Senior System Safety Engineering Specialist

About Burns:

Burns Engineering provides professional engineering design and project management services for transportation, facilities, and infrastructure projects. We help our clients attain their strategic goals and initiatives through successful large-scale infrastructure projects. Burns' full-service capabilities include mechanical, electrical, civil, structural, transportation, and energy consulting engineering.

Recently voted a Top Workplace by Philly.com, we credit our strength as an organization to our talented, driven, vibrant team. Burns is an ENR Top 500 Firm, and has been named an MEP Giant by Consulting-Specifying Engineer Magazine, as well as a Hot Firm by Zweig. We are industry experts, proven leaders, innovative thinkers, and team players. We put our clients' successes and best interests first, because their success is our success. We have fun at work because we love making a difference in the world. We are looking for high-energy, bright, collaborative individuals who want the opportunity to "write their own story" with us.

Burns is currently seeking a licensed Senior System Safety Engineering Specialist to join our Signals, Communications & Train Control team in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, Pa.

SUMMARY

The Senior System Safety Engineering Specialist provides technical leadership across system engineering and system safety activities for rail signaling projects. This role is responsible for ensuring that signaling systems are engineered, integrated, and delivered in compliance with applicable technical, safety, and regulatory requirements throughout the full project lifecycle.

The Senior System Safety Engineering Specialist also focuses on developing technical expertise while mentoring early and mid-career engineering and design staff.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the development, implementation, and maintenance of the system safety program for rail signaling projects across the full project lifecycle, from concept through commissioning and operations.
• Perform and oversee system safety analyses and risk assessments, including hazard identification and management, hazard logs, FMEA/FMECA, fault tree analysis, and qualitative and quantitative risk evaluations.
• Ensure system compliance with applicable safety and technical standards and regulations, including CENELEC, AREMA, FRA requirements, and other customer-specific criteria.
• Define, develop, and manage Safety Plans, Safety Cases, and supporting safety documentation, ensuring completeness, traceability, and audit readiness.
• Review and assess system architectures, designs, interfaces, and changes to ensure compliance with fail-safe principles and safety requirements.
• Manage and maintain open safety-related items, including system hazards, safety actions, and mitigations, ensuring proper tracking, ownership, verification, and timely closure.
• Interface with clients, regulatory authorities, independent assessors, contractors, and suppliers to support safety approvals, audits, reviews, and resolution of technical issues.
• Support system integration, testing, and commissioning activities by defining safety acceptance criteria, performing verification activities, and witnessing safety-critical tests.
• Coordinate system and safety engineering requirements with project managers and other engineering disciplines to support overall project objectives and delivery.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to early- and mid-career engineers and contribute to training and knowledge development initiatives as requested.
• Act as a subject matter expert in systems and safety engineering for rail signaling projects, supporting proposals, client engagements, and business development activities.
• Perform all tasks in compliance with Burns (and, when applicable, a client's) standards, policies, procedures, and engineering codes.
• Perform all tasks efficiently, accurately, within the allotted project hours, and complete tasks on or before the due date.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

No formal supervisory responsibilities. Under the oversight of the Project Manager, the Engineer I may provide direction to CAD Operators, CAD Technicians, Designers, Co-Ops, Interns, Engineering Design Associates, and Engineering Associates.

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor's (B.S.) Engineering degree.
• A minimum of 10 years of progressive discipline specific engineering experience in the railroad industry, with at least 6 of those years in the field of rail safety engineering.
  
  

CERTIFICATIONS, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS

No certifications or licenses required; however, a Professional Engineer (PE) license, or similar, is considered a plus

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE

• Experience applying rail safety engineering processes such as hazard identification, risk assessment, hazard tracking, and safety verification/validation.
• Experience generating and maintaining functional fault trees.
• Experience supporting safety programs and documentation for large-scale passenger rail projects.
• Experience supporting safety certification and/or safety acceptance activities with owners, operators, and regulatory stakeholders.
• Experience supporting Reliability, Availability, Maintainability (RAM) methodology and calculations.
• Proficient knowledge of federal regulations related to rail systems.
• Experience with Positive Train Control (PTC) systems, including Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System (ACSES) and Interoperable Electronic Train Management System (I-ETMS).
• Experience with modern train control systems, such as Automatic Train Control (ATC) and Communications Based Train Control (CBTC).
• Proficient with safety engineering software and tools such as Relyence or Reliability Workbench.
• Experience developing and maintaining client relationships, especially those within the rail industry.