Senior Autonomy System Safety Engineer — Lead Safety Strategy

Didi Labs; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 149,000 - 296,000; Full time

Job summary

DiDi Autonomous Driving is seeking a Senior/Staff System Safety Engineer to lead safety strategy and deployment readiness for fully autonomous driving systems in the San Jose, CA area. You will define safety frameworks, release policies, and system-level engineering processes to ensure safe unmanned operations and scalable deployment.

The role requires a strong background in safety engineering, systems thinking, and collaboration with Software, Product, Operations, and Safety teams to guide

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or higher degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a closely related technical field.
• 3-5 years of industry experience in systems engineering, safety engineering, autonomous systems, or a directly related field.
• Strong systems thinking with the ability to decompose complex safety challenges and drive practical, scalable solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate across teams, influence stakeholders, and take ownership of safety outcomes.
• Experience working in a fast-paced environment with multiple parallel projects and ambiguous requirements.

Responsibilities

• Own the safety evaluation and release strategy for unmanned autonomous driving operations, defining clear criteria for system release, degradation, and fallback under varying operating conditions.
• Design, implement, and champion the safety-related systems engineering framework, including safety requirements, system architecture, and Verification & Validation (V&V) plans.
• Conduct systematic assessments of unmanned operational workflows, emergency protocols, and supporting tools/platforms to ensure safety and operational completeness.
• Develop and institutionalize safety evaluation methodologies and metrics frameworks, translating safety goals into quantifiable, verifiable, and continuously tracked indicators.
• Serve as the technical lead for safety-related incident review and analysis during unmanned operations, driving continuous improvements in system design, test coverage, and operational procedures.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Software, Product, Operations, and Safety teams to support leadership decisions regarding unmanned deployment, city expansion, and operational scaling.

Skills

Systems thinking

Safety engineering

Cross-functional collaboration

Autonomous systems

Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher in CS/SE

Job description

DiDi Autonomous Driving is seeking a Senior/Staff System Safety Engineer to lead safety strategy and deployment readiness for fully autonomous driving systems in the San Jose, CA area. You will define safety frameworks, release policies, and system-level engineering processes to ensure safe unmanned operations and scalable deployment.

The role requires a strong background in safety engineering, systems thinking, and collaboration with Software, Product, Operations, and Safety teams to guide