Lead Functional Safety Engineer

The role

Lead the functional safety work for industrial robots, autonomous mobile systems, and motion-control and drivetrain architectures. Own the full safety lifecycle, from hazard and risk analysis through validation, to support compliant deployment in North American, European, and Japanese markets.

What you will do

• Own the functional safety lifecycle for industrial robots, autonomous mobile systems, and drivetrains, from risk assessment through validation.
• Establish safety processes and governance, including the Functional Safety Management Plan, QMS integration, reviews, approvals, and audits.
• Define and validate safety architectures, including safe states, PLr/SIL targets, and protective functions.
• Perform FMEA/FMEDA, fault tree analysis, and mechanical failure analysis, and turn findings into traceable requirements.
• Lead safety verification and validation, including quantitative reliability analysis, fault injection, and stopping performance testing.
• Guide implementation and global compliance with engineering teams, certification bodies, and external assessors.
• Support safe deployment and customer operations through technical guidance, procedures, training, and troubleshooting.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Mechanical, or a related engineering discipline.
• 10+ years of functional safety experience in robotics, automation, autonomous systems, or other safety-critical industries.
• Proven ownership of the full safety lifecycle, from risk assessment and PLr/SIL determination through validation.
• Hands-on experience with motion controls, safety PLCs, sensors, brakes, safety-rated networks, and PLC or embedded programming.
• Ability to assess robotic and drivetrain hazards, define fault detection and safe-state behavior, and quantitatively demonstrate required PL/SIL performance.
• Strong ownership and communication skills, able to explain safety decisions to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to create clear compliance documentation, safety procedures, and customer guidance.
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally to customer sites as needed.

Nice to have

• Functional safety certification (TÜV, CFSE, CFSP, or CMSE).

Benefits

• Backed by investors Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Obvious Ventures.

Before you apply

• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally to customer sites is required.

About the company

Dexterity is an enterprise Physical AI company building intelligent robots for complex industrial work, such as trailer loading and unloading and airport baggage handling. It is headquartered in Redwood City, California.