Head of Systems Engineering (Senior Director)

Nuro believes self-driving vehicles are the most immediate and profound opportunity for AI to drive positive change in the physical world. Safer streets, more time for what matters, and easier access to the world around us, that’s why we’re building a universal autonomy platform: self-driving for all roads and all rides.
Founded in 2016, Nuro is a physical AI company developing Level 4 autonomous driving technology for a wide range of vehicles, use cases, and markets. Powered by the Nuro Driver™, our universal autonomy platform enables the global mobility ecosystem to deploy autonomy at scale, from robotaxis and logistics fleets to personal vehicles.
With years of real-world deployment experience and a flexible, partner-led business model, Nuro is working toward a future where millions of autonomous vehicles powered by our technology help make everyday life safer, easier, and more connected.
Nuro has raised over $2B in capital from Uber, NVIDIA, Google, Softbank, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, and other leading investors.

Nuro is looking for a Head of Systems Engineering to own the systems backbone that enables the Nuro Driver to scale safely and commercially.

This leader will own the end-to-end systems engineering function across autonomy, software and hardware systems, technical parts of the safety case, requirements, system architecture, validation strategy and execution, system performance, and deployment readiness. The role sits at the center of Nuro’s technical and commercial execution, connecting product, functional and safety goals, autonomy capabilities, hardware constraints, the operational design domain, and commercial milestones into one coherent system strategy.

This is a critical role for Nuro’s next phase of growth. As we scale toward larger commercial launches, new geographies, new vehicle platforms, and broader deployment environments, this leader will help define what the system must do, how we know it works, what evidence proves it is ready, and what must be true before we launch or expand.

This is a technical leadership role for someone who is excited about turning frontier autonomous driving technology into a durable commercial product

Autonomous driving does not scale through isolated technical wins. It scales when the full system can be integrated, validated, safety-verified, deployed, monitored, and expanded with confidence.

Systems Engineering helps to define the technical bar, structure the safety and validation evidence, identify system-level risks, and create the mechanisms that allow Nuro to move faster without losing rigor.

This role is critical to Nuro’s ability to:

• Scale the Nuro Driver across different vehicle platforms and commercial applications.
• Build a robust safety case that supports public-road deployment and expansion.
• Translate autonomy progress into measurable system-level readiness.
• Connect hardware, software, safety, product, and operations into one integrated technical strategy.
• Create the standards, evidence, and decision frameworks required for long-term commercial scale.

In this role, you will:

• 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

You are a senior technical leader who wants to solve one of the hardest and most important problems in autonomous driving: turning a complex AI, software, hardware, and safety-critical system into a product that can scale in the real world.

You are energized by complexity. You can operate from first principles, connect deep technical details to company-level deployment decisions, and make high-quality tradeoffs with imperfect information.

You are not just a process owner. You are a technical owner. You bring structure, rigor, judgment, and urgency to complex engineering systems, and you know how to drive a high-performing engineering organization to execute fast without losing technical discipline.

• 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.

At Nuro, your base pay is one part of your total compensation package. For this position, the reasonably expected base pay range is between $283,640 and $425,960 for the level at which this job has been scoped. Your base pay will depend on several factors, including your experience, qualifications, education, location, and skills. In the event that you are considered for a different level, a higher or lower pay range would apply. This position is also eligible for an annual performance bonus, equity, and a competitive benefits package.

At Nuro, we celebrate differences and are committed to a diverse workplace that fosters inclusion and psychological safety for all employees. Nuro is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and expressly prohibits any form of workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristics. #LI-DNP