Safety Test Engineer - Robot Arms

Location: Onsite in Metzingen / Riederich, Germany

Company

hirify.global develops robot-arm systems requiring safety verification, validation, and compliance testing.

What you will do

• Plan, design, and execute tests for emergency stops, protective stops, safe torque off, safety-rated speed and position limits, safety zones, and collaborative operation modes.
• Measure stopping time and distance, speed and separation monitoring, power and force limiting, contact force, and pressure.
• Test safety I/O, safety PLCs and controllers, fieldbus safety protocols, and fault scenarios including sensor failures, communication loss, power interruptions, and invalid configurations.
• Run safety regression validation across software, firmware, and hardware variants; build automated and semi-automated test benches, measurement setups, scripts, and CI/CD integrations.
• Analyze failures, investigate root causes, track defects to closure, and improve safety test methods, coverage, and tooling.
• Coordinate with functional safety, firmware, robotics, and application engineers; mentor junior engineers and contribute to agile planning and retrospectives.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Mechatronics, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience testing, validating, or verifying safety-critical mechatronic or robotic systems; industrial automation or collaborative-robot experience is preferred.
• Knowledge of robot-arm fundamentals, including kinematics, joint and Cartesian motion, reference frames, safety limits, and collaborative operation principles.
• Working knowledge of functional safety concepts and standards, including Performance Level, SIL, safety architectures, and safe states.
• Hands-on experience with safety PLCs or controllers, safety I/O, force or pressure measurement devices, oscilloscopes, or data loggers.
• Experience writing structured test specifications, reports, traceability documentation, and verification evidence.
• Scripting or programming skills in Python and/or Java, plus experience with CI/CD, such as GitLab, and agile cross-functional teams.
• Ability to coordinate tasks across teams and mentor other engineers.
• Fluency in English is required; German is a plus.

Nice to have

• Experience supporting CE marking or third-party safety certification.
• Knowledge of cybersecurity aspects of safety systems.
• Experience with ROS or other robotics middleware.
• Familiarity with Cucumber/BDD, Selenium, and Git.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time role within Software Engineering / Testing & Validation.
• Work in agile, cross-functional teams with sprint planning, estimation, and retrospectives.
• Collaboration spans functional safety, firmware, robotics, and application engineering.