Product Manager - Safety Critical Systems

About Us

STARK is a new kind of defence technology company revolutionising the way autonomous systems are deployed across multiple domains. We design, develop, and manufacture high-performance unmanned systems that are software-defined, mass-scalable, and cost-effective — providing operators with a decisive edge in contested environments.

We are focused on delivering deployable, high-performance systems — not future promises. In a time of rising threats, STARK is bolstering the technological edge of NATO Allies and their Partners to deter aggression and defend Europe, today.

Your mission

STARK's autonomous platforms — aerial and maritime — operate in contested, high-stakes environments where safety systems must function without exception. As Product Manager for Safety-Critical Systems, you will own the vision, roadmap, and delivery of the systems that make that guarantee possible: from Flight Termination Systems on our UAVs to fire suppression and recovery on our USVs. This is a strategic, high-accountability role at the intersection of systems engineering, cybersecurity, and product — and the foundation of trust that enables everything STARK ships.

Responsibilities

• Own the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for all safety-critical systems across STARK's UAV and USV platforms
• Lead product-level contributions to Functional Hazard Analyses (FHA) and Fault Tree Analyses (FTA), translating identified risks into concrete product requirements
• Serve as the product bridge between cybersecurity and safety engineering — ensuring cyber threats are embedded as causal factors in safety analyses and mitigation strategies
• Champion a "Digital Thread" for safety: end-to-end traceability from MBSE-level safety requirements through development, verification, and post-mission analysis
• Define architectures that are mass-scalable and cost-effective — not bespoke, one-off solutions — enabling STARK to deploy safe autonomous systems at scale
• Collaborate with systems engineers, certification leads, and executive stakeholders to drive design decisions and communicate risk clearly
• Drive the company's "Digital-First Safety" posture, ensuring compliance with applicable standards (SIL-2/3, DO-178C, IEC 61508) while maintaining architectural resilience against emerging threats
• Shape STARK's approach to safe agentic autonomy — ensuring increasingly autonomous behaviour remains deterministic and verifiable

Qualifications

• Degree (B.Sc. or M.Sc.) in Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, or a closely related technical discipline
• Proven track record as a Product Manager, Product Owner, or Systems Engineer delivering complex hardware/software systems under rigorous safety or regulatory standards
• Deep working knowledge of safety standards and methodologies: IEC 61508, DO-178C, DO-254, ISO 26262, FHA, FTA
• Experience taking a hardware/software product from concept through certification and into field deployment
• Technical fluency in safety architecture concepts: redundancy topologies (1oo2, 2oo3), dissimilar architectures, real-time operating systems
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and drive decisions in ambiguous, high-stakes technical environments
• Eligible to obtain appropriate security clearance for defence work

Nice to have

• Experience with Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and standards such as MOSA or FACE
• Background in cybersecurity — particularly in understanding how offensive threat models translate into safety requirements
• Familiarity with autonomous systems or UAV/USV platforms
• Experience in a scaling defence-tech or aerospace startup environment