Staff Engineer, Safety Systems

Location: Palo Alto, CA (adjust as needed)

xLightis building the world’s most powerful laser to revolutionize semiconductor lithography, metrology, and for other critical applications. Our approach harnesses the power of free-electron lasers, building on accelerator technology in use globally at scientific user facilities. Extending this technology, we are developing industrial-grade light sources, engineered for continuous operation, to meet the sophisticated demands of next-generation patterning, metrology, and inspection applications.

Join us in this new revolution.

We hire exceptional talent — and exceptional means more than a strong résumé. How we achieve results is just as important as the results themselves, which is why attitude and character matter as much as technical skill. We believe great talent is widely distributed, not confined to a particular school or background. We seek individuals who demonstrate ownership, a spirit of collaboration, technical curiosity, and a genuine willingness to learn and grow — guided by our core values of Respect, Integrity, Creativity, and Engineering Excellence.

We don’t just hire for what someone can do today. We hire for who they are and who they are becoming.

We are hiring a Lead Safety Systems Engineer to own the design, deployment, and testing of the facility’s personnel- and life-safety systems: the Personnel Protection System (PPS), the Oxygen Deficiency Hazard (ODH) monitoring system
, and the Radiation Monitoring System (RMS).

This is an implementation and integration leadership role. The safety requirements — radiation dose limits and monitor siting, ODH classifications and ventilation design, access-control policy — are defined by our radiation physics and mechanical/ventilation groups. You take those requirements as inputs and are accountable for turning them into credible, fail-safe, and verifiable systems, and for carrying each system all the way through commissioning and acceptance.

• System architecture and detailed design for PPS, ODH monitoring, and RMS, including interlock logic, cause-and-effect matrices, access-control zoning, and search-and-secure sequences.
• Translation of safety requirements into fail-safe control logic and hardware architecture that meets the target integrity level (SIL per IEC 61508).
• Selection and specification of fail-safe controllers, safety-rated I/O, certified sensors and detectors, and hazard/beam-shutoff devices; definition of redundancy, diversity, and fault-tolerance schemes.
• Interface design between subsystems — e.g., RMS trips and ODH alarms feeding the PPS and ventilation — and to the broader machine protection and controls environment.

• Procurement, panel build, and installation coordination across controls, electrical, mechanical, and facilities teams and any outside integrators.
• Oversight of sensor and detector installation to the placement defined by the physics and ventilation groups.
• Configuration management and change control from first article through the installed base.
• Test strategy and execution: factory acceptance testing (FAT), site acceptance testing (SAT), integrated end-to-end interlock testing, and validation against the documented safety requirements.
• Readiness and acceptance: dry runs, beam-permit / readiness reviews, and the documentation packages required by internal safety committees and the authority having jurisdiction.
• The periodic-test and recertification program that keeps these systems credited over their operating life.

• Lead CoDR / PDR / FDR design reviews; maintain requirements traceability, failure analysis (FMEA), and a functional safety management plan.
• Author operating, maintenance, and test procedures; train operators and technicians.

• BS or MS in electrical, controls, systems, or a related engineering discipline (or equivalent experience).
• 12+ years designing and commissioning safety-critical or functional-safety systems in a high-hazard environment (accelerator or research facility, process industry, or similar).
• Hands-on fail-safe PLC design — Siemens…