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Mind Robotics

Posted 1 month ago

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Safety Engineer

Palo AltoOn-siteFull-time

AI Summary

Senior Safety Engineer drives the end-to-end functional safety lifecycle for a humanoid robot platform, from hazard analysis and risk assessment to certification, safety architecture, and evidence collection for regulatory compliance.

About this role

About the Role

We're looking for a Senior Safety Engineer who can own functional safety end-to-end for our humanoid platform: hazard analysis, architectural decisions, component selection, certification, and the messy real-world testing in between.

Standards like ISO 3691-4, and ISO 10218 tell you what outcomes you must achieve. ISO 25785-1 is currently under development requiring robot dynamic stability control including zero-energy pose protocols, and fall zone markings. They do not tell you how to get there with a bipedal, dynamically balancing, multi-DOF system that doesn't fit cleanly into the assumptions those standards were written under. We need someone who treats that gap as the interesting part of the job — not a blocker.

Responsibilities

  • Lead the safety lifecycle for our humanoid platform: hazard analysis, risk assessment, SIL/PL determination, safety requirements specification, and validation

  • Design safety architectures (E-stops, safety-rated monitored stops, power and force limiting, speed and separation monitoring) appropriate to a mobile, dynamically balancing robot

  • Select and justify safety-rated components : controllers, sensors, contactors, and where no off-the-shelf component fits, design or specify alternatives that achieve equivalent safety integrity

  • Drive certification efforts , and own the technical file

  • Partner with mechanical, electrical, controls, and AI teams to bake safety into the design rather than bolt it on

  • Build the test fixtures, procedures, and evidence needed to prove our safety claims

  • Stay ahead of evolving standards (ISO 25785-1, the in-progress humanoid-specific work, etc.) and translate them into engineering decisions

Qualifications

  • 5–10 years of safety engineering experience on industrial robots, collaborative robots, AGVs/AMRs, or comparable machinery

  • Deep working knowledge of ISO 13849, IEC 62061, IEC 61508, and ISO 10218 (or ANSI/RIA R15.06); familiarity with ISO/TS 15066 for collaborative applications

  • Software safety experience (IEC 61508-3) in addition to systems-level work

  • Hands-on experience taking a product through safety certification — not just supporting it, but owning the technical narrative and defending it to assessors

  • Comfort with the full toolkit: FMEA, FTA, HAZOP, STPA, and the judgment to know which to reach for

  • A creative mindset. Standards rarely dictate components; they dictate outcomes. We want someone who can architect a novel solution, justify it against the standard's intent, and convince a notified body it meets the bar

  • Strong communication — you'll be explaining safety tradeoffs to executives, engineers, and external assessors who all need different versions of the same story

Skills

Certification ProcessesFMEAFTAFunctional Safety LifecycleHAZOPIEC 61508IEC 61508-3IEC 62061ISO 10218ISO 13849ISO/TS 15066Regulatory Assessors CommunicationRisk AssessmentSafety Architectures (E-stops, Safety-rated Monitored Stops, PFU, SLIM/PSM)Safety Components Selection (controllers, Sensors, Contactors)Safety Requirements SpecificationSafety Through Design Collaboration With Mechanical Electrical Controls And AI TeamsSIL/PL DeterminationSTPATechnical File DevelopmentTest Fixtures And Validation Procedures

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