Functional Safety Engineer

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the world's most trusted driver. Since its start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, Waymo has focused on building the Waymo Driver—The World's Most Experienced Driver™—to improve access to mobility while saving thousands of lives now lost to traffic crashes. The Waymo Driver powers Waymo’s fully autonomous ride-hail service and can also be applied to a range of vehicle platforms and product use cases. The Waymo Driver has provided over ten million rider-only trips, enabled by its experience autonomously driving over 100 million miles on public roads and tens of billions in simulation across 15+ U.S. states.

The Waymo Safety team works to promote and help to continuously improve the safety of Waymo’s fully autonomous driving technology. Our experts develop safety goals and strategies, and conduct safety engineering analyses to ensure safety is being considered throughout the design and development of our vehicles. The team develops and promotes safety strategies and policies for autonomous vehicles for its work with regulatory authorities, lawmakers, law enforcement and public and non-profit organizations. Our Safety Team also helps advise on compliance with applicable environmental, health, and safety regulations.

In this remote role, you will report to our Head of System Safety.

You will:

• Lead and execute end-to-end functional safety analyses (e.g., HARA, FMEA, FTA) to identify potential hazards and quantitatively assess safety risks across the autonomous system.

• Define and manage the comprehensive set of functional safety requirements and safety concepts that govern system architecture and design choices.

• Drive the implementation and verification of hazard mitigations and complex fail-operational strategies for L4 autonomous vehicles.

• Oversee and optimize the program safety readiness process, metrics, and necessary documentation to ensure compliance with international standards (e.g., ISO 26262).

• Serve as a core safety expert in cross-functional design reviews and technical discussions, ensuring safety goals and requirements are met effectively throughout the development lifecycle.

• Champion and promote a robust safety culture and the continuous improvement of the Waymo safety program across the engineering organization.

You have:

• MS or higher in Engineering, Physical Sciences, Computer Science, or an equivalent technical field.

• 10+ years of functional safety engineering experience in safety-critical systems, demonstrating deep expertise in the application and assessment of the ISO 26262 standard.

• Expertise in delivering successful ASIL D certified products to market, including full safety case ownership from concept to production.

• Extensive experience leading and performing complex safety analyses (HARA, FMEA, FTA, etc.) for autonomous or highly complex E/E systems.

• Deep understanding of safety critical system design, coupled with strong backgrounds in quantitative risk analysis and risk management (e.g., ISO 31000).

• Demonstrated technical project management skills with the ability to effectively manage multiple parallel, cross-functional safety-critical projects and teams.

We prefer:

• Expertise in embedded control system development, embedded software, and/or verification and validation (V&V) for complex, safety-critical E/E systems.

• Extensive knowledge of advanced safety standards beyond ISO 26262 that can be applied to AI components within autonomous systems (such as ISO 21448, SOTIF), as well as relevant quality/reliability standards and international regulatory requirements.

• Demonstrated expertise in developing, implementing, and assessing complex fail-safe and fail-operational strategies for L4 autonomous vehicles.

• Proven leadership experience in working with external partners, suppliers, and regulatory bodies/auditors.

• Background in data science and statistics with a focus on analyzing large data sets for quantitative risk reduction, safety insights, and performance assessment.

Travel Requirements:

• Travel to HQ at least quarterly, audit and assessment support as needed - approximately 10%

((Remote jobs only - Please note that Waymo may not be able to employ remotely in all locations. Please speak with your recruiter about your preferred location for remote work when you begin the interview process.))

The expected base salary range for this full-time position across US locations is listed below. Actual starting pay will be based on job-related factors, including exact work location, experience, relevant training and education, and skill level. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the role location or, if the role can be performed remote, the specific salary range for your preferred location, during the hiring process.

Waymo employees are also eligible to participate in Waymo’s discretionary annual bonus program, equity incentive plan, and generous Company benefits program, subject to eligibility requirements.

Salary Range
$196,000—$248,000 USD