Sr. Functional Safety Engineer - Steer by Wire

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies • Irvine, CA

71d

About The Position

As a Sr. Functional Safety Engineer in the Propulsion and Dynamics domain, you will be responsible for ensuring the safety of Steer-by-Wire (SbW) systems by applying the ISO 26262 standard throughout the entire development lifecycle. You'll work closely with cross-functional teams to develop the safety concept for SbW components including the Road Wheel Actuator (RWA), Handwheel Actuator (HWA)/ Force Feedback Actuator (FFA), zonal controllers and the respective redundancy/fallback mechanisms. You will play a key role in managing the functional safety lifecycle for the RWA (Road Wheel Actuator/ Rack Actuator), from initial definition through validation. As part of this activity, you will be responsible for conducting deep dives into each subsystem safety architectures, reviewing their safety analysis, test plans, and results. Additionally, your support will be required for fault insertion testing of the Steer-by-Wire (SBW) system. You will also serve as a technical expert and a central point of contact for various engineering teams, guiding them on functional safety compliance and providing independent peer reviews of their work.

Requirements

• Degree education in Electrical/Electronic or Mechatronics (or similar)
• 1-5 years of experience within the automotive industry (or equivalent), ideally OEM or Tier 1 working within functional safety
• Good interpersonal and communication skills with a high level of integrity
• Experience working within a cross-functional team
• Proven knowledge of ISO 26262 and experience applying within an OEM or Tier 1

Nice To Haves

• Experience with vehicle dynamics, chassis systems, or steering system design is preferred

Responsibilities

• Contribute to Rivian's steer-by-wire feature requirements and provide functional safety guidance during SbW system and component definition
• Perform vehicle-level and component level safety analysis on SbW subsystems
• Capture functional safety requirements within the requirements tool and maintain traceability and quality across the SbW safety concept
• Develop test case specifications for steer-by-wire functional safety requirements, covering both hardware-in-loop (HIL) and vehicle-level validation scenarios
• Support bench and HIL tests as well as system and vehicle validation of functional safety requirements for SbW actuators, control units, and redundancy paths
• Work with vehicle and system architecture teams to derive functional safety requirements and technical safety requirements from derived SbW safety goals
• Collaborate with engineers at the system, hardware, and software development levels on SbW actuators, control units, and fail-safe/fail-operational behavior to assist in achieving functional safety objectives
• Support development and review of the SbW Safety Concept, including definition of degraded-mode operation and residual risk handling

Benefits

• base salary
• eligibility for an annual performance bonus
• eligibility for equity

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Associate degree