Senior Functional Safety Engineer

About This Opportunity

We are representing a confidential autonomous vehicle technology company in their search for a Senior Functional Safety Engineer to lead safety architecture and validation across their next-generation platform. This role sits at the intersection of hardware, software, operations, and deployment—requiring someone who can translate complex hazard analyses into practical engineering requirements while maintaining rigorous safety standards.

You'll own system-level safety analysis, develop safety cases, drive cross-functional implementation of safety requirements, and support operational readiness decisions. This is a high-impact position for an engineer who can balance technical depth with execution speed in a real-world deployment environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead system safety analysis across autonomy software, vehicle controls, perception, planning, prediction, compute, sensors, communications, and fallback behaviors
• Develop and maintain safety artifacts including hazard analyses, functional safety concepts, technical safety requirements, safety cases, FMEAs, STPA analyses, fault trees, and validation evidence
• Translate hazards and operational risks into clear, testable safety requirements for engineering, validation, operations, and fleet teams
• Act as Functional Safety Manager for the autonomous vehicle platform, coordinating with suppliers, distributed safety development teams, and tracking safety work products across tiered suppliers and integrators
• Define and refine the Operational Design Domain, including route parameters, environmental constraints, vehicle behavior boundaries, fallback strategies, and minimum-risk maneuvers
• Evaluate safety impacts of new features, software releases, hardware changes, sensor configurations, operational procedures, and route expansions
• Drive safety reviews for on-road testing, driverless readiness, commercial operations, incident response, and post-event analysis
• Analyze logs, simulations, test results, disengagements, safety-driver interventions, and fleet events to identify safety trends and improvement opportunities
• Define verification and validation strategies for safety-critical requirements across simulation, closed-course testing, structured road testing, shadow mode, and operational deployment
• Ensure traceability from hazards to requirements, implementation, test coverage, and safety-case evidence
• Contribute to safety governance, launch readiness criteria, change management, release approval processes, and operational safety metrics
• Support regulatory, customer, partner, and insurer safety reviews as needed

What We're Looking For

• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Automotive Engineering, or related technical field
• 7+ years of experience in systems safety, functional safety, autonomous vehicles, robotics, aerospace, automotive, heavy vehicles, or safety-critical software for complex cyber-physical systems
• Strong experience performing safety analyses such as HARA, FMEA, FTA, STPA, failure mode analysis, requirements decomposition, and risk assessment
• Experience developing or contributing to safety cases for safety-critical systems
• Strong understanding of autonomous vehicle system architecture, including perception, prediction, planning, control, localization, mapping, vehicle actuation, compute, sensing, and fleet operations
• Understanding of highly redundant, fault-tolerant architectures and fail-operational designs for autonomous driving systems and vehicle health management
• Familiarity with safety standards such as ISO 26262, ISO 21448/SOTIF, UL 4600, SAE J3016/J3018, MIL-STD-882, IEC 61508, or similar
• Demonstrated experience with distributed development of safety systems and coordination of safety work products across automotive OEM and Tier 1 suppliers or similar integration-level environments
• Familiarity with emerging standards and best practices for autonomous vehicles, such as AVSC Best Practices, SAE standards, and ISO PAS 8800
• Ability to convert ambiguous technical and operational risks into structured engineering requirements and actionable mitigations
• Experience working with verification and validation teams to define evidence needed to support safety claims
• Strong technical communication skills, including presenting risk decisions, tradeoffs, and safety arguments to engineering leaders and cross-functional stakeholders
• Comfort working in a fast-moving startup environment where safety rigor, execution speed, and practical deployment constraints must be balanced

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience with autonomous trucks, commercial vehicles, robotics, fleet operations, or on-road testing
• Experience with ISO 26262 or similar safety audit and assessment processes
• Experience supporting driverless launch readiness, route readiness, ODD expansion, or commercial autonomous vehicle deployment
• Experience analyzing vehicle logs, simulation results, scenario databases, disengagements, or incidents
• Familiarity with trucking operations, FMCSA/DOT regulations, or heavy-duty vehicle systems
• Experience with requirements management and traceability tools such as JAMA, Polarion, DOORS, Confluence/JIRA, or similar
• Experience with Python, SQL, data analysis, or scripting for safety metrics and validation evidence
• Experience with cybersecurity risk assessment, operational safety, incident response, ISO 21434, or UN ECE R155
• Advanced degree in engineering, robotics, safety engineering, or a related discipline

How We Work With You

Our talent team at Get A Job.ai partners with leading technology companies to connect exceptional engineering talent with transformative opportunities. When you apply through our platform, a dedicated recruiter will review your background and conduct an initial screening. If there's a strong match, we'll submit your profile to our client for consideration. Please do not contact the employer directly—all communication and coordination will flow through Get A Job.ai to ensure a smooth, professional process.

Pay

Compensation details will be discussed during the screening process and will be commensurate with experience and qualifications.

Equal Opportunity

Get A Job.ai is committed to building diverse and inclusive teams. We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and experiences.