Staff Systems Engineer, Functional Safety
💰 $80,000 – $130,000/yrMarket estimate · not provided by the employer
At a glance
- Who can apply
- United States
- Work arrangement
- Hybrid · Hybrid- Fremont, CA
- Employment type
- Full-time
- Experience
- 8+ years (as stated by the employer)
- Salary
- $80,000 – $130,000/yr · market estimate
- ✓ Mentions visa sponsorship or relocation support
- ✓ Open to early-career candidates
Checked against the employer's source on October 15, 2026. Details come from the employer's posting; confirm them on the application page.
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Job Description
Agility’s commercially deployed humanoids operate alongside teams in warehouses, manufacturing facilities, and distribution centers—tackling physically demanding and repetitive tasks while enabling workers to focus on higher-value work. With industry-leading safety standards and years of proven deployment data, we're pioneering a new era of automation that enhances human potential.
About the Role
As a Staff Systems Engineer at Agility Robotics, you'll be the technical leader defining and delivering system-level architecture for our humanoid robot platform, with focus in functional safety requirements integration. Working within a high-impact Systems Engineering team, you'll take ownership of complex safety-critical requirements, cross-functional interfaces, and system-level integration—bringing clarity and structure to incredibly complex safety-critical systems.
This role is ideal for a hands-on technical leader with functional safety expertise who thrives in ambiguity, takes initiative without waiting for permission, and has a passion for building real safety-critical systems fast. You'll help shape how Systems Engineering and Functional Safety integration is applied in a fast-moving startup, balancing the rigor of safety standards with the agility and pragmatism needed to ship products.
Key Responsibilities
Robotics Development
- Requirements Management: Define system and subsystem architectures spanning all domains (mechanical, electrical, firmware, and software) with embedded functional safety, and drive trade studies to balance safety, performance, cost, and execution speed.
- V&V Definition : Define, own, and decompose detailed, verifiable requirements in Jama that can be delivered to Integration and Testing teams for Verification and Validation.
- Interface Definition: Lead development and maintenance of Interface Control Documents (ICDs), managing implementation-specific details for hardware and software interfaces, including message structures, pinouts, and bolt patterns.
- Operational Definitions: Define the sequence of operations between major elements and users using narrative Concept of Operations (ConOps), swimlane diagrams, and/or logical flow charts.
- Test Support: Align system requirements with test plans to ensure coverage across the entire safety system. Drive system-level verification of safety requirements through integration testing and track design differences between test setups and the intended design to determine technical risk.
Operational Support and Technical Leadership
- Safety Tracking & Monitoring: Regularly check and confirm that the safety system's performance meets all specified requirements under live operating conditions.
- Change and Modification Management: Ensure that any modification to the system's hardware or software that impacts safety must be strictly validated to maintain safety integrity and prevent the introduction of new risks.
- Failure Analysis and Investigation: Actively participate in safety assessments and root cause investigations, collaborating with non-safe software and hardware development teams to prevent systemic faults.
- Operational Sustainment: Work closely with Commercial and Product teams to ensure that critical safety mechanisms and processes are maintained at customer sites, including emergency stop and human detection.
- Cross-Functional Alignment and Leadership: Facilitate cross-functional decisions when safety requirements conflict with performance, cost, or schedule constraints, and identify technical and safety risks to influence system decisions.
Qualifications
- 8+ years of Systems Engineering experience in safety-critical domains: robotics, aerospace, automotive, medical devices, or similar multidisciplinary hardware/software systems
- 3+ years working on system safety or functional safety projects and use of functional safety standards such as ISO 13849, IEC 61508, ISO 26262, IEC 62061, or similar
- Demonstrated experience leading system-level integration, architecture, and requirement management efforts
- Previous experience in high-growth, fast-paced environments where self-direction and bias for action are essential
- Experience with safety-critical robotics or autonomous systems strongly preferred
Technical Skills & Safety Expertise
- Understanding of safety lifecycle processes, hazard analysis (HARA, HAZOP, FTA, FMEA), safety integrity levels, and safety architecture principles
- Expert-level skills in authoring safety requirements, managing traceability, and defining cross-functional safety interfaces
- Strong familiarity with the V-model approach to safety-critical systems engineering, including how to adapt it for rapid development environments
- Proficiency in using safety analysis tools (e.g., ANSYS medini analyze, PTC Windchill FTA, ItemIS) and requirements management platforms (Jama, DOORS, Polarion).
- Ability to collaborate closely with Test Engineering to develop and execute system-level safety verification and validation strategies.
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field
- Experience with collaborative or mobile robotics in industrial environments
- Background in AI/ML safety considerations for autonomous systems
- Experience mentoring junior engineers in safety-critical system development
- Knowledge of regulatory compliance processes for robotics in manufacturing environments
This a hybrid position based out of one of our Fremont, CA offices.
The final salary offered to a successful candidate will be dependent on several factors that may include but are not limited to: job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Agility Robotics is a multi-state employer and this salary range may not reflect positions who work in other locations. These ranges may be modified in the future.
Anticipated Base Salary Range