Jesse Leitner has served as the Chief Safety and Mission Assurance Engineer for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center since 2009, responsible for the technical direction for NASA GSFC’s Directorate for Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA). In this role, he develops policies and procedures to ensure technical excellence and engineering integrity for SMA practices across GSFC; coordinates, recommends solutions for, and reports on problems and issues across the Center; and facilitates technical coordination for activities in engineering, SMA, and projects and programs at GSFC. Dr. Leitner has performed aggregate risk assessments for a variety of missions including Parker Solar Probe and James Webb Space Telescope, and he led the team that developed the Science Mission Directorate Standard Mission Assurance Requirements for Payload Classification D (SPD-39) published in April, 2021. His current research and application efforts are in risk-based safety and mission assurance. Dr. Leitner received a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in the area of Flight Mechanics and Control, a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech as well, and a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.