Functional Safety Engineer (Autonomous Systems)

Location: San Francisco, CA; hybrid

Company

hirify.global is a startup deploying autonomous systems on heavy construction equipment to improve job-site safety and accelerate critical infrastructure projects.

What you will do

• Define the functional safety concept for autonomous construction systems.
• Author hardware-level technical safety concepts and safety requirements.
• Partner with hardware and software teams on system architecture and safety mechanisms.
• Develop diagnostics, fault metrics, fault handling measures, and graceful degradation strategies.
• Establish verification and validation plans, test infrastructure, automation, fault injection, and HIL testing.
• Execute HARA, FMEA, FMEDA, FTA, and related safety analyses throughout the safety lifecycle.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in safety-critical hardware or systems engineering, including focused functional safety work.
• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in electrical, mechanical, systems, or related engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Direct experience delivering functional safety work products under ISO 13849, ISO 26262, IEC 61508, or similar standards.
• Hands-on experience designing, reviewing, bringing up, debugging, or qualifying electrical and electronic hardware.
• Experience with safety analysis, verification and validation, real-time and embedded systems, and fail-safe or fail-operational architectures.
• Comfort working directly with hardware and test infrastructure to execute and debug safety features and tests.

Nice to have

• Experience with autonomous systems and system-level functional safety.
• Hands-on certification or third-party assessment experience with TÜV, UL, or similar organizations.
• Experience building fault-injection or HIL benches.
• Background in cameras, lidar, GNSS, IMUs, or compute systems.
• Familiarity with excavators, articulated dump trucks, dozers, wheel loaders, or motor graders.

Culture & Benefits

• Work alongside construction veterans and engineers on physical-world autonomy problems.
• Operate in a startup environment focused on agility and fast execution.
• Use quantified safety arguments and practical engineering judgment rather than unnecessary documentation.
• Flexible roles and consideration for candidates in other locations, particularly where the company has offices.
• Equal-opportunity workplace with reasonable accommodations available throughout the hiring process.