Functional Safety & RAS Lead

SiFive•Santa Clara, CA

5d•$279,504 - $341,616

About The Position

SiFive is seeking a Functional Safety & RAS Lead to help build safe and highly reliable compute platforms for automotive, robotics, physical AI, data center, and other demanding applications. This is an individual-contributor role focused on functional safety and reliability, with close customer engagement and cross-functional technical program leadership. The role spans the product lifecycle, translating safety and reliability needs into deliverable products in partnership with customers, technical architects, and engineering teams. The lead will serve as an expert in functional safety, particularly ISO 26262 and IEC 61508 as they apply to processor and SoC products. The role involves shaping program scope and plans, coordinating teams, maintaining traceability of safety requirements and decisions, identifying technical and dependent-failure risks, and supporting assessments, audits, and certification activities. The lead will also help customer-facing teams with safety questions, documentation, and product integration guidance. The position requires a technical degree or equivalent experience, at least 10 years of relevant functional safety, RAS, hardware reliability, or related experience, and at least 5 years in semiconductor, SoC, processor-IP, or complex hardware development with significant architecture or technical-leadership responsibility. The U.S. base pay range is $279,504–$341,616. The role may also be eligible for variable or incentive compensation and/or equity, as well as a competitive benefits package that may include healthcare and retirement plans and paid time off. Employment is contingent on successful background and reference checks, proof of U.S. work authorization, and authorization to access export-controlled technology or the company’s ability to obtain necessary approvals.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in EE, CE, CS, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent experience.
At least 10 years of experience in functional safety, RAS, hardware reliability, or related work in semiconductor, processor, SoC, or other complex hardware development.
At least 5 years of experience in semiconductor, SoC, processor-IP, or complex hardware development, including significant architecture or technical-leadership responsibility.
Deep experience applying ISO 26262 and functional safety methods such as FMEDA, FMEA, fault-tree analysis, diagnostic coverage, and fault injection.
Strong understanding of SoC and IP development from requirements and architecture through verification, release, and customer support.
Experience with features intended to detect and address hardware random failures, such as error detection and reporting, fault containment, redundancy, lockstep, ECC/parity, memory protection, or recovery.
Experience leading complex, cross-functional technical programs across engineering teams.
Strong communication and judgment, with the ability to work across technical teams, customers, and other stakeholders.
Record of getting cross-functional work done across teams the candidate does not manage.
Deep knowledge of functional safety and ISO 26262, including FMEDA, fault modeling, diagnostic coverage, safety cases, and fault-injection planning.
Experience applying functional safety standards to semiconductor, processor, or SoC development and working directly with automotive customers.
Sufficient knowledge of processor or SoC architecture and development to work effectively with architecture, design, and verification teams.
Experience with RAS concepts and mechanisms, including fault detection, error reporting, containment, and recovery.
Experience running complex cross-functional technical programs, including managing scope, dependencies, risks, and resource needs.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with IEC 61508 or other relevant functional safety standards.
Active participation in the standards community and ability to influence and establish credibility.
Experience with RISC-V processor or SoC architecture and automotive semiconductor IP developed to ASIL-B or ASIL-D objectives.
Experience with RAS for data center, AI, robotics, or other high-availability compute products.
Experience with reliability analysis or testing, including soft-error-rate modeling or radiation testing.
Experience working with certification bodies or external assessors.
Familiarity with related standards such as ISO/SAE 21434 or cybersecurity engineering.

Responsibilities

Work with customers and internal teams to understand functional safety and RAS needs from initial requirements and safety goals through development, assessment, release, and customer support.
Partner with the technical architect to define capabilities that meet customer requirements.
Define program scope, milestones, dependencies, risks, and engineering resource needs based on customer and product requirements.
Coordinate work across architecture, design, verification, software, quality, program management, product, and customer-facing teams.
Maintain traceability of safety requirements and decisions through implementation, verification, documentation, product changes, and releases.
Identify gaps and technical risks, including dependent failures and common-cause concerns, and work with architecture and engineering teams to address them.
Support customer assessments, internal reviews, external assessors, audits, and certification activities.
Partner with product, sales, and applications teams on customer questions, safety documentation, and product integration guidance.
Lead complex cross-functional technical programs across engineering teams.