Principal Vehicle Safety Engineer (Electric Vehicles)

Location: Troy, Michigan, United States. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a permanent basis; visa sponsorship is not available.

Salary: $123,339.06–$185,008.58 USD annual base pay

Company

hirify.global is an automotive startup developing affordable, customizable electric vehicles in the USA, with a focus on safety, reliability, and reindustrialization.

What you will do

• Plan, execute, and analyze crash tests against FMVSS, IIHS, NCAP, and internal standards.
• Lead sled, subsystem, and full-vehicle crash programs, including test specifications, readiness reviews, instrumentation, data capture, and post-test assessments.
• Develop occupant protection strategies through injury assessment, restraint tuning, occupant kinematics evaluation, and deployment strategy development.
• Correlate CAE, sled, and vehicle test results for structural and occupant performance.
• Coordinate with design, CAE, manufacturing, homologation, suppliers, test facilities, auditors, and regulatory agencies to resolve safety and compliance issues.
• Manage test matrices, report program status, mentor junior engineers, and present technical recommendations to senior leadership.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, automotive, or biomedical engineering; a master’s degree is preferred.
• 10+ years of direct automotive experience in vehicle safety, crash testing, or restraint system development.
• Strong knowledge of FMVSS, IIHS, NCAP, occupant injury criteria, restraint systems, crash sensing, and vehicle safety development.
• Experience with crash test setup, instrumentation, ATD preparation, data acquisition, quasi-static and dynamic testing, and restraint deployment strategy.
• Familiarity with CAD, CAE, and post-processing tools such as LS-DYNA, HyperView, and Beta MetaPost.
• Permanent United States work authorization required; visa sponsorship is not available.

Nice to have

• Six Sigma, DOE, or DFSS training or certification.
• Master’s degree in a relevant engineering discipline.

Culture & Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance.
• Vacation and 401(k) benefits.
• Potential eligibility for equity and/or a discretionary annual incentive program.
• Culture centered on safety, innovation, mutual respect, collaboration, and continuous improvement.