Head of Systems Engineering
Lead Nuro's Systems Engineering function to define system requirements, architecture, safety case, validation, and deployment readiness for scaling the Nuro Driver across vehicle platforms, geographies, and commercial use cases. Requires 10+ years systems engineering experience in safety-critical domains including 7+ years managing managers.
About the job
About the Work
- Own and scale Nuro’s Systems Engineering function across autonomy, hardware, safety case, requirements, validation, system performance, technical risk, and deployment readiness.
- Define the systems engineering strategy required to support Nuro’s next phase of growth across multiple cities, vehicle platforms, commercial partnerships, and future international markets.
- Translate product goals, safety goals, commercial use cases, and deployment milestones into system requirements, measurable performance targets, validation plans, and launch readiness frameworks.
- Own the requirements architecture, system decomposition, and interface management for the Nuro Driver across autonomy software, sensing, compute, vehicle software and hardware, and safety.
- Drive the system-level safety case in collaboration with Autonomy, Hardware, Legal, Product, and Operations, ensuring the safety argument is rigorous, evidence-based, and tied to commercial deployment milestones.
- Define the technical and validation framework for public-road operation, commercial launch, geographic expansion, platform expansion, and new use cases.
- Lead technical analyses and trade studies that inform architecture, sensing configuration, compute strategy, vehicle integration, safety mitigations, ODD expansion, and deployment readiness.
- Create mechanisms for risk identification, readiness reviews, requirements governance, launch decision-making, and cross-functional execution.
- Build, develop, and retain a high-caliber Systems Engineering organization.
About You
- 10+ years of systems engineering experience in a related field (e.g. automotive, aerospace, defense, robotics, medical devices, or another safety-critical domain), including 7+ years managing managers and scaling high-performing engineering organizations.
- Experience leading systems engineering or equivalent technical functions across complex hardware and software products, including ownership of safety-critical system development (safety case, hazard analysis, risk assessment, validation evidence, and deployment readiness).
- A track record of developing senior technical leaders, recruiting exceptional talent, and building teams that operate with high standards and high ownership.
- Excellent communication skills, able to make complex technical tradeoffs clear to engineering teams, executives, and cross-functional stakeholders.
Bonus Points
- Experience with modern autonomy stacks (perception, prediction, planning, localization, mapping, sensing, compute, vehicle integration) and the validation challenges specific to ML-based and end-to-end AI systems in real-world environments.
- Experience with vehicle platforms, embedded systems, automotive-grade hardware, compute systems, sensor integration, or hardware/software co-design.
- Experience building V&V strategies for public-road or regulated environments — spanning simulation, scenario-based testing, closed-course validation, operational readiness reviews, and launch decision frameworks.
Skills
Systems Engineering, Safety Case, Requirements Management, System Architecture, Validation Strategy, Hazard Analysis, Risk Assessment, Autonomy Stacks, Hardware/Software Co-Design, V&V Strategies
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