Systems Engineer, Safety

Bedrock Robotics Inc; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Bedrock Robotics is seeking a Systems Engineer with safety expertise to define and maintain the system‑level architecture for autonomous construction equipment, ensuring safety from the start. You will work across hardware, software, and mechanical subsystems, driving safety analyses and technical tradeoffs with engineering teams.

You will lead safety analyses (HARA, FMEA, STPA, FTA) and shape verification and validation plans, partnering with V&V to deliver robust, safe autonomy in real‑world

Qualifications

• 8+ years in systems engineering with functional safety work.
• Ability to analyze data to drive system understanding and prioritization.
• Experience with verification and validation methods.
• Experience with safety analysis and risk assessment methods.
• Experience decomposing system requirements to verification.
• Familiarity with redundancy, diagnostics, and fault detection.

Responsibilities

• Develop system requirements and safety metrics across subsystems.
• Lead safety analyses (HARA, FMEA, STPA, FTA) and translate results.
• Define and maintain system architecture and interfaces.
• Support design reviews across hardware, software, mechanical.
• Define safety mechanisms and verify implementation.
• Collaborate with V&V to establish test plans.
• Assist root cause analysis for field issues.

Skills

Systems engineering

Functional safety

Safety analyses

Trade studies

Data-driven decisions

Cross-functional collab

Education

Bachelor's in engineering

MS/PhD preferred

Tools

ISO 26262

IEC 61508

FMEA

STPA

HARA/FTA

Job description

Join the team bringing advanced autonomy to the built world

At Bedrock, we're moving AI out of the lab and into the real world. Our team includes veterans who helped launch Waymo, scaled Segment to a $3.2B acquisition, and grew Uber Freight to $5B in revenue. Today, we're deploying autonomous systems on heavy construction equipment across the country, improving safety on job sites and accelerating schedules on critical infrastructure projects.

We're not here debating the future of AI. We're deploying it in the real world. In just two years, we've raised $350M and achieved the first fully autonomous excavator deployments in construction.

This is where algorithms meet steel-toed boots. You'll work alongside construction veterans and world‑class engineers to solve physical‑world problems that simulations can't touch. If you're ready to do meaningful work on hard problems, we'd love to have you join us.

About the Role

Bedrock is looking for a Systems Engineer with safety engineering experience to define and maintain the system‑level architecture that allows autonomous construction equipment to operate safely around people and other equipment. This role sits at the intersection of systems engineering and functional safety: the person in it will decompose system‑level requirements across hardware, software, and mechanical subsystems, while ensuring that safety analysis and safety requirements are built into that architecture from the start rather than added afterward.

This role will work directly with the teams designing sensing, compute, and actuation systems, and will be expected to make and defend technical tradeoffs that affect both system performance and safety posture.

What You'll Do

• Develop actionable requirements and metrics for the system, with a focus on safety

• Support development of the functional safety concept and supporting technical safety concepts for the system

• Define and maintain system‑level architecture and interface requirements across hardware, software, and mechanical subsystems

• Lead or contribute to safety analyses, such as HARA, FMEA, STPA, and FTA, and translate findings into system and hardware requirements

• Define safety mechanisms such as redundancy, diagnostics, watchdogs, and graceful degradation, and verify their implementation

• Participate in design reviews across hardware, software, and mechanical disciplines, with particular attention to failure modes and safety‑relevant interfaces

• Work with the V&V lead to establish verification and validation plans, including test methodology

• Support root cause analysis for field and test issues where system‑level or safety‑relevant causes are suspected

What We're Looking For

• 8+ years of experience in systems engineering, with direct involvement in functional safety work products (e.g., under ISO 13849, ISO 26262, or IEC 61508)

• Strong ability to work with data to drive system understanding and feature prioritization and develop trade studies

• Experience with verification and validation methods

• Experience with safety analysis and risk assessment methods

• Experience writing and decomposing system‑level requirements, and tracing them through to verification

• Familiarity with safety mechanisms such as redundancy, watchdogs, diagnostics, and fault detection

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in systems engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or a related field

• Ability to work across hardware, software, and mechanical teams and communicate technical tradeoffs clearly in writing and in review

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with autonomous or robotic systems, particularly those operating in unstructured or dynamic environments

• Experience with STPA

• Experience with third‑party safety assessment (e.g., TÜV, UL)

• Familiarity with sensing and compute hardware relevant to autonomy (cameras, lidar, GNSS, IMUs)

• Experience with heavy equipment, construction, mining, or agricultural machinery

Bedrock Robotics is an Equal Opportunity Employer

We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic.

Reasonable Accommodations

We want our hiring process to be accessible to everyone. If you need an accommodation to participate in the application or interview process, please let your recruiter know so we can support you.