Senior Safety Systems Engineer

AIM Intelligent Machines; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

AIM Intelligent Machines in Seattle seeks a Senior Safety Systems Engineer to own major safety workstreams across our autonomous machines. You will design system-level safety architectures spanning hardware, software, autonomy, and controls.

You will lead hazard analyses (FMEA/HAZOP/STPA), define safe operating boundaries, develop verification strategies, and collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams to validate safety in production systems.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Systems Engineering, Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, Robotics, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience with complex or safety-critical systems.
• Experience with FMEA, Fault Tree Analysis, HAZOP, STPA, or similar safety methodologies.
• Strong understanding of hardware-software integration.
• Experience developing verification and validation strategies.
• Ability to work across multidisciplinary engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Develop system-level safety architectures across hardware, software, autonomy, and controls.
• Lead hazard analysis using methods such as FMEA, Fault Tree Analysis, HAZOP, and STPA.
• Define safety requirements, mitigations, degraded operating modes, and fail-safe behaviors.
• Contribute to system safety cases and maintain traceability between hazards, requirements, mitigations, and validation evidence.
• Define safe operating boundaries and Operational Design Domains.
• Develop verification and validation strategies using simulation, SIL, HIL, fault injection, and field testing.
• Define safe human-machine interaction, operator intervention, and emergency-stop behavior.
• Analyze incidents, near misses, and fleet telemetry to identify emerging safety risks.
• Partner with engineering teams to ensure safety requirements are implemented and validated in production systems.

Skills

System safety analysis

Hazard analysis

Hardware-software integration

Verification & Validation

Cross-functional collaboration

FMEA/HAZOP/STPA

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Systems Engineering, Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, Robotics, or related field

Job description

Senior Safety Systems Engineer

About AIM

AIM builds autonomy for the real world - robots that move mountains.

Our systems combine software, hardware, robotics, and mission-critical infrastructure into ruggedized autonomous machines operating on jobsites around the world. Safety is a system-level property that must be designed across the autonomy stack, machine controls, hardware, operator interfaces, and operational workflows.

We are building the safety architectures and validation frameworks that allow autonomous heavy machinery to operate reliably around people, equipment, and critical infrastructure.

About you

You are a systems thinker with experience designing or validating safety-critical systems.

You understand how safety emerges from the interaction of hardware, software, autonomy, operators, and the environment. You think in terms of hazards, failure modes, degraded behavior, mitigation, and validation.

You are comfortable working across robotics, controls, hardware, software, and field operations, and you translate safety analysis into real engineering requirements and system behavior.

What you will own

As a Senior Safety Systems Engineer, you will own major safety workstreams across AIM's autonomous machines, including:

• Develop system-level safety architectures across hardware, software, autonomy, and controls.

• Lead hazard analysis using methods such as FMEA, Fault Tree Analysis, HAZOP, and STPA.

• Define safety requirements, mitigations, degraded operating modes, and fail-safe behaviors.

• Contribute to system safety cases and maintain traceability between hazards, requirements, mitigations, and validation evidence.

• Define safe operating boundaries and Operational Design Domains.

• Develop verification and validation strategies using simulation, SIL, HIL, fault injection, and field testing.

• Define safe human-machine interaction, operator intervention, and emergency-stop behavior.

• Analyze incidents, near misses, and fleet telemetry to identify emerging safety risks.

• Partner with engineering teams to ensure safety requirements are implemented and validated in production systems.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Systems Engineering, Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, Robotics, or a related field.

• 5+ years of experience with complex or safety-critical systems.

• Experience with FMEA, Fault Tree Analysis, HAZOP, STPA, or similar safety methodologies.

• Strong understanding of hardware-software integration.

• Experience developing verification and validation strategies.

• Ability to work across multidisciplinary engineering teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with autonomous systems, robotics, heavy machinery, automotive, aerospace, or industrial systems.

• Familiarity with standards such as ISO 17757, ISO 19014, ISO 13849, IEC 61508, ISO 26262, or SOTIF.

• Experience with safety cases, requirements traceability, or certification processes.

• Experience with HIL/SIL testing, fault injection, fleet telemetry, or field validation.

How you’ll stand out

You think at the system level, understand how multiple subsystems can interact to create unsafe behavior, and can translate safety theory into practical engineering decisions.

You are comfortable balancing the ideal long-term safety solution with the pragmatic mitigation needed to safely move a product forward today.