AMERICAN SYSTEMS is an employee-owned federal government contractor supporting national priority programs through our strategic solutions in the areas of Information Technology, Test & Evaluation, Engineering & Analysis, and Training.
ResponsibilitiesAMERICAN SYSTEMS is seeking a motivated, mid-career System Safety Engineer (SSE) to support Specialty Engineering initiatives under the guidance of senior engineers. This role supports the Director for Specialty Engineering within OUSW R&E and is intended for candidates with foundational System Safety Engineering experience in a defense environment. A successful candidate will work as part of a team analyzing defense systems to identify hazards, categorize risk, and recommend mitigation to reduce the probability/severity of a mishap resulting in injury to personnel, equipment damage, and/or damage to the environment. Candidates with experience supporting Joint Services Weapon Safety Review Boards are highly preferred. Candidates will use their expertise to develop and update DoW safety documentation (e.g., System Safety Management Plan), policies & guidance (e.g., Machine Learning System Safety Engineering Guide), and training material.
Specialty Engineering Support:
• Assist with System Safety Engineering (SSE) reviews, updates, and configuration control activities.
• Apply SSE best practices in support of DoW Specialty Engineering initiatives.
• Support implementation of SSE best practices through development of SSE artifacts and supporting documentation.
• Assist senior engineers in documenting System Safety Engineering processes, workflows, and lessons learned.
• Help prepare materials that support System Safety Engineering adoption, including briefings and examples.
• Participate in SSE Communities of Practice and Working Groups.
Communication and Coordination:
• Support preparation of technical inputs to data calls, briefings, articles, and reports for government stakeholders.
• Work with multidisciplinary teams to communicate technical concepts using models and visualizations.
• Assist senior staff in coordinating across government and contractor teams as needed.
Qualifications- Bachelor's degree in engineering or related technical discipline.
- 10 years of experience in systems safety engineering.
- Must have a current and active DoD Secret Clearance is required, TS preferred.
- U.S. Citizenship Required for the purposes of obtaining/holding a U.S. security clearance.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in engineering or a related technical discipline
- 10 years of experience in systems safety engineering
- Current and active DoD Secret clearance
- U.S. citizenship for obtaining or holding a security clearance
- Experience supporting Joint Services Weapon Safety Review Boards
AMERICAN SYSTEMS Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about AMERICAN SYSTEMS and has not been reviewed or approved by AMERICAN SYSTEMS.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — The ESOP provides an ownership stake that adds long-term financial value and complements base pay. This employee-ownership structure stands out within the overall package.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) with automatic enrollment and broad investment options, alongside the ESOP, strengthens retirement pathways beyond salary. These features are presented as competitive within the defense contracting space.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Base pay is considered fair or comparable to industry peers, particularly for technical roles. Starting compensation is described as solid for areas like cybersecurity, systems administration, and IT engineering.
AMERICAN SYSTEMS Insights
What We Do
AMERICAN SYSTEMS is an employee-owned government services contractor that delivers professional, technical, information technology, engineering, analysis, testing, evaluation, and training solutions for complex national-priority programs. Based in McLean, Virginia, the company supports federal customers—particularly defense and other Department of Defense missions—with mission-essential and information engineering, digital engineering, systems integration, cybersecurity, cloud, data, and lifecycle IT services across critical public-sector environments.
