Senior Staff, Product Safety Engineer

Boston Dynamics, Inc.; Waltham (MA); On-site; USD 135,000 - 167,000; Full time

Job summary

Boston Dynamics is seeking a Senior Staff, Product Safety Engineer to join our product safety and compliance team. You will lead independent safety assurance for legged robotic systems across the product lifecycle and develop safety strategies, safety cases, and objective evidence spanning hardware, software, firmware, AI/ML, and HRI.

You will collaborate with product, systems engineering, hardware, software, and legal teams to translate standards into practical processes and ensure robust

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Robotics, or related discipline
• 6+ years in product safety, systems safety, functional safety, safety assurance, verification & validation (V&V), robotics, autonomous systems, automotive, aerospace, medical devices or another safety-critical field
• Understanding of AI/ML safety implications and AI-enabled system V&V
• Demonstrated V&V expertise, including test strategy, methodology, acceptance criteria, coverage, and objective safety evidence
• Strong systems engineering understanding across hardware, software, firmware, controls, sensors, actuators, cyber-physical systems
• Experience with safety-critical software development, software release processes, software quality assurance, configuration management, or safety-related change management, hazard analysis, FMEA/FMECA, STPA, STAMP, risk assessment, or equivalent methodologies
• Familiarity with IEC 61508, ISO 21448/SOTIF, ISO 13849, IEC 62061, ISO 42001, ISO/IEC TS 22440, EU AI Act and/or applicable robotics safety standards
• Experience with safety certification, regulatory submissions, audits or external safety assessments in autonomous/mobile/industrial/humanoid/robotic systems is preferred
• Ability to independently challenge technical assumptions and assess residual risk
• Strong written and verbal skills
• Ability to influence cross-functional teams without relying on organizational authority.

Responsibilities

• Provide safety assurance across the full technical stack (hardware through AI/ML) and support readiness reviews and safety gate sign-off for new capabilities (e.g., autonomous navigation, dynamic locomotion, manipulation, human-robot interaction -HRI, AI-enabled behaviors)
• Develop and evaluate V&V strategies, acceptance criteria, test coverage, and objective safety evidence ensuring safety requirements and risk controls perform as intended
• Prepare recommendations and evaluate safety analyses, claims, mitigations, and readiness evidence across perception, planning, controls, locomotion, actuation, and HRI to determine if claims are adequately supported
• Evaluate safety implications of releases, firmware updates, model changes, configuration changes, and hardware revisions – including drive-by-wire actuation, fault detection, and safe-state behavior – as part of change impact assessments
• Support incident investigations, corrective actions, post-market monitoring, and incorporation of field learning into safety assurance
• Collaborate with engineering teams and Safety Case owners to ensure consistency in safety processes, evidence quality, rigor, maturity across products and platforms
• Translate global and domestic regulations, standards, and certification expectations into internal safety policy and procedures and support continuous improvement of the Safety.

Skills

V&V expertise

Safety assurance

Cross-functional collaboration

AI/ML safety

Hazard analysis

Regulatory standards familiarity

Technical communication

Influence without authority

Education

Engineering degree (B.S./M.S.) in Electrical/Computer/Mechanical/Systems/Robotics

Job description

Boston Dynamics is looking for a Senior Staff, Product Safety Engineer to join our product safety and compliance team. The Product Safety and Compliance team drives a systematic approach to the design, test, and manufacture of safe products at Boston Dynamics.

As a Product Safety Engineer, you will provide independent safety assurance for our legged robotic systems across the full product lifecycle. The role will develop and maintain safety strategies, safety cases, safety requirements, safety assurance processes and objective evidence across hardware, software, firmware, controls, AI/ML, perception, actuation, and human-robot interaction. The role will evaluate the safety impact of product and software changes, support release and update governance , and ensure safety practices remain robust as robotic platforms, capabilities, and operational environments evolve. This role partners closely with Product, Systems Engineering/System Safety Engineering, Hardware, Software, Firmware, AI/ML, Quality, Security, and Legal, to confirm safety requirements are properly defined, implemented, verified, and validated. You will also help translate applicable standards and regulatory expectations into practical engineering and operational processes. This role is key to shaping the future of our mobile robots.

