Staff Systems Safety Engineer

Apptronik • Sunnyvale, CA

22h • $280,000 - $310,000

About The Position

Apptronik is seeking a Staff Systems Safety Engineer to serve as the technical authority for the safety of its humanoid robots, from concept through customer deployment. The role will author the system safety architecture and safety case, and provide technical leadership to engineers responsible for hazard analysis, safety functions, and customer deployment safety. The position draws on deep functional safety and robot safety expertise, technical leadership, and risk-based judgment to ensure the safety case is robust for customers and assessors.

The engineer will set technical direction across the safety team, mentor engineers, and drive architecture-level safety decisions for current and next-generation platforms. The role also defines safety lifecycles and engineering methods, conducts system-level safety analyses, reviews safety-critical designs, and supports initial customer deployments. Apptronik develops AI-powered humanoid robots, including Apollo, for collaboration with people in industries such as manufacturing and logistics, with potential future applications in healthcare and the home.

Requirements

• Proven hands-on leadership of functional or system safety for complex robotic, machinery, or autonomous products from concept through deployment, including authoring safety architectures and safety cases.
• Deep expertise in hazard analysis and risk assessment, the hierarchy of controls, safety function definition, and safety lifecycles under IEC 61508, IEC 62061, ISO 13849, and ISO 12100.
• Experience with robot and machinery safety standards such as ISO 10218, ANSI/A3 R15.06, ANSI/A3 R15.08, and ISO 25785-1, and with safety for robot deployments at customer sites.
• Experience providing technical leadership and mentoring to safety engineers across hardware, software, and system topics.
• Experience building a safety case and working with notified bodies, NRTLs, or third-party assessors.
• Familiarity with safety of AI/ML-enabled systems, such as ISO/IEC TS 22440 and SOTIF (ISO 21448), and requirements tools such as JAMA.
• Strong executive communication, strategic thinking, and judgment to make and defend risk-based decisions.
• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Robotics, Computer Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 12+ years of relevant experience, including 7+ years in functional or system safety, with substantial responsibility for the safety of complex robotic or electromechanical products and prior technical leadership of a safety team.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree.
• Certified functional safety expert or professional (e.g., TÜV or exida).

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership to systems safety engineers across hazard analysis, safety requirements, site risk assessment, and commissioning; ensure the technical quality of their work and support first customer deployments on site.
• Set technical direction across the safety team, review team work, mentor engineers through coaching and technical guidance, contribute input on hiring, and align day-to-day technical priorities with long-term goals.
• Author the system-level safety architecture, including AI, and the functional safety concept; drive architecture-level safety decisions across current and next-generation platforms while balancing performance, technical risk, and compliance.
• Serve as technical authority for safety trade-offs, residual-risk recommendations, component and architectural decisions, and conflicts between safety and product goals.
• Author and maintain the safety case, ensuring evidence from software, hardware, AI, user safety, and deployment is complete, consistent, and traceable, including the SOTIF argument for hazards that arise without a fault.
• Perform system-level safety analyses, including system fault trees and common-cause failure analysis; lead in-depth design reviews of safety-critical subsystems and take hands-on ownership of deliverables where the team has gaps.
• Define the safety lifecycle, including the AI safety lifecycle under ISO/IEC TS 22440 and the SOTIF process under ISO 21448, safety engineering methods, technical criteria for design reviews and safety gates, and criteria for SOTIF residual-risk acceptance.

What This Job Offers

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