Energetic Systems Qualification Engineer

Destinusgroup in Payerne, CH, seeks a Mid-level Energetic Systems Qualification Engineer to lead end-to-end qualification programs for defense and aerospace systems, ensuring compliance with NATO and safety standards. The role requires hands-on engineering, documentation discipline, and coordination across technical disciplines.

This role is responsible for managing the full qualification lifecycle of energetic systems, from initial concept review to type qualification, production acceptance, and in-service surveillance. The engineer will ensure all qualification activities are properly documented, traceable, and defensible during formal technical reviews and customer scrutiny.

Responsibilities

• Lead the product through all stages of the qualification process, ensuring compliance with required standards.
• Create and maintain core qualification documents, including qualification plans, test plans, procedures, verification matrices, and final qualification reports.
• Oversee the four-stage qualification chain: Type Qualification, First Article Inspection, Lot Acceptance, and In-Service Surveillance, ensuring each stage delivers required artifacts and signatures.
• Define test campaigns and acceptance criteria, coordinating environmental, mechanical, safety, and performance tests according to NATO AECTP, STANAG, and AOP standards.
• Maintain full requirements traceability and verification links, ensuring every system requirement is validated.
• Prepare materials for formal gate reviews, including entry packages, checklists, and RACI assignments, serving as the engineering lead during reviews with Chief Engineers, Quality, Safety, and customer technical authorities.
• Manage re-qualification efforts by evaluating change and failure triggers, classifying them, and defining required re-qualification scope based on established rules.
• Support system-level hazard and safety assessments, ensuring qualification evidence supports the system safety case and Statement of Qualification.
• Lead investigations into anomalies and non-conformances, performing root-cause analysis and corrective actions, and updating qualification records accordingly.
• Maintain configuration baselines and document control throughout the qualification lifecycle, supporting FAI and Production Readiness activities to transition designs into production.
• Work with discipline leads in energetics, propulsion, mechanical, electronics, and software to integrate their qualification efforts into a unified system-level program.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Systems, or a related engineering field.
• Minimum 3 years of experience in qualification, verification, validation, or systems engineering for energetic, propulsion, missile, or aerospace systems in defense or aerospace settings.
• Familiarity with gate-driven, V-model qualification processes, including deliverables and criteria for formal design and qualification reviews.
• Extensive experience with NATO qualification standards such as STANAG, AECTP, and AOP munition safety principles, or equivalent national frameworks.
• Understanding of the qualification chain: type qualification, first article inspection, lot acceptance, and in-service surveillance.
• Solid knowledge of TRL and MRL frameworks and how readiness levels influence lifecycle progression.
• Proven experience writing qualification plans, test procedures, verification matrices, and qualification reports in regulated, safety-critical environments.
• Experience in configuration management, requirements traceability, and document control for complex hardware programs.
• Strong documentation skills and analytical thinking, with the ability to compile and defend comprehensive evidence packages during technical-authority reviews.
• Ability to work directly in laboratory, integration, and test environments.
• Willingness to travel between production, R&D, and test sites in various locations.
• Fluency in English is required.

Nice to have

• Knowledge of German or Dutch is an advantage.