Senior/Staff Systems Engineer, Fail Operational

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the core Fail Operational metric framework for quantifying, severity-ranking, and systematically driving down autonomous-mission stoppage and degradation events, including category definitions, classification methodology, and triage criteria used to identify and assess mission-critical events across all driving behavior domains
• Lead Fail Operational metric target-setting for new and existing milestones, authoring supporting documentation and consolidating inputs across metric categories to assess overall readiness for milestone closure
• Drive the evolution of the Fail Operational metric architecture, ensuring alignment with current priorities and operational needs
• Develop process for reviewing observed events, mapping to seen failure modes or confirming as new, and integrating those observations into estimations to drive business priorities
• Partner cross-functionally with Software, Hardware, and Operations teams to escalate issues, identify mitigations, evaluate emerging risks from testing pipelines, and support delivery of features that improve performance metrics
• Communicate complex metric concepts, data analyses, and actionable insights to diverse stakeholders and executives, translating technical findings into clear recommendations that inform decision-making

Requirements

• B.S. or higher degree in Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related field
• 5+ years of relevant professional experience in systems engineering, data analysis, performance tracking, risk quantification, or fault management for complex and safety-critical systems
• Demonstrated experience defining, implementing, and managing quantitative metrics and data-driven frameworks, with proficiency in probability, statistics, and Python for large-scale data analysis
• Strong understanding of fault detection, categorization, and severity assessment methodologies, with experience developing technical frameworks, taxonomies, or classification systems
• Excellent technical communication and documentation abilities, with a collaborative approach to influencing, driving consensus, and leading cross-functional initiatives

Nice-to-Haves

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field
• Systems engineering or system safety experience with autonomous driving, robotics, or fleet-scale vehicle operations
• Experience with fail-operational design, fault tolerance, or fault management in safety-critical domains, including familiarity with hazard analysis methods such as STPA, FTA, FMEA, or FHA
• Metrics ownership experience and knowledge of industry safety standards such as ISO 26262, ISO 21448, MIL-STD-882
• Experience building processes from conception to implementation at scale