Digital Systems Safety Engineer – Research & Advanced Engineering

Ford Motor • Dearborn, MI

5d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Digital Systems Safety Engineer within Ford's Research and Advanced Engineering (R&A) team will pioneer safety standards for electrified vehicle technology. This role involves designing fault-tolerant, highly dependable system architectures for the next decade of transportation. The engineer will collaborate with researchers, controls experts, and software architects to ensure advanced electrified vehicle platforms are safe by design, integrating emerging dependability technologies and defining industry applications of Functional Safety (ISO 26262) and SOTIF (ISO 21448). Utilizing Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and SysML, the engineer will create safety-critical system models and translate complex safety requirements into robust engineering artifacts for production vehicles.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Controls, Aerospace, Robotics, or a related discipline).
• 3+ years of experience applying Functional Safety standards (ISO 26262) or equivalent rigorous standards from safety-critical industries like aerospace, defense, or medical devices.
• 3+ years of experience utilizing advanced safety analysis techniques (primarily HARA, FTA, and STPA; experience with FMEA and HAZOP is highly valued).
• Demonstrated experience with systems modeling, simulation, and translating complex system behaviors into clear, testable requirements.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, or Controls Engineering.
• Advanced, practical knowledge of SOTIF (ISO 21448) principles.
• Experience implementing real-time, online verification of systems and functional safety requirements.
• Expertise in creating core Systems Engineering artifacts (Boundary Diagrams, P-Diagrams, Interface Matrices).
• High proficiency in systems modeling tools (such as MagicDraw/Cameo) and simulation environments (MATLAB/Simulink).
• 1 to 3 years of hands-on programming experience in C++ or Python to support tooling and automation.
• Familiarity with Ford-specific systems engineering tools (VSEM, FEDE) and development processes (GPDS).

Responsibilities

• Lead the safety analysis (HARA, FTA, STPA, FMEA) for cutting-edge, pre-production electrified vehicle systems.
• Formulate and document innovative Functional and Technical Safety Concepts that guide downstream development.
• Conduct proactive research into emerging dependability technologies, keeping Ford at the absolute forefront of system safety engineering.
• Architect system-level SysML models, seamlessly integrating functional safety methodologies into the model-based design flow.
• Collaborate across multidisciplinary teams to ensure safety requirements are deeply integrated into broader system architectures.
• Perform competitive analyses to benchmark and continuously improve Ford’s safety-critical system architectures.

Benefits

• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases
• Tuition assistance
• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior