Functional Safety Engineer

What we need 

We are looking for a Functional Safety Engineer to join our Functional Safety team within our Engineering organization. Your job will be to coordinate and manage functional safety activities across the development lifecycle of complex robotic and automation systems. You will work closely with cross-functional engineering teams to perform risk assessments, define safety concepts and architectures, and develop functional safety requirements that support the safe operation of advanced electro-mechanical systems. 

This role is ideal for an engineer who thrives in highly collaborative technical environments and enjoys working at the intersection of systems engineering, safety compliance, and product development. You will play a critical role in ensuring Symbotic’s automation technologies meet rigorous industry safety standards while supporting innovation at scale. 

What we do 

The Functional Safety team is part of the Engineering organization and is responsible for planning, coordinating, and overseeing functional safety activities throughout the product development lifecycle. The team works across software, controls, electrical, mechanical, systems, manufacturing, and customer-facing organizations to ensure compliance with industry safety standards and the successful delivery of safe, reliable automation systems. 

The team leads safety planning, risk analysis, safety validation, and compliance efforts while partnering closely with suppliers, customers, and multidisciplinary engineering teams. Functional Safety Engineers are actively involved throughout development, deployment, and continuous improvement initiatives across Symbotic’s robotics and warehouse automation platforms. 

What you’ll do 

• Plan and coordinate functional safety activities to ensure compliance with applicable industry standards and regulations. 

• Perform hazard analysis and risk assessments, DFMEA, FMEDA, qualitative and quantitative fault tree analysis, and related safety engineering activities. 

• Develop and manage functional safety requirements, safety concepts, and risk reduction strategies for complex electro-programmable systems. 

• Support verification and validation activities throughout the product development lifecycle. 

• Contribute to the development and continuous improvement of functional safety processes within the product development V-model.

• Collaborate closely with project managers, systems engineers, product development teams, suppliers, and customers on functional safety initiatives. 

• Participate in product and system design reviews to ensure safety goals and compliance objectives are achieved. 

• Conduct safety reviews throughout development and support design release sign-offs at key project milestones. 

• Proactively communicate risks, issues, and project status to engineering leadership and stakeholders. 

• Support safety-related investigations, troubleshooting, and issue resolution at customer sites as needed. 

• Maintain and track safety punch lists and corrective action items to support continuous improvement efforts. 

• Travel up to 20% to support customer engagements, testing activities, and cross-functional collaboration.

What you’ll need 

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Robotics, or related engineering discipline. 

• Minimum of 5 years of experience driving product safety and compliance initiatives in complex technical systems.

• Experience working with functional safety standards and regulations such as IEC 61508, ISO 13849, OSHA, UL, NFPA 79, RIA R15.06, and related standards.

• Strong understanding of systems engineering principles including requirements management, architecture design, verification, validation, and configuration management. 

• Experience performing safety analyses including HARA, DFMEA, FMEDA, and fault tree analysis. 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with strong technical documentation practices.

• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities within a matrixed engineering organization.

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools including Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. 

• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively across multidisciplinary technical teams.

Preferred Qualifications 

• TÜV Functional Safety Engineer (FSE) certification. 

• Experience with robotics, industrial automation, or autonomous systems. 

• Familiarity with human-machine interface (HMI) safety considerations and electro-mechanical safety systems.

• Experience supporting customer-facing safety investigations or field issue resolution. 

• Strong technical leadership and presentation skills with the ability to adapt communication style to different audiences.