Senior/Staff Safety Engineer, Autonomy — Unmanned Driving

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

Job summary

DiDi is seeking an experienced Senior/Staff System Safety Engineer, Autonomy to lead safety strategy for fully autonomous driving systems and define release criteria for scalable unmanned operations.

You will design safety frameworks, drive V&V plans, and assess safety across workflows while collaborating with Software, Product, Operations and Safety teams to support deployment decisions toward large-scale deployment.

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 related field.
• Strong systems thinking with the ability to decompose safety challenges and drive scalable solutions.
• 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 operations with clear criteria for release, degradation, and fallback.
• Design, implement, and champion safety-related systems engineering framework, including safety requirements, system architecture, and V&V plans.
• Conduct systematic assessments of unmanned workflows, emergency protocols, and supporting tools to ensure safety and completeness.
• Develop and institutionalize safety evaluation methodologies and metrics frameworks, translating safety goals into measurable indicators.
• Serve as the technical lead for safety-related incident reviews during unmanned operations, driving continuous improvements.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Software, Product, Operations, and Safety teams to support deployment decisions.

Skills

Strong systems thinking

Collaboration across teams

Stakeholder influence

Experience in fast-paced environments

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related field

Tools

Simulation-based V&V

Safety validation tools

Job description

DiDi is seeking an experienced Senior/Staff System Safety Engineer, Autonomy to lead safety strategy for fully autonomous driving systems and define release criteria for scalable unmanned operations.

You will design safety frameworks, drive V&V plans, and assess safety across workflows while collaborating with Software, Product, Operations and Safety teams to support deployment decisions toward large-scale deployment.