Systems Engineer (Robotics)

Location: San Francisco, CA; hybrid work

Company

hirify.global develops autonomous systems for heavy construction equipment, bringing AI-powered robotics into real-world construction environments.

What you will do

• Develop system requirements, metrics, and safety-focused feature priorities.
• Define and maintain system-level architecture and interface requirements across hardware, software, and mechanical subsystems.
• Develop functional and technical safety concepts for autonomous construction equipment.
• Lead or contribute to HARA, FMEA, STPA, and FTA analyses and translate findings into system and hardware requirements.
• Define and verify safety mechanisms including redundancy, diagnostics, watchdogs, fault detection, and graceful degradation.
• Establish verification and validation plans, participate in cross-functional design reviews, and support root cause analysis for field and test issues.

Requirements

• 8+ years of systems engineering experience with direct involvement in functional safety work products.
• Experience applying ISO 13849, ISO 26262, or IEC 61508.
• Experience with safety analysis, risk assessment, verification and validation, and system-level requirements traceability.
• Ability to develop trade studies, use data to guide system understanding and prioritization, and communicate technical tradeoffs clearly.
• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in systems engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or a related field.
• Ability to collaborate across hardware, software, and mechanical engineering teams.

Nice to have

• Experience with autonomous or robotic systems in unstructured or dynamic environments.
• Experience with STPA or third-party safety assessments such as TÜV or UL.
• Familiarity with cameras, lidar, GNSS, IMUs, and compute hardware used in autonomous systems.
• Experience with heavy equipment, construction, mining, or agricultural machinery.

Culture & Benefits

• Work on autonomous systems deployed in real-world construction environments.
• Collaborate with construction veterans and experienced engineers from autonomous systems, logistics, and software companies.
• Work on physical-world safety and reliability problems that cannot be fully addressed through simulation.
• Inclusive workplace with reasonable accommodations available throughout the hiring process.