Job description template · Functional safety
Staff Functional Safety Systems Engineer
StageUnknownStandardsISO 26262 · ISO 21448 (SOTIF)IndustryAutomotiveSeniorityPrincipalRegionDetroit Metropolitan AreaWork modeUnknownSource year2026Company sizeUnknownCompensation$191,920 - $287,880Benefitsadapt to your organisation
This role is currently open. See the posting.
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Role summary
Our team leverages a variety of backgrounds, ranging from robotics, systems engineering, high performance software development, and embedded and industrial software engineering. We collaborate closely with experts in machine learning, prediction/planning, sensor processing, and simulation from across the Company's product development teams to understand the systems they build, the possible failure modes, and how to detect and respond to those failures.
Responsibilities
- Own the safety case framework including formalizing the framework, process, and supporting documentation and then ensure it’s tracked and used throughout the organization
- Development technical content supporting functional safety case claims/evidence
- Perform functional safety analyses on assigned functions (HARAHazard Analysis and Risk Assessment: the concept-phase activity and resulting document that identifies hazards and derives safety goals and integrity targets. Read more, FMEAFailure Modes and Effects Analysis: a bottom-up method cataloging how components fail and what effects those failures produce. Read more, FTA, DFA)
- Collaborate with leads across product development to create technical content supporting the non-functional safety case claims/evidence such as statistical arguments supporting Perception V&V
- Perform a strategic assessment of technical content supporting non-functional safety case claims/evidence such as working alongside the Test & Software teams in their design of resimulation to ensure it meets our necessary tool validity & capability needs to satisfy our safety case claims
- Lead the software safety architecture development for safety monitors and Runtime on high performance SOCs
- Be the lead interface with the software, system engineering, safety engineering and security teams to drive traceability between system-level requirements and architecture with software safety specifications and design
- Lead safety committee reviews both internally and externally
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics or a related field and 7+ years of relevant experience (or Master's degree and 5+ years of relevant experience, or PhD and 2+ years of relevant experience)
- Strong ability to quickly understand complex systems and perform systematic software analysis
- Practical experience with systems engineering methods applied to complex software systems, including systematic system or software analysis (e.g. FMEA, FTA, DFA, attack tree analysis)
- Knowledge of automotive functional safety standards (ISO-26262 or similar)
- Experience in safety-critical software development processes
- Expertise in successfully delivering ASILAutomotive Safety Integrity Level (A to D) under ISO 26262, derived from severity, exposure, and controllability. Read more D certified products to the market
- Expertise in safety management and leadership
- Strong systems engineering fundamentals
- Previous demonstrated experience delivering products following the safety lifecycle
- Strong record working in the field of system safety as it relates to software design and development
- Strong engineering communication skills, especially the ability to communicate complex engineering issues to a diverse team
Nice to have
- Experience applying functional safety concepts to autonomous vehicles and/or high-performance computing a major plus
- Experience with applying advanced safety standards beyond ISO 26262Road Vehicles - Functional Safety. Automotive functional safety standard defining ASIL levels and the automotive safety lifecycle. Read more that can be applied to AI components within autonomous systems (such as ISO 21448SOTIFSafety Of The Intended Functionality: absence of unreasonable risk from functional insufficiencies or foreseeable misuse, per ISO 21448. Read more - Safety of the Intended Functionality. Addresses hazards from functional insufficiencies and foreseeable misuse in autonomous and driver-assistance systems. Read more, 8800, 5469)
- Experience with qualified tool chains, requirements traceability, documentation management, configuration management and change management systems is a major plus
- Knowledge and execution of software quality processes, such as Automotive SPICE, CMMI, is a plus