Location: Luton (mostly onsite) Duration: 6 month contract Rate: 88.97ph UMB (Inside IR35)A major UK defence programme is seeking an experienced Lead/Principal Safety Engineer to support the development and integration of advanced sensor, communications, and non-kinetic effect systems. This role involves working across complex, interdependent subsystems as part of a cutting-edge technology demonstrator programme in the air defence domain.Key Responsibilities:Provide expert safety guidance to support system safety authorisation.Ensure safety activities follow agreed plans and are correctly executed.Identify and analyse both intrinsic and functional hazards; develop mitigation strategies to reduce risk to ALARP.Derive and manage safety requirements across multiple subsystems.Review and integrate subsystem safety analyses into a complete system-level assessment.Align subsystem safety with aircraft-level safety cases.Support and present safety assessments at formal design reviews. Ideal Candidate Profile:Strong systems safety engineering background in safety-critical sectors (preferably aerospace or defence).Able to manage complex system interactions and lead multi-disciplinary safety activities.Comfortable navigating aircraft-level safety regulations.Skilled in working across engineering lifecycles and managing stakeholders. Essential Skills and Experience:Safety analysis of complex, high-integrity systems.Leadership of safety work packages across multiple teams.Familiarity with