Senior Staff Robotics Functional Safety Engineer

Agility Robotics is pioneering the development of humanoid robots built for real-world work. Our mission is to create robots that integrate seamlessly into human environments, addressing complex challenges across logistics, manufacturing, and beyond. As we grow, we are seeking a Senior Staff Robotics Functional Safety Engineer to lead and elevate our architecture team—driving system-level design decisions, ensuring scalability, and maintaining the speed and agility essential to success in a fast-paced startup environment.

Location:

This position is based remotely in the San Francisco bay area or within regular commuting distance to our headquarters in Salem, OR. If remote in the SF Bay Area, regular travel to our headquarters in Salem, OR required—typically one week per month, with additional trips as needed.  Relocation assistance is available.

Agility Robotics is seeking a Senior Staff Robotics Functional Safety Engineer to drive safety strategy and implementation for our cutting-edge humanoid robotic platforms. As a leader in the growing field of industrial  mobile robotics with actively controlled stability, Agility is pioneering the deployment of legged robots in real-world environments. This role offers a unique opportunity to help shape how safety is defined, implemented, and maintained in systems that interact closely with humans.

You’ll work cross-functionally with teams spanning software, controls, hardware, systems engineering, and product to ensure our robots operate safely and reliably—both in development and in the field. This is a high-impact role for someone passionate about enabling the safe deployment of complex robotic systems.

You will own the development, application, and continual improvement of the functional safety lifecycle—from concept to validation—including documentation, stakeholder alignment, customer interaction, and standards compliance. This is an ideal role for a safety-minded technical leader with a strong background in functional safety for mobile or legged robots, and a drive to enable safe and scalable deployment of autonomous systems.

• Lead functional safety efforts from concept through deployment, including documentation and compliance with the machinery directive, ISO 13849, IEC 62061, IEC 61508, and relevant industrial mobile robot standards such as ANSI R15.08.
  
• Create and maintain key safety deliverables such as risk assessments, safety requirement specifications (SRS), FMEDA, SISTEMA analyses, validation plans, and safety cases.
  
• Support customer deployments through remote collaboration and on-site visits as needed, ensuring safe and compliant integration of robotic systems in dynamic environments.
  
• Collaborate across disciplines to define, communicate, and validate safety-critical requirements for hardware, embedded software, and control systems.
  
• Drive architecture-level safety decisions for mobile and legged robots, balancing real-world performance, technical risk, and compliance.
  
• Oversee third-party vendors and labs for verification and validation (V&V) activities—including activities in support of CE marking for European market access—to ensure quality, traceability, and alignment with internal safety goals.
  
• Coordinate closely with the compliance team to ensure coverage of electrical safety, hazardous materials, environmental and radio regulations such as NFPA 79, IEC 60204-1, REACH, RoHS, FCC, and related directives.
  
• Contribute to safety firmware development, including fault detection, diagnostics, watchdogs, and safe-state logic.
  
• Advise on AI safety, ensuring machine learning or autonomy features operate within defined and predictable safety boundaries as defined in the ISO IEC TS 22440 series.
  
• Monitor industry standards and best practices, and proactively evolve internal safety processes to meet or exceed regulatory and customer expectations.
  

• BS in Robotics, Mechatronics, Electrical Engineering, or related fields.
  
• 12+ years in robotics or safety-critical engineering roles, including 7+ years focused on functional safety.
  
• Experience supporting or leading field deployment of robotic systems, including on-site troubleshooting, configuration, or validation.
  
• Deep familiarity with functional safety lifecycle practices and experience producing deliverables aligned with ISO 13849, IEC 61508, or similar.
  
• Familiarity with applicable safety standards for mobile and industrial robots, including ANSI/RIA R15.08 and the ISO 10218 series.
  
• Experience managing third-party vendors or labs for verification and validation (V&V) activities to ensure compliance, quality, and traceability.
  
• Hands-on experience with safety design and implementation of industrial mobile robots or dynamic systems (e.g., legged, autonomous, or collaborative robots).
  
• Proven ability to coordinate across engineering teams to define and validate safety requirements.
  
• Experience using safety analysis tools such as SISTEMA.
  
• Strong communication skills and an ability to advocate for safety in technical decision-making.

• Experience with safety firmware implementation (e.g., fault handling, safe state logic).
  
• Familiarity with AI/ML safety practices in robotic systems.
  
• Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in Robotics, Mechatronics, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
  
• Experience supporting or leading field deployment of robotic systems.
  
• Involvement in standards development or working groups.
  
• Experience mentoring and growing teams of senior engineers and staff-level talent.
  

At Agility Robotics, we are building the future of human-centric automation through groundbreaking humanoid robots. As a foundational technical leader, you’ll help shape a product and platform that redefines the role of robots in the workforce—developed by a world-class team committed to innovation, engineering excellence, and real-world impact.