Functional Safety Lead (Robotics)

Location: Fully onsite at the Irvine, California office, United States

Salary: $100,000–$200,000 per year, plus benefits, equity, and paid time off.

Company

hirify.global develops risk-aware, reliable AI systems and autonomous robots for real-world environments, including construction and other demanding field applications.

What you will do

• Architect functional safety systems for commercial off-the-shelf wheeled robotic platforms operating in unstructured construction environments.
• Design and deploy supervised safety systems with remote E-Stops, safety PLCs, safety lidars, and safe-to-approach indicator lighting.
• Develop non-line-of-sight safety architectures using safe limited speed, collision avoidance, and automatic braking.
• Configure, program, and test PLCs, including ladder logic and safety configurations, while guiding electrical integration and wiring design.
• Integrate safety hardware with human operators and the autonomy stack, including safe control handoffs and vehicle-state indicators.
• Deploy, verify, troubleshoot, and validate safety systems on physical robots in real-world field environments.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Computer Engineering, or a related field, combined with significant relevant industry experience.
• Deep hands-on experience configuring, programming, and debugging Safety PLCs.
• Experience selecting and integrating remote E-Stops, safety relays, safety lidars, and related safety hardware.
• Ability to work as a self-directed individual contributor and technical authority.
• Ability to collaborate with electrical engineers on wiring and hardware integration and with software engineers on system handoffs.
• Ability to work fully onsite from the Irvine, California office.

Nice to have

• Familiarity with ISO 13849, ISO 3691-4, IEC 61508, or ANSI/RIA R15.08.
• Experience with robotics, autonomous vehicles, off-road equipment, heavy machinery, construction, mining, or agriculture.
• Familiarity with ROS, ROS2, or C++.
• Previous technical leadership or mentoring experience.

Culture & Benefits

• In-person collaboration in a fully onsite engineering environment.
• Flexible working hours to support focus and work-life balance.
• Benefits, equity, and generous time off.
• Opportunity to establish safety practices and build a dedicated safety engineering team as the company grows.