# Lead Safety Engineer, Robotics

**Company:** [OpenAI](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/openai)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Role:** Other
**Salary:** $342k – $468k/yr
**Experience:** 7+ years
**Skills:** Iso 10218, Iso 13849, Iec 61508, Iso 12100, Ansi/Ria, Hazard Analysis, Risk Assessment, Fmea, Hara, Safety Cases, Functional Safety, Systems Safety, Regulatory Strategy
**Posted:** 2026-06-16

> Lead safety strategy and risk management for robotics products, partnering with engineering, legal, and policy teams to integrate safety into architecture and meet regulatory standards.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Define and lead the product safety strategy for robotic systems across the development lifecycle.
- Monitor and influence emerging regulatory frameworks, industry standards, and policy developments relevant to robotics and autonomous systems.
- Partner with engineering teams to translate safety requirements into product architecture, design decisions, and engineering requirements.
- Develop and maintain system-level hazard analyses, risk assessments, and safety cases for robotic products.
- Establish safety requirements, verification strategies, and evidence-generation plans to support product development and future certification activities.
- Collaborate with legal, policy, and leadership teams to assess regulatory risks and inform long-term product strategy.
- Partner with hardware, software, controls, and research teams to identify hazards and develop mitigations throughout the development process.
- Lead system-level hazard analyses, HARA activities, FMEAs, and other structured risk assessment processes to identify hazards, evaluate risks, and drive mitigation strategies throughout product development.
- Represent the company in discussions with standards bodies, industry groups, regulators, and external safety experts when appropriate.
- Help build and scale the safety engineering function as the robotics organization grows.

## Requirements
- Deep expertise in product safety, functional safety, systems safety, robotics safety, or related disciplines.
- Experience working with safety and regulatory frameworks such as ISO 10218, ISO 13849, IEC 61508, ISO 12100, ANSI/RIA standards, or comparable safety standards.
- Experience developing hazard analyses, risk assessments, safety cases, or certification strategies for complex electromechanical systems.
- Familiarity with robotics, autonomous systems, industrial equipment, consumer products, medical devices, automotive systems, aerospace systems, or other safety-critical technologies.
- Experience working with regulators, standards organizations, certification bodies, or industry working groups.

## Nice-to-Haves
- Enjoy applying first-principles thinking to complex safety and risk management challenges.
- Comfortable navigating ambiguity where regulations, standards, and technology are evolving simultaneously.
- Can balance technical, regulatory, operational, and business considerations when making recommendations.
- Enjoy working across disciplines and influencing engineering decisions without direct authority.
- Passionate about building products that are both innovative and demonstrably safe.

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