Staff Systems Engineer, Functional Safety

As a Staff Systems Engineer at Agility Robotics, you'll be the technical leader defining and delivering system-level architecture for our humanoid robot platform, with focus in functional safety requirements integration. Working within a high-impact Systems Engineering team, you'll take ownership of complex safety-critical requirements, cross-functional interfaces, and system-level integration—bringing clarity and structure to incredibly complex safety-critical systems.

This role is ideal for a hands-on technical leader with functional safety expertise who thrives in ambiguity, takes initiative without waiting for permission, and has a passion for building real safety-critical systems fast. You'll help shape how Systems Engineering and Functional Safety integration is applied in a fast-moving startup, balancing the rigor of safety standards with the agility and pragmatism needed to ship products.

Key Responsibilities

Robotics Development

Requirements Management: Define system and subsystem architectures spanning all domains (mechanical, electrical, firmware, and software) with embedded functional safety, and drive trade studies to balance safety, performance, cost, and execution speed.

V&V Definition: Define, own, and decompose detailed, verifiable requirements in Jama that can be delivered to Integration and Testing teams for Verification and Validation.

Interface Definition: Lead development and maintenance of Interface Control Documents (ICDs), managing implementation-specific details for hardware and software interfaces, including message structures, pinouts, and bolt patterns.

Operational Definitions: Define the sequence of operations between major elements and users using narrative Concept of Operations (ConOps), swimlane diagrams, and/or logical flow charts.

Test Support: Align system requirements with test plans to ensure coverage across the entire safety system. Drive system-level verification of safety requirements through integration testing and track design differences between test setups and the intended design to determine technical risk.

Operational Support and Technical Leadership

Safety Tracking & Monitoring: Regularly check and confirm that the safety system's performance meets all specified requirements under live operating conditions.

Change and Modification Management: Ensure that any modification to the system's hardware or software that impacts safety must be strictly validated to maintain safety integrity and prevent the introduction of new risks.

Failure Analysis and Investigation: Actively participate in safety assessments and root cause investigations, collaborating with non-safe software and hardware development teams to prevent systemic faults.

Operational Sustainment: Work closely with Commercial and Product teams to ensure that critical safety mechanisms and processes are maintained at customer sites, including emergency stop and human detection.

Cross-Functional Alignment and Leadership: Facilitate cross-functional decisions when safety requirements conflict with performance, cost, or schedule constraints, and identify technical and safety risks to influence system decisions.