Lead Test Engineer AV Safety Assurance

Responsibilities

• Own safety gates for QA, including safety-relevant finding classification, escalation, merge and release criteria, and closure tracking.
• Define acceptance criteria and thresholds for collisions, near misses, right-of-way, hard braking, and other safety measures.
• Establish standardized safety-report formats that compare runs, identify uncovered areas, and support release decisions.
• Coach QA staff through calibration sessions, report reviews, and criteria training.
• Represent testing evidence and remaining unknowns in engineering, safety, and operations release reviews.
• Connect hazard-analysis outputs, including STPA, FMEA, and HAZOP, to scenario coverage, test results, and safety-case evidence.
• Translate the safety framework into testable requirements and collaborate on tooling that makes requirements measurable.
• Track standards and regulations governing driverless operation in Texas and elsewhere.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in testing, verification, or validation.
• Experience owning a durable testing gate, review process, or reporting standard.
• Experience in a safety-critical domain where incorrect decisions have physical consequences, such as autonomous vehicles, aviation, medical devices, rail, industrial automation, or defense.
• Hazard-driven thinking and ability to work directly with hazard-analysis outputs.
• Ability to assess and communicate residual risk, limitations, and unknowns.
• Ability to influence engineers and QA colleagues without direct authority.
• Strong data-verification habits, including investigating underlying data when metrics appear incorrect.
• Fluent use of large language models for reviewing standards, logs, and results and drafting documentation.
• Excellent written English.

Nice to Have

• Knowledge of ISO 21448 (SOTIF), ISO/TS 5083, UL 4600, ISO 26262, ISO 34501–34505, DO-178C, IEC 62304, ISO 14971, EN 50716, or IEC 61508.
• Experience with autonomous vehicles, ADAS, or systems without a human fallback.
• Contributions to a safety case, Voluntary Safety Self-Assessment, or regulatory submission.
• Experience defining on-road testing safety protocols and safety-driver procedures.
• Experience hiring engineers.
• Hands-on SQL and Python experience for analyzing test results.