Senior Hardware Engineer - ECU Safety Analysis

General Motors LLC; Dearborn (MI); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

General Motors seeks an ECU Hardware Safety Analysis Engineer to lead circuit-level safety analyses for in-house ECUs within our SDV electrical architecture. You will mentor junior engineers while interfacing with GM disciplines to ensure the System Safety Case aligns with safety goals.

The role emphasizes DFMEA/FMEDA/FTA, safety strategy development, and collaboration across teams, with a hybrid work model and opportunities to shape automotive safety practices.

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science degree in an engineering field.
• 5+ years of engineering experience in safety-critical systems or ECU/circuit safety analysis.
• Experience in electronic circuit and/or software design, analysis, development, validation.
• Deep knowledge of safety-critical embedded controls in automotive subsystems or similar.
• ISO 26262 Certification as a Safety Professional.

Responsibilities

• Perform ECU circuit-level safety analyses and risk mitigations.
• Support ECU safety strategy development balancing system safety with performance.
• Lead safety analysis tasks and mentor junior engineers.
• Collaborate with GM engineering disciplines and external entities.
• Stay current with emerging safety analysis techniques and tools.

Skills

ECU hardware safety analysis

DFMEA/FMECA/FTA

Safety leadership

Mentorship / leadership

ISO 26262 certified safety

Cross-functional collaboration

Safety analysis tools knowledge

Education

BS in engineering

MS in engineering (preferred)

Tools

Mentor Cadence tools

Medini/Plato safety tools

Siemens SN29500

FMEDA/FTA tooling

Job description

Job Description The Ideal Candidate:

Electronic Control Units (ECUs) supporting high Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) applications represent a rapidly expanding segment of the global automotive industry. We are seeking a creative, driven, and highly energetic ECU Hardware Safety Analysis Engineer to lead circuit-level safety analysis activities and help establish and mature internal methodologies and procedures for in-house designed ECUs. In this role, you will conduct detailed circuit-level electronics safety analyses to support the development of the overall System Safety Case for ECUs within a Software Defined Vehicle (SDV) electrical architecture. Your work will directly contribute to the advancement of technologies critical to achieving General Motors’ Vision of Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions, and Zero Congestion. The ideal candidate brings demonstrated experience performing DFMEA at both the ECU and circuit levels, along with a strong foundation in hardware safety analysis. You are an innovative problem solver who drives technical excellence, fosters effective cross-functional collaboration, and energizes teams around a shared safety vision. This role requires strong leadership capability, business acumen, and the ability to navigate ambiguity while strategically addressing complex, system-level challenges. A high degree of learning agility, comfort with evolving technologies, and a passion for challenging the status quo are essential to success.

The Role:

Safety is truly in your hands, as your passion for safe mobility will be key in ensuring the functional safety of our inhouse developed ECUs for our latest vehicle architecture. In this role you are expected to have a high level of technical proficiency to perform various ECU, sub-component and circuit level safety analysis tasks that supports various SDV ECUs, and provide mentoring to more junior engineers. This team will function in the capacity of performing the required safety analysis within an ECU design responsible organization where work products will be delivered to the System Functional Safety organization to meet the overall system safety case and safety goals of the ECU. This team will interface across various GM engineering disciplines as well as external engineering entities to obtain needed information for the required safety analysis work.

What You’ll Do:

• Perform ECU circuit level safety analysis, hazard identification and risk mitigations using qualitative and quantitative methods on a multitude of ECUs.
• Support ECU Safety strategy development and deploy safety strategies that balance overall System Safety with feature availability & performance.
• Perform detailed ECU circuit level safety analysis using various software analysis & documentation tools in the following areas: DFMEA (Design Failure Mode Effects Analysis) FIT (Failures In Time) FMEDA (Failure Modes, Effects and Diagnostic Analysis) FTA (Fault Tree Analysis) Drive ECU, sub-component and/or circuit level design modifications determined necessary from the safety analysis work performed.
• Support development of new and/or revise existing technical safety related requirements for ECU CTRS (Component Technical Requirements Specification).
• Actively lead, participate and contribute in System Safety GSSLT (Global Subsystem Leadership Team), ECU HW Change Control Board and ECU safety analysis Peer Review forums.
• Stay abreast of new technologies and safety analysis techniques.
• Domestic and/or international travel as required (minimal, 10% max).

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications):

• 5+ years engineering experience in product development with safety critical systems, ECUs or electronic circuit safety analysis.
• Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, or another related Engineering degree.
• Electronic Circuit and/or Software design, analysis, development, validation experience.
• Deep knowledge of safety critical embedded controls with at least one automotive subsystem or experience with a complex safety system in other industries.
• Good knowledge of Semiconductor physics, structures, fundamentals, models and failure mechanisms.
• Demonstrated leadership and project management of complex technical projects.
• Ability to provide technical leadership and mentorship to diverse global teams.
• ISO 26262 Certified Safety Professional

What Will Give You A Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications):

• 8+ years engineering experience in product development with safety critical systems, ECUs or electronic circuit safety analysis.
• In-depth familiarity with other functional safety standards such as IEC 61508, IEC 62304, or DO-178C.
• Master of Science in Engineering or related field.
• Familiarity with safety analysis tools, techniques and standards: Mentor or Cadence tool suite used in electronics design Medini or Plato‑e1ns or other analysis/documentation tool for DFMEA Medini, Isograph, Fault Tree + or other analysis tool for FMEDA / FTA Siemens SN29500, IEC 62380 or other reliability standards for FIT rate analysis.
• Emerging safety standards such as ISO 21448 and UL 4600.
• Knowledge of electronics sub-component mechanical design integration within ECUs as it relates to circuit implementation reliability and failure mechanisms.
• Familiarity with common safety mechanisms implemented in Automotive ECU's Machine learning, simulation methods and data acquisition.

This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the selected candidate is expected to report to a specific location at least 3 times a week {or other frequency dictated by their manager}. This job is not eligible for relocation benefits. Any relocation costs would be the responsibility of the selected candidate.

About GM

Our vision is a world with Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion and we embrace the responsibility to lead the change that will make our world better, safer and more equitable for all.

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