CFAOS Air Safety Officer in Preston

Location: Warton — We offer a range of flexible and hybrid working arrangements – please speak to your recruiter about the options for this role.

Salary: £65,000+ Dependent on experience

What you’ll be doing:

• Provide independent, expert Air Safety advice to the AM(MF) and senior leadership, ensuring informed decision-making and regulatory compliance.
• Lead complex professional interviews, conduct thorough occurrence investigations, and facilitate structured group feedback sessions to identify root causes and drive learning.
• Develop and maintain influential cross-functional relationships across Flight Operations, Engineering, Safety, Compliance, Assurance, and the customer community.
• Enhance Air Safety performance by applying specialist expertise, clearly articulating risk, and influencing stakeholders to implement effective mitigation strategies.
• Deliver engaging training, briefings, and facilitated sessions to embed Air Safety and Human Factors (HF) / Crew Resource Management (CRM) principles throughout the organisation.

Your skills and experiences:

• Demonstrated competence as a SQEP Flying Supervisor & Authoriser.
• Deep understanding of aviation operations, engineering, and integrated safety management systems.
• Previous knowledge of CAA & MAA Regulations with knowledge of safety oversight and incident reporting.
• A relevant degree / HND / HNC, or equivalent vocational experience in Air Safety, aviation operations or related fields.

• Military service delivering front‑line operational air power.
• Test Pilot Experience.
• Previous experience of training / delivery.

Benefits:

As well as a competitive pension scheme, BAE Systems also offers employee share plans, an extensive range of flexible discounted health, wellbeing and lifestyle benefits, including a green car scheme, private health plans and shopping discounts - you may also be eligible for an annual incentive.

The CFAOS Flight Operations Safety, Compliance & Assurance Team:

Join us as our Air Safety Officer (ASO) within the CFAOS Flight Operations Safety, Compliance & Assurance Team—a pivotal role at the centre of UK military flight test and development flying. You will act as the Air Safety Subject Matter Expert (SME) supporting both the Head of Safety, Compliance & Assurance (HoSCA) and the Head of Flying (HoF), ensuring shared situational awareness across all Air Safety threats, risks, occurrences and emerging issues affecting safe flying operations. This role places you directly in the decision space of the Aviation Duty Holder, Accountable Manager (Military Flying) and their Post Holders—helping shape how flight operations are conducted, assured and improved.

Why BAE Systems?

This is a place where you’ll be able to make a real difference. You’ll be part of an inclusive culture that values diversity of thought, rewards integrity, and merit, and where you’ll be empowered to fulfil your potential. We welcome people from all backgrounds and want to make sure that our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. If you have a disability or health condition (for example dyslexia, autism, an anxiety disorder etc.) that may affect your performance in certain assessment types, please speak to your recruiter about potential reasonable adjustments.

Please be aware that many roles at BAE Systems are subject to both security and export control restrictions. These restrictions mean that factors such as your nationality, any nationalities you may have previously held, and your place of birth can restrict the roles you are eligible to perform within the organisation. All applicants must as a minimum achieve Baseline Personnel Security Standard. Many roles also require higher levels of National Security Vetting where applicants must typically have 5 to 10 years of continuous residency in the UK depending on the vetting level required for the role, to allow for meaningful security vetting checks.

Closing Date: 6th March 2026. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.