Responsibilities
As the Head of Systems and Safety Engineering, you will own the overarching safety architecture, risk management strategy, and system safety engineering life cycle for our autonomous vehicle (AV) platform. You will build and lead a high-performing engineering team while managing technical integration, customer safety alignment, and safety governance across clients, internal engineering divisions, vehicle OEMs, and Tier 1 suppliers.
- Team Leadership & Program Management: Recruit, mentor, and manage a multidisciplinary systems and safety engineering team. Oversee daily team execution, task prioritization, resource allocation across engineering sprints, performance reviews, and team development.
- Leadership: Author, evolve, and defend the end-to-end safety case framework (leveraging , , and / ) to support commercial deployment, public road operations, and regulatory submissions.
- AI & Machine Learning Safety Strategy: Define and implement safety and verification methodologies tailored for advanced AI and ML-based autonomy models (e.g., perception, prediction, planning) using ISO/PAS 8800. Establish quantitative metrics for model robustness, dataset coverage, and edge-case validation.
- Systems Safety Architecture & Requirements: Define system-level safety requirements, hazard mitigations, functional safety concepts, and fail-operational/degradation paths across hardware, compute, and software stacks.
- Comprehensive Risk Management: Oversee formal risk identification methodologies—including and (), , FTA, and System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA)—ensuring risk traceability matrices remain updated throughout product lifecycles.
- Safety Governance & Operational Oversight: Direct daily safety program operations, chair safety review boards, establish incident response protocols, define system release gate criteria, and continuously monitor operational safety performance metrics.
- Engineering & Integration: Partner with hardware, software, and V&V teams to validate safety arguments through hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing, closed-course testing, and high-fidelity simulation.
- Regulatory & External Representation: Lead technical engagement with regulatory agencies (NHTSA, California DMV, DOT), standard committees, and third-party auditors.
- OEM & Tier 1 Supplier Collaboration: Serve as the primary technical authority interfacing with OEM partners and Tier 1 suppliers. Establish joint safety frameworks, define Development Interface Agreements (DIAs), and ensure external supplier components align with system-level functional safety requirements.
- Customer Safety Liaison & Engagement: Serve as the primary safety interface with enterprise customers and commercial partners. Communicate core safety concepts, present operational safety programs, align joint risk-mitigation protocols, and build client confidence in platform safety performance.
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Systems Engineering, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
- 10+ years of experience in systems safety engineering for safety-critical domains (autonomous vehicles, automotive, or aerospace).
- 4+ years of direct engineering management experience leading teams, managing budget/resources, and directing day-to-day engineering operations.
- Proven experience acting as a primary interface to customers or external stakeholders, translating complex safety concepts, risk frameworks, and safety programs into clear executive communications.
- Proven ability to operate, adapt, and drive technical outcomes in a fast-paced frontier technology environment.
- Demonstrated track record building, delivering, and defending an end-to-end safety case for deployed autonomous or robotic systems.
- Deep mastery of functional safety standards: , (), and .
- Practical experience applying AI/ML safety frameworks (specifically ISO/PAS 8800) to probabilistic systems.
- Hands-on experience leading hazard analysis techniques (, , FTA, STPA).
- Proven experience establishing technical safety interfaces with automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, including hands-on experience structuring DIAs.
Nice to have
- Ph.D. in Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, or Machine Learning.
- Experience managing joint-development automotive programs across multi-party supply chains (OEM, Tier 1, Tier 2) and strategic client fleets.
- Expertise assessing deep neural network (DNN) interpretability, dataset quality, and non-deterministic software verification in safety-critical deployments.
- Direct experience representing safety architectures to state/federal regulatory bodies or external certification entities.
- Proficiency with Goal Structuring Notation (GSN) and enterprise systems management tooling (e.g., Jama, Polarion, DOORS).
Founded in 2017 by experts in autonomous vehicle technology, the organization has rapidly expanded its presence to Mountain View, Dallas-Fort Worth, Arkansas, and Toronto. As the first and only company to achieve fully driverless middle-mile commercial deliveries, the organization holds a unique and defensible position in the AV industry, with a clear trajectory toward sustainable growth and profitability.
We have delivered complete, proprietary AV technology - an integration of software and hardware - to enable earlier successes for our clients in constrained Level 4 autonomy. By choosing the middle mile – with defined point-to-point delivery, we have simplified some of the more complex AV challenges, enabling us to achieve full autonomy ahead of competitors. Given extensive knowledge of the organization's well-defined, fixed route ODDs and hybrid architecture, we are able to hyper-optimize our models with exponentially less data, establish gate-keeping mechanisms to maintain explainability, and ensure continued safety of the system for unmanned operations.
Notable News
- Upstart the organization sees middle-mile deliveries as the path to profitable AVs
- Tech Brew: The organization AI exec unpacks the regulations that could shape the AV industry
- Business Wire: The organization Paves the Way for Safe Driverless Operations (‘Freight-Only’) at Scale with Industry-First Third-Party Safety Assessment Framework
- Auto Futures: Autonomous Trucking Group the organization Secures Investment From NIPPON EXPRESS HOLDINGS
- Automotive News: The organization foresees hundreds of self-driving trucks on road soon, and that's just the beginning
- Bloomberg: Autonomous Vehicle Startup Takes Off by Picking Off Easier Routes
- Reuters: Driverless vehicles on limited routes bump along despite US robotaxi scrutiny
At the organization, we connect people of extraordinary talent and experience to an opportunity to create a more resilient supply chain and contribute to our environment’s sustainability. We are diverse in our backgrounds and perspectives yet united by a bold vision and shared commitment to our values. Our culture emphasizes the importance of collaboration, respect and agility.