Principal Technical Machine Safety Engineer

We are seeking a Principal Technical Machine Safety Engineer to lead machine safety standards, governance, and implementation for custom automation equipment across our U.S. manufacturing facilities. This role serves as the company's senior technical authority on machine safety, ensuring new and modified equipment is compliant, practical, and effective in real production environments. This position is ideal for a hands-on expert with deep experience in manufacturing, machine safety, and the day-to-day realities facing operations teams. The successful candidate will lead the development of corporate standards, supplier requirements, validation practices, and risk assessment processes that improve safety without creating unnecessary administrative burden. Teaching and advising others is a key requirement to facilitate companywide adherence to these policies and procedures. This role primarily governs machine safety for newly procured and integrated custom automation, with support for major retrofits, equipment relocation, and legacy equipment risk reduction as needed. Position Principal Technical Machine Safety Engineer Location USA, Louisville, KY How You'll Create Possibilities • Establish Standards: Define and maintain corporate engineering standards and functional safety specifications for all custom assembly and fabrication automation in a way that is practical, scalable, and aligned with manufacturing needs. • Procurement Governance: Integrate robust safety milestones into the equipment procurement lifecycle, including RFQ technical reviews, Design Reviews, and sign-offs. • Risk Assessment Leadership: Govern, improve, and audit Machinery Safety Risk Assessments (Task-Based Risk Assessments), with a focus on simplifying the process, improving consistency, eliminating unnecessary administrative burden, and teaching others in and outside the organization how to effectively use the process. • Safety Verification & Validation (V&V): Facilitate the review, verification, and approval of safety system designs (PL/SIL targets), and develop comprehensive safety validation protocols for Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) and Site Acceptance Testing (SAT) on the production floor. • Vendor Compliance: Serve as the primary technical point of contact for equipment suppliers and system integrators on machine safety compliance requirements, reviewing and resolving deviations from corporate standards. • Cross-Functional Alignment: Partner with Plant EHS, Legal, Procurement, Operations, Maintenance, and Engineering to ensure engineering standards align with regulatory compliance, production realities, and liability frameworks. • Regulatory Monitoring: Act as the subject matter expert on applicable OSHA, ANSI B11, NFPA, and robotic safety standards, monitoring regulatory and industry changes and updating corporate procedures accordingly. • Develop practical guidance, templates, checklists, and documentation methods for internal teams and external machine builders to verify and document that systems meet machine safety requirements. • Actively seek feedback from all affected groups-including operations, maintenance, engineering, EHS, procurement, and external suppliers-and work collaboratively to develop solutions that drive continuous improvement in machine safety processes and implementation. • Develop and maintain working knowledge of OSHA, ANSI, NFPA, and ISO standards and regulations to ensure the company remains compliant while also competitive within the industry. What You'll Bring to Our Team Required Requirements: • Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Mechatronics, or Automation Engineering. • Minimum of 15 years of experience in automation engineering, machinery design, or equipment procurement with a dedicated focus on machine safety within high-volume manufacturing environments and strong exposure to manufacturing operations and plant-floor implementation challenges. • Deep, working knowledge of US regulations and standards, including OSHA 1910, ANSI B11, NFPA 79, NFPA 70E, ANSI/A3 R15.06 & R15.08. • Proven proficiency with international functional safety standards (ISO 13849-1/2, IEC 62061, ISO 12100) and experience validating safety-related control systems. • Proven ability to create practical, user-friendly safety guidance and documentation processes for both internal and external stakeholders. • Strong listening, collaboration, and facilitation skills, with the ability to gather feedback from diverse stakeholder groups and translate it into effective process improvements. • Certification: Certified Machine Safety Expert credential (e.g., CMSE, CFSE). • Travel: Ability to travel approximately 30% to vendor sites and domestic manufacturing facilities for equipment buy-offs and audits. • The position is based in Louisville, Kentucky, and is an on-site position.