Principal safety engineer and human

General Motors; Des Moines (IA); Remote; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in the automotive industry is seeking a Principal Safety & System Engineer for AV SOTIF. This remote role focuses on integrating human factors into automated driving systems, ensuring safety and usability. The successful candidate will collaborate with engineering teams to assess risks and develop safety requirements, contributing to the vision of zero crashes and emissions.

Qualifications

• Experience in safety analysis and risk assessments.
• Understanding of human factors in automated systems.

Responsibilities

• Identify and monitor key performance metrics for safety.
• Perform risk assessments for safety-critical operations.
• Develop requirements for human interfaces and usability.

Skills

Safety Analysis

Risk Assessment

Collaboration

Usability

Human Factors

Education

Engineering Degree

Job description

Job Description

Remote: This role is categorized as remote. The successful candidate may be based anywhere in the United States and is not expected to report to a GM worksite unless directed by their manager.

The Role

The Safety Assurance for Effective Autonomous Driving Software (SAFE-ADS) department is part of the Global Product Safety, System, and Certification (GPSSC) organization at GM. This department serves as the central body for automated driving system (ADS) safety, bringing together expertise from across the company to establish a comprehensive safety case. GM's vision is zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion — AV safety is at the heart of driving this vision forward.

Our scope spans several organizations across GM, requiring us to work directly with executive leaders, their teams, and strategic partners to build and deploy safe autonomous capabilities at scale. As the Principal Safety & System Engineer for AV SOTIF with a focus on the human as part of the system, you will report directly to the head of AV Safety Strategy and Assessment. This role involves providing technical guidance and expertise to support the program test and production safety cases. The human driver is a critical part of the overall system performance, and the assumptions used in the automated driving system's design need to be verified and justified.

What You'll Do

The Principal AV SOTIF and Human Factors role will be involved early in the development cycle to identify, assess, and develop mitigation strategies for hazards considering the human as part of the system. This includes hazards that a test system operator or customer could experience or introduce to the automated driving system. You will support analyses aligned with ISO 21448 Safety of the Intended Function (SOTIF) standard, covering operations in closed course testing, validation testing on-road, and the system as deployed with customers. Tasks include collaborating on measuring operator training effectiveness and working with engineers to identify human factors risks to be considered in feature designs.

Responsibilities

• Identify and monitor key performance metrics to ensure process and continuous improvement; report safety issues, trends, and recommendations to development teams and executives.
• Perform risk assessments for safety-critical operations using quantitative (STPA) and qualitative methods.
• Support system human interfaces through safety analysis techniques considering usability, mental load, ergonomics, and workload.
• Develop requirements with systems engineering and engineering teams to address human interface, usability, ergonomics, and to minimize human error risks.
• Assist in developing and executing safety audit programs to ensure effective safety controls.
• Support root cause analysis and implement corrective actions to address risks.
• Review operational concepts, procedures, training materials, and operational changes for hazards; develop safety requirements to control risks.
• Partner with systems and engineering teams to identify emerging risk trends.
• Champion safety case claims related to the human driver and work with the safety case team to establish and execute assessment plans.

Note: This job does not include relocation benefits; costs are the responsibility of the selected candidate.