Senior Product Safety Architect II

Pantera Capital; Ann Arbor (MI); On-site; USD 125,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive healthcare suite

Rich retirement benefits

Flexible vacation policy

Total Wellness Program

Job summary

A leading technology company in Ann Arbor seeks a Senior Product Safety Architect to define and manage the safety architecture for their L4 autonomous driving system. The role requires extensive experience in functional safety and AI/ML safety challenges, as well as strong analytical and communication skills. The successful candidate will collaborate closely with various teams to ensure the integration of safety measures and manage safety plans under UL 4600 and ISO 26262. This position offers comprehensive benefits and a salary range of $125,000 - $160,000 USD.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of related work experience in autonomous vehicles or advanced robotics.
• Demonstrable exposure to AI/ML safety challenges.
• Experience authoring UL 4600 safety case or structured safety argument.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the safety architecture for autonomous driving systems.
• Manage the safety plan according to UL 4600 and ISO 26262.
• Collaborate with development teams on safety plan aspects.

Skills

Functional safety knowledge

AI/ML safety risk assessment

Communication skills

Analytical mindset

System architecture decomposition

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related fields

Master’s degree in Systems Engineering or related field

Tools

HARA

FMEA

FTA

FMEDA

UL 4600 CAE

Job description

Company Overview

May Mobility is transforming cities through autonomous technology to create a safer, greener, more accessible world. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, May develops and deploys autonomous vehicles (AVs) powered by our innovative Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) technology that literally reimagines the way AVs think. Our vehicles do more than just drive themselves – they provide value to communities, bridge public transit gaps and move people where they need to go safely, easily and with a lot more fun. We’re building the world’s best autonomy system to reimagine transit by minimizing congestion, expanding access and encouraging better land use in order to foster more green, vibrant and livable spaces. Since our founding in 2017, we’ve given more than 500,000 autonomous rides to real people around the globe. And we’re just getting started. We’re hiring people who share our passion for building the future, today, solving real‑world problems and seeing the impact of their work.

Job Summary

The Senior Product Safety Architect is responsible for defining and owning the end‑to‑end safety architecture for our L4 autonomous driving system, translating safety goals and hazard analyses into concrete system‑level design decisions. This role requires a strong foundation in functional safety (UL 4600, ISO 26262) combined with working knowledge of AI/ML safety challenges specific to autonomous systems. The incumbent will partner closely with perception, prediction, planning, and control teams to embed safety requirements throughout the development lifecycle, and will bring an architecture mindset to ensure that safety properties are verifiable, traceable, and defensible in our safety case.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the safety architecture for our Driver Out autonomous system, establishing the system decomposition, safety mechanisms, and architectural constraints that instantiate our UL 4600 safety case claims.
• Derive functional safety concepts and technical safety concepts from HARA outputs, and allocate safety requirements to AV system components (perception, prediction, planning, actuation, fallback) with clear architectural rationale per UL 4600 and ISO 26262.
• Own and manage the safety plan according UL 4600 and ISO 26262, including a schedule to hit the company’s product launches.
• Identify and address AI/ML‑specific safety risks including distributional shift, model uncertainty, and failure mode opacity; define architectural mitigations (e.g., runtime monitors, confidence thresholds, safe fallback behaviours) to maintain safety goals in the presence of learned components.
• Collaborate with development teams on every aspect of the safety plan through appropriate processes and methods to ensure on‑time delivery of mature work products.
• Create, maintain and review safety work products such as HARA, FSC, TSC, FTA, FMEA, SPFM/LFM, PMHF, and DFA; extend these analyses to cover ML component failure modes and ODD boundary conditions specific to L4 autonomous operation.
• Communicate with all required stakeholders to identify and define technical/systems requirements and safety requirements tied to the safety goals.
• Ability to effectively communicate and explain functional safety concepts to non‑safety engineers.
• Ensure that functional safety confirmation measures such as audits and assessments are planned and completed.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.
• Hands‑on with an analytical mindset and a proven track record of problem‑solving.
• Enthusiasm for cutting‑edge innovation in self‑driving technologies and safety products.

Skills and Abilities

• Strong working knowledge and ability to apply the following safety frameworks: HARA, FMEA, FTA, FMEDA, DFA, SOTIF (ISO 21448) / AI safety risk assessment, UL 4600 CAE (Claim‑Argument‑Evidence).
• Requirements capture and traceability; safety metrics definition; system architecture decomposition and interface definition across AV subsystems.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.
• Hands‑on with an analytical mindset and a proven track record of problem‑solving.
• Enthusiasm for cutting‑edge innovation in self‑driving technologies and safety products.
• Ability to clarify and document fuzzy requirements and challenges such that a project team can solve problems efficiently and effectively.
• Ability to communicate technical concepts, root‑cause analysis, and solutions clearly and concisely.
• Ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non‑technical people and teams.
• Understanding of software and hardware development life cycles, integration processes, and test/validation complexity.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline.
• 7+ years of related work experience, with at least 3 years in autonomous vehicle or advanced robotics system architecture, and demonstrable exposure to AI/ML safety challenges in safety‑critical applications.
• High level of initiative and activation; able to enthusiastically take on challenges, including those peripheral to core responsibilities when needed for project success.
• Master’s degree in Systems Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field; specialization in AI safety, dependable systems, or autonomous systems is a strong plus.
• Prior experience authoring or contributing to a UL 4600 safety case or equivalent structured safety argument (GSN/CAE) for a deployed autonomous system.

Physical Requirements

• Standard office working conditions including prolonged sitting, prolonged standing, and prolonged computer use.

Benefits and Perks

• Comprehensive healthcare suite including medical, dental, vision, life, and disability plans. Domestic partners who have been residing together for at least one year are also eligible to participate.
• Health Savings and Flexible Spending accounts available for health and dependent care.
• Rich retirement benefits, including an immediately vested employer safe harbour match.
• Generous paid parental leave and a phased return to work.
• Flexible vacation policy in addition to paid company holidays.
• Total Wellness Program providing numerous resources for overall wellbeing.

Salary Range

$125,000 - $160,000 USD

EEO Statement

May Mobility is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants for employment will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, genetics or any other legally protected basis. If you believe you will need any type of accommodation, please let us know.