Lead Functional Safety Engineer

Dexterity; Redwood City (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 192,000; Full time

Job summary

Dexterity, an enterprise Physical AI company in Redwood City, is hiring a Lead Functional Safety Engineer to own the entire safety lifecycle for industrial robots and autonomous systems. You will define safety requirements, architectures, and verification plans to support compliant deployment in NA, EU, and JP markets.

You will collaborate with hardware and software teams, perform rigorous risk analyses per ISO 12100/13849-1 and IEC 62061, and guide certification activities with external bodies,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Mechanical, or related engineering field.
• 1
• 10+ years of functional safety experience in robotics or automation.
• 2
• Hands-on with servo drives, inverters, motor controls, encoders, and safety PLCs.
• 3
• Ownership of the complete safety lifecycle from hazard analysis to validation.
• 4

Responsibilities

• Create and maintain a Functional Safety Management Plan.
• Develop QMS integration for safety activities and audits.
• Perform ISO 12100 risk assessments and determine PLr/SIL.
• Support certification activities with UL, TÜV, and others.
• Define safety interfaces among controllers, drives, I/O.
• Plan verification and validation of stopping, faults, and safe state.
• Engage in customer-facing safety guidance and discussions.

Skills

10+ years functional safety experience

Hazard & risk analysis

PLr/SIL determination

Safety lifecycle ownership

Safety architecture & validation

Structured Text / Ladder Logic / FBD

Certification knowledge (TÜV CFSE/CFSP

Customer-facing safety guidance

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical/Mechanical engineering

Tools

PROFIsafe / CIP Safety / EtherCAT/FSoE

PLC/embedded safety systems

Safety networks & interfaces

Job description

About Dexterity

Dexterity is the enterprise Physical AI company building intelligent robots for complex industrial work.

Dexterity's Mech systems combine the Foresight World Model, robotics, and a Physical AI platform to perform demanding logistics workflows - including trailer loading, trailer unloading, and airport baggage handling - at the speed, reliability, and safety levels required for high-volume operations. Dexterity's Foresight World Model powers real-time perception, planning, and execution across physical environments with the interpretability required for industrial deployment. Dexterity is headquartered in Redwood City, California.

Dexterity is backed by world-class investors such as Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Obvious Ventures. We are a diverse and multidisciplinary team with a culture built on passion, trust, and dedication.

About the Role

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

Responsibilities

• Create and maintain a Functional Safety Management Plan. Lifecycle, responsibilities, required work products, competence and independence requirements, and approval authority.
• Develop and maintain Quality Management System (QMS) integration. Define how safety activities, reviews, approvals, deviations, corrective actions, and audits run within the existing quality processes.
• Perform machinery risk assessments per ISO 12100; identify hazards, define safe states and safety functions, and determine required Performance Level (PLr) or Safety Integrity Level (SIL).
• Support compliance and certification activities with certification bodies, test laboratories, and external assessors, including UL, TÜV, NRTLs, notified bodies, and other relevant organizations.
• Interpret relevant regulations and standards, advise engineering teams on their practical application, and maintain awareness of changing robotics-safety and compliance expectations
• Develop and review safety architectures for E-stop, protective stop, Safe Torque Off (STO), safe stopping, safely limited speed, overspeed protection, brake control, restart prevention, and protective sensing.
• Apply ISO 13849-1/-2 and IEC 62061, including redundancy, diagnostics, MTTFd/PFH calculations, common-cause failure analysis, and validation.
• Analyze robotic and drivetrain failure modes, including motor and inverter faults, welded switching devices, encoder or feedback loss, brake, steering, and gearbox failures, unintended torque, overspeed, and loss of control.
• Define safety interfaces among safety PLCs, robot controllers, servo drives and inverters, motors, brakes, encoders, scanners, contactors, and safety I/O; specify safe behavior for communication loss or invalid data.
• Apply safety-rated communication protocols such as PROFIsafe, CIP Safety, and EtherCAT/FSoE, with working knowledge of PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, and other industrial networks as system interfaces.
• Perform HARA, FMEA/FMECA/FMEDA/DFMEA, fault tree analysis (FTA), fault injection testing, and safety-case analyses; translate results into traceable safety requirements and design evidence.
• Perform mechanical and structural analysis. Failure analysis for components whose failure can create or worsen a hazard, linked to inspection and proof-test needs.
• Plan and execute verification and validation activities covering stopping performance, response time, sensor and encoder faults, drive faults, communication loss, restart behavior, and achievement of the defined safe state.
• Support safety-related PLC and embedded implementation, component selection, IEC 61131-3 programming, customer-site standard operating procedures, and scalable safety training and troubleshooting.
• Engage in customer-facing technical meetings to clarify safety design decisions, explain FuSa compliance, and provide expert guidance on system guardrails

Regulatory requirements

• ISO 12100 - Machinery risk assessment and risk reduction.
• ISO 13849-1/-2 - Safety-related parts of control systems: design principles and validation.
• IEC 61508 - foundational, cross-industry functional-safety standard for electrical, electronic, and programmable electronic safety-related systems.
• IEC 62061 - Functional safety of machinery control systems; IEC 61508 - Functional safety of electrical/electronic/programmable electronic (E/E/PE) systems, where applicable.
• IEC 60204-1 / NFPA 79 - Electrical equipment of machinery.
• ISO 10218-1/-2 and ANSI/RIA R15.06 - Industrial robot and robot system safety requirements.
• ANSI/RIA R15.08 and ISO 3691-4 - Industrial mobile robot and driverless industrial truck safety; ANSI/ITSDF B56.5, where applicable.
• IEC 61496 - Electro-sensitive protective equipment; UL 1740 and UL 3100, where applicable.
• Applicable market requirements, including the EU Machinery Regulation and EMC requirements, plus North American certification requirements

Qualifications Required

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Mechanical, or a related engineering discipline.
• 10+ years of functional safety experience in robotics, autonomous systems, industrial automation, automotive, aerospace, or other safety-critical machinery domains.
• Hands-on experience with servo drives, inverters, motor controls, encoders, brakes, safety PLCs, safety I/O, and safety-rated networks.
• Demonstrated ownership of the complete safety lifecycle: hazard and risk analysis -> safety requirements -> PLr/SIL determination -> architecture -> implementation -> verification -> validation.
• Ability to evaluate manipulator and mobile-platform/drivetrain hazards, including stopping distance, stored energy, braking, unintended motion, and loss of control.
• Experience with Structured Text, Ladder Logic, and/or Function Block Diagram, along with PLCs, microcontrollers, and safety-related embedded systems.
• Functional safety certification such as TÜV Functional Safety Engineer, CFSE, CFSP, or CMSE preferred.
• Candidates must be able to determine how a safety-critical failure is detected, how the system reaches a defined safe state, and how the required PL/SIL is quantitatively justified and demonstrated through analysis, implementation, and validation.

What Makes You Successful

• Strong independent ownership, cross-functional communication, and the ability to convey technical safety decisions to engineering leadership and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to develop clear compliance documentation, safety procedures, and customer-facing technical guidance.
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally as required.

$130,000 - $192,000 a year

Compensation

The annual base salary range for this position is $130,000-192,000 USD. Dexterity's total rewards may also include equity and medical, dental, and vision benefits. Actual compensation is determined based on experience, skills, scope, level, qualifications, and internal equity.