Staff/Senior Staff Functional Systems Safety Engineer - Robot Safety

1X • San Carlos, CA

3h • Onsite

About The Position

1X is building humanoid robots for home use, aiming to give people their time back by handling chores and tasks. This requires solving complex challenges in robotics, AI, and manufacturing simultaneously, at scale, with a product safe enough for family environments. The company has been working on these problems since 2014 and is now focused on shipping its flagship home robot, NEO. The Autonomy & Safety Engineering team is responsible for ensuring 1X robots operate safely, reliably, and predictably in human environments. The Functional Systems Safety team specifically focuses on identifying, mitigating, and validating safety risks across all aspects of the robot systems, including autonomy, controls, hardware, software, and operations. This role will lead the development of functional safety architectures, hazard mitigation strategies, and systems-level safety engineering practices for 1X humanoid robots, ensuring safety requirements are defined, implemented, validated, and operationalized as the company scales its embodied AI deployments globally.

Requirements

• Deep expertise in functional safety engineering, systems safety, robotics safety, or other safety-critical engineering domains
• Strong systems-level thinking across hardware, software, autonomy, controls, and operational environments
• Experience applying safety engineering methodologies such as FMEA, HARA, fault-tree analysis, STPA, or equivalent frameworks
• Strong technical communication and cross-functional leadership skills in highly collaborative engineering organizations
• Ability to drive ambiguous, large-scale technical initiatives in fast-moving startup environments
• 10+ years of experience in functional safety, robotics safety, autonomous systems, aerospace, automotive, industrial automation, or related safety-critical engineering fields
• Experience designing and implementing functional safety architectures for complex integrated systems
• Strong understanding of safety standards such as ISO 13849, IEC 61508, ISO 26262, IEC 62061, or equivalent frameworks
• Experience working with robotics systems, controls systems, embedded systems, or autonomous platforms
• Bachelor’s degree in Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, or related technical field

Nice To Haves

• Experience working on humanoid robots, autonomous vehicles, industrial robotics, aerospace systems, or embodied AI platforms
• Familiarity with autonomy stacks, perception systems, motion planning, or controls engineering
• Experience with simulation environments, safety validation tooling, or operational incident analysis
• Background in reliability engineering, redundancy architectures, or fault-tolerant systems
• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Robotics, Systems Engineering, Safety Engineering, AI, or related field

Responsibilities

• Define and implement scalable functional safety frameworks across robot hardware, autonomy, controls, and operational systems
• Lead hazard analysis, FMEA, fault-tree analysis, and risk assessment efforts across integrated robotics platforms
• Partner cross-functionally with Autonomy, Controls, Hardware, Software, Manufacturing, and Operations teams to ensure safety requirements are embedded throughout the system lifecycle
• Develop and validate safety mechanisms, fault detection systems, redundancy strategies, and operational fail-safe behaviors
• Improve deployment readiness and operational reliability through rigorous safety testing, validation methodologies, and systems-level safety governance

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Generous paid time off, company holidays, and parental leave
• 401(k) plan with company match (100% on the first 3% of contributions, 50% on the next 2%)
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) and Health Savings Accounts (HSA) options
• Commuter benefits (transit and parking)
• Short-term and long-term disability, and life insurance
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for mental health, financial, and personal support
• Onsite snacks and catered lunches

What This Job Offers

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