Lead Test Engineer AV Safety Assurance (Autonomous Vehicles)

Location: Austin, Texas, United States; onsite only. Candidates must be authorized to work in the U.S.; remote work is not available. Relocation and visa sponsorship are not offered.

Company

hirify.global builds autonomous driving technology for vehicles and delivery robots and tests it on public roads.

What you will do

• Own safety gates, including safety-relevant finding classification, escalation, merge and release criteria, and closure tracking.
• Define and evolve acceptance criteria for collisions, near misses, right-of-way events, hard braking, and other safety metrics.
• Set the QA team's safety reporting format so results are comparable between runs and clear about coverage gaps.
• Coach QA engineers through calibration sessions, report reviews, and consistent application of safety criteria.
• Represent testing evidence and unknowns in engineering, safety, and operations release reviews.
• Connect STPA, FMEA, and HAZOP hazard analysis to scenario coverage, measurable requirements, test results, and the safety case.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in testing, verification, or validation, including ownership of a durable gate, review, or reporting standard.
• Experience in a safety-critical domain where incorrect decisions can have physical consequences, such as autonomous vehicles, aviation, medical devices, rail, industrial automation, or defense.
• Ability to apply hazard-driven thinking, work with hazard-analysis outputs, and assess residual risk without overstating certainty.
• Strong influence and coaching skills, including the ability to lead through process and collaboration without direct authority.
• Ability to verify safety metrics against underlying data and use LLMs to review standards, logs, results, and draft documentation.
• Excellent written English and authorization to work in the United States are required.

Nice to have

• Knowledge of SOTIF, ISO/TS 5083, UL 4600, ISO 26262, ISO 34501–34505, DO-178C, IEC 62304, ISO 14971, EN 50716, or IEC 61508.
• Experience with autonomous vehicles, ADAS, or another domain without a human fallback.
• Contributions to a safety case, Voluntary Safety Self-Assessment, or regulatory submission.
• Experience defining on-road testing safety protocols, safety-driver procedures, or hiring engineers.
• Hands-on SQL and Python for investigating test results.

Culture & Benefits

• Work combines engineering, safety, analytics, and operations in release decisions.
• Safety judgments are expected to be evidence-based, explicit about uncertainty, and consistently applied across the QA team.
• Testing is performed through public-road validation, recorded-scene qualification, and recurring quality gates.
• hirify.global provides reasonable accommodations for qualified applicants and employees with disabilities.