Staff / Senior Staff Robotics Functional Safety Engineer, New Product Development

Location: Hybrid, Fremont, CA

About the Role

Our client is seeking a Staff or Senior Staff Robotics Functional Safety Engineer to help define the safety architecture of next-generation robotic products from the earliest stages of development.

This is a highly technical individual-contributor role for someone who wants to influence what gets built, not simply validate safety after a design has already been established.

You’ll work at the intersection of functional safety, systems engineering, robotics architecture, hardware, embedded software, controls, perception, and autonomy, partnering with engineering teams during concept development and new product introduction to ensure safety is designed into the system from day one.

The ideal candidate combines deep functional safety expertise with strong system-level engineering judgment. You should be comfortable working in environments where requirements and architectures are still evolving, identifying hazards early, translating them into system requirements, and helping engineering teams make architecture decisions that balance safety, performance, complexity, reliability, and product goals.

What You’ll Work On

• Own functional safety activities for new robotic products and major next-generation platform developments, from early concept and architecture through design, integration, verification, and validation.
• Embed functional safety into the new product development process, ensuring safety considerations influence architecture before critical design decisions are locked.
• Partner with systems, mechanical, electrical, embedded software, controls, perception, and autonomy teams to identify hazards and develop appropriate risk-reduction strategies.
• Translate system-level hazards into functional safety concepts, technical safety concepts, safety requirements, and architecture-level design constraints.
• Drive architecture decisions around safety functions, including fault detection, redundancy, diagnostics, safe-state behavior, emergency stopping, power and motion control, and fault containment.
• Perform and lead safety analyses including risk assessments, FMEA/FMEDA, FTA, SISTEMA analysis, and related hazard-analysis methodologies.
• Develop and maintain Safety Requirement Specifications, validation plans, traceability, and safety cases throughout the development lifecycle.
• Apply functional safety standards including ISO 13849, IEC 62061, IEC 61508, ANSI/RIA R15.08, and ISO 10218, as applicable to the system.
• Define safety-critical requirements and work directly with engineering teams to ensure they are correctly implemented and testable.
• Partner with V&V teams to establish verification methods, fault-injection strategies, integration testing, and system-level safety validation.
• Evaluate design changes and new product functionality for their impact on the system safety architecture and existing safety assumptions.
• Help resolve difficult cross-functional design tradeoffs when safety, reliability, performance, cost, and product requirements interact.
• Support transition of new designs from prototype and development into production and deployment.
• Help mature functional safety processes, architecture practices, and reusable safety concepts that can be carried across future robotic platforms.
• Mentor engineers and act as a technical authority for functional safety across multidisciplinary product teams.

What We’re Looking For

• BS or advanced degree in Robotics, Mechatronics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Significant experience developing robotic, electromechanical, industrial automation, automotive, autonomous, or other safety-critical systems.
• Deep knowledge of functional safety lifecycle practices and standards such as ISO 13849, IEC 62061, IEC 61508, or comparable frameworks.
• Demonstrated experience influencing system architecture during new product development, rather than only performing safety analysis or certification after design completion.
• Strong understanding of hazard analysis, risk assessment, the hierarchy of controls, and safety-related design.
• Experience translating hazards into system, subsystem, hardware, software, and control requirements.
• Strong understanding of interactions between hardware, embedded software, controls, sensors, actuators, and mechanical systems.
• Experience performing analyses such as FMEA/FMEDA, FTA, risk assessments, and SISTEMA.
• Experience defining verification and validation strategies for safety-critical requirements.
• Ability to work effectively in ambiguous early-stage development environments where requirements and architectures are actively evolving.
• Strong technical communication skills and the ability to advocate for safety while working collaboratively with engineering teams.

Particularly Strong Fit

We’re especially interested in candidates who have:

• Led functional safety for a new product or platform from concept through launch
• Owned safety architecture for robotics, autonomous vehicles, industrial machinery, medical robotics, aerospace systems, or complex electromechanical products
• Worked directly with systems architects and product development teams during concept and architecture phases
• Designed safety functions involving motion, actuation, sensing, power systems, embedded controls, or autonomous behavior
• Experience with safe motion, safe torque off, emergency-stop architectures, redundant sensing, diagnostics, fault detection, and safe-state design
• Developed Safety Requirements Specifications and technical safety concepts from system-level hazard analyses
• Hands-on experience with ISO 13849, IEC 62061, IEC 61508, ANSI/RIA R15.08, or ISO 10218
• Experience using SISTEMA or comparable safety-analysis tools
• Experience with fault injection and system-level safety V&V
• TÜV Functional Safety Engineer certification or equivalent
• Experience moving complex hardware/software products through prototype, design validation, production validation, certification, and deployment
• Experience mentoring engineers or serving as a functional safety technical authority

Work authorization: Candidates must currently be authorized to work in the United States.