About the Role
Lead functional safety engineering for industrial robots, autonomous mobile systems, and motion-control and drivetrain architectures. Own the full safety lifecycle - from hazard and risk analysis through requirements, architecture, implementation, verification, and validation - to support compliant deployment in North American, European, and Japanese markets.
Responsibilities
- Create and maintain a Functional Safety Management Plan. Lifecycle, responsibilities, required work products, competence and independence requirements, and approval authority.
- Develop and maintain Quality Management System (QMS) integration. Define how safety activities, reviews, approvals, deviations, corrective actions, and audits run within the existing quality processes.
- Perform machinery risk assessments per ISO 12100; identify hazards, define safe states and safety functions, and determine required Performance Level (PLr) or Safety Integrity Level (SIL).
- Support compliance and certification activities with certification bodies, test laboratories, and external assessors, including UL, TÜV, NRTLs, notified bodies, and other relevant organizations.
- Interpret relevant regulations and standards, advise engineering teams on their practical application, and maintain awareness of changing robotics-safety and compliance expectations
- Develop and review safety architectures for E-stop, protective stop, Safe Torque Off (STO), safe stopping, safely limited speed, overspeed protection, brake control, restart prevention, and protective sensing.
- Apply ISO 13849-1/-2 and IEC 62061, including redundancy, diagnostics, MTTFd/PFH calculations, common-cause failure analysis, and validation.
- Analyze robotic and drivetrain failure modes, including motor and inverter faults, welded switching devices, encoder or feedback loss, brake, steering, and gearbox failures, unintended torque, overspeed, and loss of control.
- Define safety interfaces among safety PLCs, robot controllers, servo drives and inverters, motors, brakes, encoders, scanners, contactors, and safety I/O; specify safe behavior for communication loss or invalid data.
- Apply safety-rated communication protocols such as PROFIsafe, CIP Safety, and EtherCAT/FSoE, with working knowledge of PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, and other industrial networks as system interfaces.
- Perform HARA, FMEA/FMECA/FMEDA/DFMEA, fault tree analysis (FTA), fault injection testing, and safety-case analyses; translate results into traceable safety requirements and design evidence.
- Perform mechanical and structural analysis. Failure analysis for components whose failure can create or worsen a hazard, linked to inspection and proof-test needs.
- Plan and execute verification and validation activities covering stopping performance, response time, sensor and encoder faults, drive faults, communication loss, restart behavior, and achievement of the defined safe state.
- Support safety-related PLC and embedded implementation, component selection, IEC 61131-3 programming, customer-site standard operating procedures, and scalable safety training and troubleshooting.
- Engage in customer-facing technical meetings to clarify safety design decisions, explain FuSa compliance, and provide expert guidance on system guardrails
Regulatory requirements
- ISO 12100 - Machinery risk assessment and risk reduction.
- ISO 13849-1/-2 - Safety-related parts of control systems: design principles and validation.
- IEC 61508 - foundational, cross-industry functional-safety standard for electrical, electronic, and programmable electronic safety-related systems.
- IEC 62061 - Functional safety of machinery control systems; IEC 61508 - Functional safety of electrical/electronic/programmable electronic (E/E/PE) systems, where applicable.
- IEC 60204-1 / NFPA 79 - Electrical equipment of machinery.
- ISO 10218-1/-2 and ANSI/RIA R15.06 - Industrial robot and robot system safety requirements.
- ANSI/RIA R15.08 and ISO 3691-4 - Industrial mobile robot and driverless industrial truck safety; ANSI/ITSDF B56.5, where applicable.
- IEC 61496 - Electro-sensitive protective equipment; UL 1740 and UL 3100, where applicable.
- Applicable market requirements, including the EU Machinery Regulation and EMC requirements, plus North American certification requirements
Qualifications Required
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Mechanical, or a related engineering discipline.
- 10+ years of functional safety experience in robotics, autonomous systems, industrial automation, automotive, aerospace, or other safety-critical machinery domains.
- Hands-on experience with servo drives, inverters, motor controls, encoders, brakes, safety PLCs, safety I/O, and safety-rated networks.
- Demonstrated ownership of the complete safety lifecycle: hazard and risk analysis - safety requirements - PLr/SIL determination - architecture - implementation - verification - validation.
- Ability to evaluate manipulator and mobile-platform/drivetrain hazards, including stopping distance, stored energy, braking, unintended motion, and loss of control.
- Experience with Structured Text, Ladder Logic, and/or Function Block Diagram, along with PLCs, microcontrollers, and safety-related embedded systems.
- Functional safety certification such as TÜV Functional Safety Engineer, CFSE, CFSP, or CMSE preferred.
Candidates must be able to determine how a safety-critical failure is detected, how the system reaches a defined safe state, and how the required PL/SIL is quantitatively justified and demonstrated through analysis, implementation, and validation.
What Makes You Successful
- Strong independent ownership, cross-functional communication, and the ability to convey technical safety decisions to engineering leadership and non-technical stakeholders.
- Ability to develop clear compliance documentation, safety procedures, and customer-facing technical guidance.
- Willingness to travel domestically and internationally as required.
$130,000 - $192,000 a year
Compensation
The annual base salary range for this position is $130,000-$192,000 USD. Dexterity's total rewards may also include equity and medical, dental, and vision benefits. Actual compensation is determined based on experience, skills, scope, level, qualifications, and internal equity.
