Lead Customer Safety Engineer - Hardware

NVIDIA; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 224,000 - 357,000; Full time

Job summary

NVIDIA is seeking a Lead Customer Safety Engineer in Santa Clara to represent the company’s functional safety strategy with automotive customers. You will bridge customer needs with internal teams to ensure hardware safety across complex SoCs, GPUs, and controllers.

You’ll guide safety discussions with OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, mentor junior engineers, and collaborate across hardware, software, and sales to deliver safe, compliant products. Equity and benefits included.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, hardware engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• At least 12 years’ experience, with more than 3 years in automotive functional safety, chip or ECU development, or customer safety engineering.
• Solid understanding of ISO 26262, including hardware safety concepts, SEooC development, assumptions of use, hardware safety integrity, and customer integration.
• Excellent analytical, written, and verbal communication skills and the ability to work as part of a team.
• Ability to lead complex technical discussions with automotive OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, assessors, and cross-functional engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Represent NVIDIA’s functional safety strategy and architectures to the customer.
• Serve as the principal customer interface for hardware safety topics, translating customer needs into clear actions for internal teams.
• Assist customers to safely integrate and validate our products in their systems and vehicles.
• Coordinate Development Interface Agreements and clarify the division of safety responsibilities between NVIDIA and customers.
• Support customer-facing safety collaterals, including tailor functional safety platforms and safety analyses for strategic customers.
• Lead resolution of customer safety questions, gaps, and change requests, engaging the appropriate NVIDIA subject-matter experts.
• Mentor junior customer safety engineers and establish consistent practices for technical reviews, monitoring concerns, partner concern handling, and customer communication.
• Work closely with safety management, solution architects, hardware and software engineering, sales, and technical marketing teams to deliver safe products.

Skills

ISO 26262

Technical leadership

Stakeholder comms

Team collaboration

Automotive safety

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s in electrical/computer/hardware engineering

Job description

At NVIDIA, we're not just changing the landscape of computer graphics and AI; we're paving the way for the future of autonomous driving. As a Lead Customer Safety Engineer, you will play a key role in assisting automotive customers as they incorporate NVIDIA hardware into safety-critical products. You will work alongside inventive engineers and technologists while acting as the main technical safety liaison between our customers and internal functional safety groups. This hardware-centered customer-facing position is essential to meeting and surpassing NVIDIA's and customer’s rigorous safety criteria, making your work both thrilling and meaningful!

What you’ll be doing:

• Represent NVIDIA’s functional safety strategy and architectures to the customer.
• Serve as the principal customer interface for hardware safety topics, translating customer needs into clear actions for internal teams.
• Assist customers to safely integrate and validate our products in their systems and vehicles.
• Coordinate Development Interface Agreements and clarify the division of safety responsibilities between NVIDIA and customers.
• Support customer-facing safety collaterals, including tailor functional safety platforms and safety analyses for strategic customers.
• Lead resolution of customer safety questions, gaps, and change requests, engaging the appropriate NVIDIA subject-matter experts.
• Mentor junior customer safety engineers and establish consistent practices for technical reviews, monitoring concerns, partner concern handling, and customer communication.
• Work closely with safety management, solution architects, hardware and software engineering, sales, and technical marketing teams to deliver safe products.

What we need to see:

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, hardware engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• At least 12 years’ experience, with more than 3 years in automotive functional safety, chip or ECU development, or customer safety engineering.
• Solid understanding of ISO 26262, including hardware safety concepts, SEooC development, assumptions of use, hardware safety integrity, and customer integration. Experience with market adjacent standards such as IEC 61508 can also be considered.
• Excellent analytical, written, and verbal communication skills and the ability to work as part of a team.
• Ability to lead complex technical discussions with automotive OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, assessors, and cross-functional engineering teams.

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

• ADAS, autonomous vehicle, robotics or industrial safety experience.
• Direct experience assisting automotive clients (OEM or Tier 1).
• Hardware functional-safety experience involving complex SoCs, GPUs, processors, accelerators, or safety MCUs.
• Knowledge and experience with ECU/board level E/E build and validation.

#ArchitectYourFuture

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. The base salary range is 224,000 USD - 356,500 USD.

You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until October 11, 2026.

This posting is for an existing vacancy.

NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes.

NVIDIA is committed to fostering an inclusive work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As we highly value diversity in our current and future employees, we do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.