Safety Expert - Robotics & Drones

Overview

Safety Expert, Robotics & Drones

Aptiv is a global technology company delivering autonomous driving software and hardware, with 200,000 specialists in 48 countries. We develop software and hardware for autonomous driving cars, advanced driver-assistance systems, connected vehicles, and smart cities, partnered with major car manufacturers. Our sensors, systems and software are present in many passenger cars today.

Aptiv is building a Robotics business focused on Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) and Drones for warehouses, industrial, and adjacent markets. Safety is foundational to this effort. As a Robotics Safety Architect, you will be the technical authority for robotic system safety, owning the definition, realization, and validation of end-to-end safety concepts for autonomous robots operating alongside people and industrial equipment.

You will define how functional safety, autonomy, and system architecture come together, ensuring that Proofs of Concept evolve into certifiable, scalable, and reusable safety-compliant platforms deployable across multiple customers, applications, and form factors.

You will work cross-functionally with product management, system safety, hardware/SoC teams, software engineering, Dev Ops, and external partners to deliver safe-by-design robotic architectures across the entire product lifecycle.

Safety Architecture & System Design

• Own the end-to-end robotics safety architecture for AMR and drone platforms, spanning sensors, perception, localization, planning, control, actuation, human-machine interaction, and connectivity.
• Define and maintain the system-level safety concept, including functional safety architecture, safety goals, safe operating states, degraded modes, and fault response strategies.
• Architect safety mechanisms and patterns, including:
  • Safety monitors and supervisors
  • Redundant and diverse sensing and compute paths
  • Watchdogs and heartbeat mechanisms
  • Safe motion and emergency stop behaviors
  • Diagnostics, fault containment, and recovery
• Partition safety-critical and non-safety workloads across SoCs, MCUs, safety MCUs, and offboard services, with clear freedom-from-interference strategies.
• Define clear interfaces, safety contracts, and assumptions between perception, localization, planning, control, safety functions, fleet systems, and cloud components.
• Ensure that the software and system architecture meets all derived safety, performance, timing, and availability requirements.

Safety & Compliance Leadership

• Lead software and system architecture alignment with applicable robotics and machinery safety standards, including (as applicable):
  • IEC 61508
  • ISO 13849
  • ISO 10218
  • ISO 3691-4
  • ISO 12100
• Collaborate with system safety engineers to:
  • Define hazard analyses and risk assessments (HARA)
  • Perform and review FMEAs, FTAs, and fault injection strategies
  • Develop and maintain structured safety cases and safety arguments
• Drive architectural decisions that enable certification, audits, and third-party assessments.
• Establish traceability from hazards -> safety goals -> technical safety requirements -> architecture -> implementation -> verification.

Technical Leadership & Governance

• Serve as the technical authority for robotics safety architecture decisions, including tradeoffs between safety, performance, cost, and complexity.
• Lead architecture and safety design reviews across programs.
• Provide technical direction to teams developing perception, autonomy, control, and safety software.
• Mentor engineers on:
  • Safety-oriented design patterns
  • Defensive programming and diagnostics
  • Fault-tolerant robotics systems
  • ROS2 usage in safety-constrained systems

Validation, Simulation & Safety Verification

• Define how simulation and digital twins (Gazebo, Isaac Sim, Webots, or custom platforms) support:
  • Hazard validation
  • Scenario-based safety testing
  • Regression testing of safety behaviors
• Shape testing and validation strategies including:
  • Fault injection and robustness testing
  • Safety regression and release qualification
• Collaborate with Dev Ops and tooling teams to ensure CI/CD pipelines support safety evidence generation.

Lifecycle Robustness & Operations

• Architect for robust operation in real-world…