Senior Functional Safety Engineer

Senior Functional Safety EngineerHouston, TX or RemoteCompany IntroductionAt Bot Auto, we are revolutionizing the transportation of goods with our cutting-edge autonomous trucks, enhancing the quality of life for communities around the globe. With the agility of a start-up and the wisdom of seasoned experts, Bot Auto boasts a team that has achieved numerous world-firsts and unparalleled innovations. United by a shared vision, we create miracles and propel the future of transportation. Join us and transform your dreams into reality.About the RoleBot Auto is seeking a Senior Functional Safety Engineer to help define, analyze, validate, and continuously improve the safety of our autonomous trucking platform. In this role, you will work across autonomy, vehicle platform, hardware, software, operations, validation, and fleet teams to ensure our autonomous driving system is designed, tested, and operated with rigorous safety principles. This role will focus heavily on the functional safety and redundancy designs of our next generation platform working with our hardware and infrastructure software systems team.You will own and contribute to hazard analysis, safety requirements, safety case development, operational risk assessments, verification and validation evidence, and launch readiness reviews for Level 4 autonomous trucking operations. This is a high-impact role for an engineer who can bridge deep technical analysis with practical deployment needs in real-world freight operations.What You'll DoLead system safety analysis for Bot Auto's autonomous trucking platform, including autonomy software, vehicle controls, perception, planning, prediction, localization, compute, sensors, communications, fallback behavior, and operational processesDevelop and maintain safety artifacts such as hazard analyses, functional safety concepts, technical safety requirements, safety cases, risk assessments, fault trees, FMEAs, STPA analyses, ODD assessments, and validation evidenceTranslate hazards and operational risks into clear, testable safety requirements for engineering, validation, operations, and fleet teamsPartner internally with autonomy, software, hardware, vehicle integration, infrastructure, security, operations, and test teams to ensure safety requirements are implemented and verifiedImplement the Functional Safety Manager type of role for our autonomous vehicle platform working externally with suppliers, the distributed safety development/DIA, and tracking of functional safety case work products across tiered suppliers and integratorsSupport definition and refinement of the Operational Design Domain, including operating routes, environmental constraints, traffic conditions, vehicle behavior boundaries, fallback strategies, and minimum-risk maneuversEvaluate safety impacts of new autonomy features, software releases, hardware changes, sensor configurations, operational procedures, and route expansionsDrive safety reviews for on-road testing, driverless readiness, commercial operations, incident response, and post-event analysisAnalyze logs, simulations, test results, disengagements, safety-driver interventions, fleet events, and edge cases to identify safety trends and improvement opportunitiesDefine verification and validation strategies for safety-critical requirements across simulation, closed-course testing, structured road testing, shadow mode, and operational deploymentWork with cross-functional teams to ensure traceability from hazards to requirements, implementation, test coverage, and safety-case evidenceContribute to safety governance, launch readiness criteria, change management, release approval processes, and operational safety metricsSupport regulatory, customer, partner, insurer, and internal safety reviews as neededPromote a strong safety culture while enabling fast, disciplined engineering executionWhat We're Looking ForBachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Automotive Engineering, or a related technical field7+ years of experience in systems safety, functional safety, autonomous vehicles, robotics, aerospace, automotive, heavy vehicles, safety-critical software, or complex cyber-physical systemsStrong experience performing safety analyses such as HARA, FMEA, FTA, STPA, failure mode analysis, requirements decomposition, and risk assessmentExperience developing or contributing to safety cases for safety-critical systemsStrong understanding of autonomous vehicle system architecture, including perception, prediction, planning, control, localization, mapping, vehicle actuation, compute, sensing, and fleet operationsUnderstanding of highly redundant, fault tolerant architectures and fail operational ADS and vehicle health managementFamiliarity with safety standards and frameworks such as ISO 26262, ISO 21448/SOTIF, UL 4600 Safety Case, SAE J3016/J3018, MIL-STD-882, IEC 61508, or similar safety-critical system standardsDemonstrated experience with distributed development of safety systems and coordination of safety work products and safety case at automotive OEM and Tier 1 or similar OEM/integration level across system of systems and key elementsFamiliarity with emerging standards and best practices for road vehicles using physical AI and driven by ADS, such as AVSC Best Practices, SAE standards, and ISO PAS 8800Ability to convert ambiguous technical and operational risks into structured engineering requirements and actionable mitigations, arrive as a leader in your field ready to drive our AV safety readinessExperience working with verification and validation teams to define evidence needed to support safety claimsStrong technical communication skills, including the ability to present risk decisions, tradeoffs, and safety arguments to engineering leaders and cross-functional stakeholdersComfort working in a fast-moving startup environment where safety rigor, execution speed, and practical deployment constraints must be balancedNice to HaveExperience with autonomous trucks, commercial vehicles, robotics, AV operations, fleet operations, or on-road testingExperience with ISO26262 or similar safety audit and assessment processExperience supporting driverless launch readiness, route readiness, ODD expansion, or commercial autonomous vehicle deploymentExperience analyzing vehicle logs, simulation results, scenario databases, disengagements, incidents, or safety-driver interventionsFamiliarity with trucking operations, FMCSA/DOT regulations, commercial vehicle safety, or heavy-duty vehicle systemsExperience with requirements management and traceability tools such as JAMA, Polarion, DOORS, Confluence/JIRA, or similarExperience with Python, SQL, data analysis, log analysis, or scripting for safety metrics and validation evidenceExperience with cybersecurity risk assessment, operational safety, incident response, or emergency response planning and automotive standard ISO21434 and UN ECE R155Advanced degree in engineering, robotics, safety engineering, or a related disciplineKey Success MeasuresSafety requirements are clear, testable, traceable, and aligned with system hazardsSafety analyses are current, technically rigorous, and integrated into engineering and release decisionsSafety-case evidence supports operational readiness decisions for new features, routes, and deployment milestonesCross-functional teams understand key hazards, mitigations, fallback expectations, and validation requirementsSafety risks are identified early, communicated clearly, and resolved through practical engineering and operational controlsAV vehicle architectures and risk assessment organized per ISO26262 and relevant safety standards with strong leadership across safety critical suppliers and delivered components and safety analysesWho You AreYou are a systems thinker who can understand the full autonomous trucking stack—from sensors and autonomy software to vehicle actuation, operations, and real-world deployment. You are rigorous but pragmatic, comfortable challenging assumptions, and able to partner with fast-moving engineering teams without becoming a bottleneck. You care deeply about safety, but you also understand that safety engineering must produce actionable decisions, not just documentation. You can explain–even teach–complex topics in autonomy safety with clarity and to build support across multiple stakeholders and partners.