Head of Systems Engineering

Nuro•Mountain View, CA

17h•$283,640 - $425,960

About The Position

Nuro is seeking a Head of Systems Engineering to lead the systems backbone crucial for the safe and commercial scaling of the Nuro Driver. This leadership role encompasses the end-to-end systems engineering function, including autonomy, software and hardware systems, technical aspects of the safety case, requirements management, system architecture, validation strategy and execution, system performance, and deployment readiness. The position is central to Nuro's technical and commercial operations, integrating product, functional, and safety objectives with autonomy capabilities, hardware limitations, the operational design domain, and commercial targets into a unified system strategy. This is a pivotal role for Nuro's growth phase, essential for defining system requirements, validation methods, safety evidence, and readiness criteria as the company expands to larger commercial launches, new geographies, vehicle platforms, and broader deployment environments. It's a technical leadership opportunity for someone passionate about transforming advanced autonomous driving technology into a sustainable commercial product.

Requirements

10+ years of systems engineering experience in a related field (e.g. automotive, aerospace, defense, robotics, medical devices, or another safety-critical domain), including 7+ years managing managers and scaling high-performing engineering organizations.
Experience leading systems engineering or equivalent technical functions across complex hardware and software products, including ownership of safety-critical system development (safety case, hazard analysis, risk assessment, validation evidence, and deployment readiness).
A track record of developing senior technical leaders, recruiting exceptional talent, and building teams that operate with high standards and high ownership.
Excellent communication skills, able to make complex technical tradeoffs clear to engineering teams, executives, and cross-functional stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Experience with modern autonomy stacks (perception, prediction, planning, localization, mapping, sensing, compute, vehicle integration) and the validation challenges specific to ML-based and end-to-end AI systems in real-world environments.
Experience with vehicle platforms, embedded systems, automotive-grade hardware, compute systems, sensor integration, or hardware/software co-design.
Experience building V&V strategies for public-road or regulated environments — spanning simulation, scenario-based testing, closed-course validation, operational readiness reviews, and launch decision frameworks.

Responsibilities

Own and scale Nuro’s Systems Engineering function across autonomy, hardware, safety case, requirements, validation, system performance, technical risk, and deployment readiness.
Define the systems engineering strategy required to support Nuro’s next phase of growth across multiple cities, vehicle platforms, commercial partnerships, and future international markets.
Translate product goals, safety goals, commercial use cases, and deployment milestones into system requirements, measurable performance targets, validation plans, and launch readiness frameworks.
Own the requirements architecture, system decomposition, and interface management for the Nuro Driver across autonomy software, sensing, compute, vehicle software and hardware, and safety.
Drive the system-level safety case in collaboration with Autonomy, Hardware, Legal, Product, and Operations, ensuring the safety argument is rigorous, evidence-based, and tied to commercial deployment milestones.
Define the technical and validation framework for public-road operation, commercial launch, geographic expansion, platform expansion, and new use cases.
Lead technical analyses and trade studies that inform architecture, sensing configuration, compute strategy, vehicle integration, safety mitigations, ODD expansion, and deployment readiness.
Create mechanisms for risk identification, readiness reviews, requirements governance, launch decision-making, and cross-functional execution.
Build, develop, and retain a high-caliber Systems Engineering organization.