We’re looking for creative, passionate product safety engineers with strong backgrounds in autonomous systems, to tackle one of the biggest challenges in the field: robot safety. You will help set the practical standards by which our robots sense, plan, and act safely, and you’ll shape how Boston Dynamics demonstrates that its systems are safe. Boston Dynamics is a world leader in mobile robots, tackling some of the toughest robotics challenges. For years, our awe-inspiring viral videos on YouTube have shown the world what remarkably capable robots can do. Now we are quickly becoming a recognized leader in automation solutions for industrial applications and warehouse logistics.

What You’ll Do:

• Provide safety assurance across the full technical stack (hardware through AI/ML) and support readiness reviews and safety gate sign-off for new capabilities (e.g., autonomous navigation, dynamic locomotion, manipulation, human-robot interaction -HRI, AI-enabled behaviors).
• Develop and evaluate V&V strategies, acceptance criteria, test coverage, and objective safety evidence ensuring safety requirements and risk controls perform as intended.
• Prepare recommendations and evaluate safety analyses, claims, mitigations, and readiness evidence across perception, planning, controls, locomotion, actuation, and HRI to determine if claims are adequately supported.
• Evaluate safety implications of releases, firmware updates, model changes, configuration changes, and hardware revisions – including drive-by-wire actuation, fault detection, and safe-state behavior – as part of change impact assessments.
• Support incident investigations, corrective actions, post-market monitoring, and incorporation of field learning into safety assurance.
• Collaborate with engineering teams and Safety Case owners to ensure consistency in safety processes, evidence quality, rigor, maturity across products and platforms.
• Translate global and domestic regulations, standards, and certification expectations into internal safety policy and procedures and support continuous improvement of the Safety.

What You Bring:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Robotics, or related discipline
• 6+ years in product safety, systems safety, functional safety, safety assurance, verification & validation (V&V), robotics, autonomous systems, automotive, aerospace, medical devices or another safety-critical field
• Understanding of AI/ML safety implications and AI-enabled system V&V
• Demonstrated V&V expertise, including test strategy, methodology, acceptance criteria, coverage, and objective (normative) safety evidence
• Strong systems engineering understanding across hardware, software, firmware, controls, sensors, actuators, cyber-physical systems
• Experience with safety-critical software development, software release processes, software quality assurance, configuration management, or safety-related change management, hazard analysis, FMEA/FMECA, STPA, STAMP, risk assessment, or equivalent methodologies
• Familiarity with IEC 61508, ISO 21448/SOTIF, ISO 13849, IEC 62061, ISO 42001, ISO/IEC TS 22440, EU AI Act and/or applicable robotics safety standards
• Experience with safety certification, regulatory submissions, audits or external safety assessments in the areas of autonomous, mobile, industrial, humanoid, quadruped or other robotic systems is preferred
• Ability to independently challenge technical assumptions and assess residual risk
• Strong written and verbal skills
• Ability to influence cross-functional teams without relying on organizational authority.

Travel: Up to 10% travel for training and conferences as needed

We are interested in every qualified candidate who is eligible to work in the United States. However, we are not able to sponsor visas for this position.

The salary range for this position will be clearly stated in the job posting as required by Massachusetts law. The base pay range for this position is between $135,000 - $167,000. Base pay will depend on multiple individualized factors including, but not limited to internal equity, job related knowledge, skills and experience. This range represents a good faith estimate of compensation at the time of posting.

Boston Dynamics will never ask you to divulge your personal financial or account information as part of its recruiting process. #LI-MD1

We are growing rapidly, building a commercial company that delivers cutting edge technology and solutions to our customers from industrial applications to logistics and warehouse solutions.