onsite software safety assurance support for the NASA Safety & Mission Assurance (S&MA) Division at Wallops Flight Facility (WFF). This work involves expertise and skills related to software safety engineering, hazard analyses, and software engineering process review with a focus on Commercial launch AFTU checks, WFF safety-critical software analysis updates, oversight of Wind Weighting and Balloons avionics development, and evaluation of control systems modifications. Provide software assurance and safety engineering support for NASA mission and project software, with emphasis on safety-critical systems and Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) operations. Support multiple small projects with compliance verification, hazard analysis, and lifecycle oversight in accordance with NASA standards (NPR 7150.2, NASA-STD-8739.8) and Range Commanders Council (RCC) requirements.

Requirements

NASA software engineering standards and directives (NPR 7150.2, NASA-STD-8739.8, GSFC policies)
Software safety criticality assessment methodologies
Hazard analysis techniques and risk assessment frameworks
Software development lifecycle (SDLC) processes and best practices
Requirements analysis and traceability management
Verification and validation (V&V) methodologies
Process audit execution and compliance verification
Code quality analysis (code coverage, cyclomatic complexity, static analysis)
Safety-critical software identification and classification
Technical writing (software assurance plans, hazard analyses, audit reports, assessments)
Metrics collection, trending, and analysis
Stakeholder coordination and presentation skills
Root cause analysis and problem-solving
Multi-project coordination and prioritization
Will need to complete training courses on Software Safety for Practitioners, Intermediate Software Reliability, Systems Safety Engineering, and Software Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis and Fault Tree Analysis as well as 392-WI-7150.4 Software auditor skills training in order to perform process audits
Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science or related field

Nice To Haves

Range Commanders Council (RCC) standards, particularly RCC 319 and Appendix A
NASA Range Safety and Payload Safety requirements
Autonomous Flight Termination Unit (AFTU) systems knowledge
Flight safety systems and launch operations experience
Commercial launch vehicle operations and oversight
Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) activities
Government project support and contracting environments
Experience with safety-critical embedded systems
Familiarity with Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) operations
Experience with antenna control units, avionics systems, or flight termination systems
Software architecture and detailed design analysis for mission-critical applications
Prior participation in milestone reviews as software safety representative
7 years of related experience preferred

Responsibilities

Classify software and assess criticality using NASA engineering requirements (NPR 7150.2, NASA-STD-8739.8)
Develop and maintain software assurance plans, hazard analyses, and risk assessments
Perform requirements, design, and implementation analyses for safety-critical systems, including code coverage, complexity metrics, and static analysis verification
Maintain bi-directional traceability between requirements, design, implementation, tests, and hazard analyses
Conduct process audits for compliance with NASA and safety-critical software standards
Analyze test plans, procedures, and verification activities; witness safety-critical tests
Monitor product integration and confirm test sufficiency
Track non-conformances, perform root cause analysis, and maintain risk/concern logs
Maintain safety-critical software inventory and support commercial launch provider evaluations
Review and assess RCC 319 document tailoring and compliance plans
Participate in Autonomous Flight Termination Unit (AFTU) development and provide launch operations support
Evaluate proposals for flight systems modifications and new developments
Participate in milestone and peer reviews representing software safety
Collect and analyze software assurance metrics; report task progress
Coordinate with government on project schedules and deliverables