Staff Functional Safety Engineer, Hardware

Watershed Ventures; Carson (CA); On-site; USD 171,000 - 214,000; Full time

Job summary

Rivian is seeking a Hardware Functional Safety Engineer for the Electric Power Conversion group. You will lead functional safety development for power electronics components, aligning cross-functional teams and shaping engineering standards across the Power Electronics organization.

The role reports to the Sr. Manager of Functional Safety and requires deep technical expertise in safety analyses, DFMEA, and hardware safety concepts.

Qualifications

• BS/MS/PhD in Electrical/Electronic Engineering
• 5+ years in electrical safety hardware and functional safety (ISO 26262 or IEC 61508)
• Strong failure mode analysis knowledge for complex electrical designs
• Experience with safety analysis methods: FTA, FMEA, FMEDA, DFA, STPA
• Ability to define traceability in requirements management tools

Responsibilities

• Develop Hardware FTA, FMEA & FMEDA for electrical hardware design
• Serve as Safety expert in cross-functional design decisions
• Support reliability in deriving mission profiles and FIT rates
• Develop hardware safety concepts and architecture
• Collaborate on safety software analysis and safety requirements
• Document safety requirements, analysis, and verification events
• Drive functional safety processes across the organization

Skills

Embedded systems design

Safety analysis

FMEA/FMEDA

ISO 26262

Hardware safety

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Electrical/Electronic Engineering degree

Tools

Medini

Flow

LTSpice

Job description

About Rivian

Rivian is on a mission to keep the world adventurous forever. This goes for the emissions-free Electric Adventure Vehicles we build, and the curious, courageous souls we seek to attract. As a company, we constantly challenge what's possible, never simply accepting what has always been done. We reframe old problems, seek new solutions and operate comfortably in areas that are unknown. Our backgrounds are diverse, but our team shares a love of the outdoors and a desire to protect it for future generations.

Role Summary

As a Hardware Functional Safety Engineer working in the Electric Power Conversion group, you will be responsible for performing functional safety development of internally designed power electronics components. This role demands both deep technical expertise and the organizational influence to align cross-functional teams, drive supplier strategy, and shape engineering standards across the broader Power Electronics organization. This position reports directly to the Sr. Manager of Functional Safety within our Power Electronics organization.

Responsibilities

• Develop Hardware FTA, FMEA & FMEDA’s, DFA for electrical hardware design
• Serve as the Safety expert in safety-critical cross-functional design decisions
• Support the reliability organization in deriving mission profiles and FIT rates for hardware components using IEC or Siemens standards
• Develop hardware safety concepts, hardware safety architecture, hardware safety requirements to lead/drive and provide electrical hardware design recommendations across electronics subsystems, ASICs, SoCs, PMICs and microcontrollers
• Support application-specific software safety analysis (FTA, FMEA) and software safety requirements and architecture development
• Collaborate with Reliability organization in defining mission profiles based on vehicle use cases
• Develop upstream and downstream traceability between hardware safety, technical safety requirements, relevant test cases, and work products in traceability tool
• Develop Design Verification Plan (DVP) for relevant hardware safety and system safety requirements including fault injections
• Support the electrical hardware and power electronics software/controls test teams in executing test cases with troubleshooting
• Support vehicle functional safety team in development of technical safety requirements and hazard analysis risk assessment
• Documenting all relevant safety requirements, analysis, architecture implementation, verification and validation events for each sub-system
• Authoring and reviewing high-level safety documentation
• Driving functional safety design processes across the organization and being part of the safety culture within the organization

Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Electrical/Electronic Engineering
• Embedded systems design experience 5+ Years of experience in developing electrical safety hardware, systems safety, and functional safety engineering background in ISO 26262 Part 4, 5, 8 within the automotive or equivalent industries (e.g. aerospace) or IEC 61508 Part 1, 2 & 3
• Strong understanding of failure mode analysis of complex electrical designs, ASICs, preferably in power electronics applications
• Handling advanced electronics design and analyzing advanced electrical circuits
• Extensive knowledge and application of Safety Analysis methodologies using industry-standard tools, from functional system level to HW and SW component level: FTA, FMEA, FMEDA, DFA, STPA, SPFM/LFM, and PMHF
• Detailed experience analyzing electrical circuits, preferably in power electronics applications
• Prior experience performing hardware FTAs, FMEDAs, DFAs at the component level
• Ability to understand and create traceability in JAMA or similar requirements management tool
• Working within cross-functional teams - systems hardware, software, mechanical, manufacturing, and a proven record of working on multiple projects involving safety engineering
• Ability to work with resilience, zooming out and out-of-the-box thinking
• Strong team player with a drive to exceed expectations and meet deadlines
• Tool expertise with Medini, Flow, or similar strongly preferred
• Experience with LTSpice or similar simulation tool with prior experience of simulating circuits strongly preferred
• failure effects
• ISO 26262 Certified strongly preferred

Pay Disclosure

The salary range for this role is USD 171,100-213,900 for Southern California based applicants, and USD 186,000-232,500 for Northern California based applicants. This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors, including, but not limited to, specific competencies, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, shift, and organizational needs. The successful candidate may be eligible for annual performance bonus and equity awards. We offer a comprehensive package of benefits for full-time and part-time employees, their spouse or domestic partner, and children up to age 26, including but not limited to paid vacation, paid sick leave, and a competitive portfolio of insurance benefits including life, medical, dental, vision, short-term disability insurance, and long-term disability insurance to eligible employees. You may also have the opportunity to participate in Rivian’s 401(k) Plan and Employee Stock Purchase Program if you meet certain eligibility requirements. Full-time employee coverage is effective on their first day of employment. Part-time employee coverage is effective the first of the month following 90 days of employment. More information about benefits is available at rivianbenefits.com. This job is not expected to be closed any sooner than July 21st, 2026.

Equal Opportunity

Rivian is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local fair employment practices laws. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information or characteristics, physical or mental disability, marital/domestic partner status, age, military/veteran status, medical condition or any other characteristic protected by law. Rivian is committed to ensuring that our hiring process is accessible for persons with disabilities. If you have a disability or limitation, such as those covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, that requires accommodations to assist you in the search and application process, please email us at [e-mail].

Candidate Data Privacy and Technology

Rivian may collect, use and disclose your personal information or personal data (within the meaning of the applicable data protection laws) when you apply for employment and/or participate in our recruitment processes (“Candidate Personal Data”). This data includes contact, demographic, communications, educational, professional, employment, social media/website, network/device, recruiting system usage/interaction, security and preference information. Rivian may use your Candidate Personal Data for the purposes of (i) tracking interactions with our recruiting system; (ii) carrying out, analyzing and improving our application and recruitment process, including assessing you and your application and conducting employment, background and reference checks; (iii) establishing an employment relationship or entering into an employment contract with you; (iv) complying with our legal, regulatory and corporate governance obligations; (v) recordkeeping; (vi) ensuring network and information security and preventing fraud; and (vii) as otherwise required or permitted by applicable law. Rivian may share your Candidate Personal Data with (i) internal personnel who have a need to know such information in order to perform their duties, including individuals on our People Team, Finance, Legal, and the team(s) with the position(s) for which you are applying; (ii) Rivian affiliates; and (iii) Rivian’s service providers, including providers of background checks, staffing services, and cloud services. Rivian may transfer or store internationally your Candidate Personal Data, including to or in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union and in the cloud, and this data may be subject to the laws and accessible to the courts, law enforcement and national security authorities of such jurisdictions.

How We Use AI in Our Hiring Process

To ensure transparency we want candidates to know that Rivian uses iCIMS Talent Cloud Artificial Intelligence (TCAI) and AI-enabled tools to assist with screening, reviewing, organizing and highlighting profiles and applications that match the key requirements for each role. AI does not make hiring decisions: Qualified candidate applications are reviewed by a member of our team, and all decisions throughout the process are made by humans. We use AI to support efficiency and consistency, not to replace human judgment. We are committed to a fair, thoughtful, and equitable experience for every candidate. Participation in AI profile matching is entirely voluntary. If you prefer that your profile not be used in this process, you can opt out at any time. Opting out means your profile will be excluded from automated matching and will not be surfaced for additional roles through this system. Your current application remains active and will not be affected in any way. Please note that we are currently not accepting applications from third party application services.