Junior systems engineer Jobs in Zürich

The Destinus engineering team is seeking an Energetic Systems Qualification Engineer to plan, execute, and govern the qualification of energetic systems such as solid rocket motors, warheads, auxiliary pyrotechnics, and safety, arming and firing (SAF) devices. The role owns the qualification program end to end, from Mission Concept Review through to type qualification, production acceptance, and in-service surveillance.

The ideal candidate combines hands-on systems and test engineering with the documentation discipline to build a defensible Engineering Qualification File and shepherd it through formal gate reviews and customer technical-authority scrutiny.

What You’ll Do

• Drive product through the qualification process
• Develop and maintain the Qualification Data Pack core documents — qualification plans, test plans and procedures, requirements verification matrices, and qualification reports.
• Manage the four-stage qualification chain: Type Qualification (TQ), First Article Inspection (FAI), Lot Acceptance, and In-Service Surveillance, ensuring each stage produces its required artefact and signing authority.
• Define test campaigns and acceptance criteria, and coordinate environmental, mechanical, safety, and performance test programs to NATO AECTP, STANAG, and AOP standards.
• Build and maintain requirements traceability and verification cross-references, ensuring every requirement is verified
• Prepare gate-review entry packages, checklists, and RACI assignments, and act as the engineering focal point in formal reviews with Chief Engineers, Quality, Safety, and customer technical authorities.
• Manage re-qualification: assess change and failure triggers, classify them, and scope the re-qualification activity in line with the framework’s re-qualification rules.
• Support hazard and safety assessments at system level and ensure the qualification evidence underpins the system safety case and Statement of Qualification.
• Drive anomaly and non-conformance investigations through root-cause analysis and corrective action, feeding results back into the qualification record.
• Maintain configuration baselines and document control across the qualification lifecycle and support FAI and Production Readiness activities to transition a qualified design into production.
• Collaborate with energetics, propulsion, mechanical, electronics, and software discipline leads to integrate their qualification overlays into a coherent system-level program.

Requirements

• BSc. or MSc. in Aerospace, Mechanical, Systems, or a related engineering discipline.
• 3+ years of experience in qualification, verification and validation, or systems engineering of energetic, propulsion, missile, or aerospace systems in a defense or aerospace environment.
• Working knowledge of a gate-driven, V-model qualification lifecycle and the deliverables and entry/exit criteria associated with formal design and qualification reviews.
• Extensive experience with NATO and equivalent qualification standards — 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 grasp of TRL and MRL frameworks and how readiness levels gate progression through the lifecycle.
• Proven experience authoring qualification plans, test procedures, verification matrices, and qualification reports in a regulated, safety-critical environment.
• Experience with configuration management, requirements traceability, and document control on a complex hardware program.
• Strong documentation discipline and analytical mindset, with the ability to assemble and defend a complete evidence package under technical-authority review.
• Able to work hands-on across laboratory, integration, and test environments.
• Willingness to travel between production, R&D, and test sites in various locations.
• Fluency in English required; German, Dutch is a plus.