Principal Autonomous Systems Safety Engineer

We’re Blue River, a team of innovators driven to create intelligent machinery that solves monumental problems for our customers. We empower our customers – farmers, construction crews, and foresters - to implement safer and more sustainable solutions, driving increased profitability with less reliance on scarce labor. We believe that focusing on the small stuff – pixel-by-pixel and task-by-task - leads to big gains. With our partners at John Deere, we have the ability to bring innovative computer vision, machine learning, robotics, and product management solutions to scale production, maximizing their potential impact.

Our people are at the heart of what we do. Through cross-discipline collaboration, this mission-driven and daring team is eager to define the new frontier of mobile robotics. We are always asking hard questions, rapidly iterating, and getting our boots in the field and on-site to figure it out. We won’t give up until we’ve made a tangible and positive impact on the planet. 

This position is eligible to be fully remote. Join us to help enable the future of Smart Industrial and develop tech that leaves a visible fingerprint on the world. Blue River Technology is based in Santa Clara, CA. 

Summary

Our team has been on a path to providing operator-free automation to John Deere vehicles since 2018.  As new vehicle platforms begin their autonomy journey, a key team member is the Principal Systems Safety Engineer.  As a Principal Systems Safety Engineer, you will be a leader responsible for delivering trust in our autonomous solutions.  In this role, you will evaluate scenarios that our vehicles encounter, lead safety reviews, and establish safety requirements.  A well-qualified candidate will have deep technical experience contributing to safety frameworks for autonomy with a creative solution-oriented approach. You will work with our engineering teams to distill this framework into actionable tasks to deploy and scale autonomy. The schedule is ambitious and the agricultural season waits for no one. We tackle our objectives with multi-functional engineering teams consisting of systems and embedded software, test and QA, mechatronics, computer vision, and machine learning engineers. Our team is empowered to figure out how to overcome challenges, and plan and prioritize work – everyone is a key contributor.

Job Responsibilities

The main job responsibilities are noted below.

• Provide a clear execution path for engineering teams by deriving technical safety requirements through the use of your preferred tools and processes such as:
• The Systems Theoretical Process Approach (STPA) or Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) of the perception system
• Hazard Analysis & Risk Assessment (HARA) reviews for the system under consideration.
• Define system reliability and robustness requirements for new embedded hardware.
• Conduct risk assessments to inform safety reviews and support feature concept development.
• Work with the data infrastructure team to strategically identify data and tools needed to monitor and quantify real-world fleet performance.
• Additionally, this role interacts with the vehicle-engineering team to maintain interfaces and distill requirements.

Required Experience and Skills

• 8 or more years of relevant engineering work experience that includes risk assessment/management and product / functional safety.
• 3 or more years of experience developing safety-critical electronic and embedded systems.
• Experience conducting risk assessments for autonomous ground vehicles and experience conducting safety reviews (HARA, STPA, FMEA, etc).
• Ability to quickly identify key issues and bound likelihood and severity. Experience and confidence in making safety-critical decisions under uncertainty.
• Ability to communicate verbally and in writing with legal and regulatory awareness.
• Ability to quickly work in a start-up environment, help team members outside your lane, and manage multiple ongoing projects.
• Knowledge of ISO-18497, ISO-26262, ISO/PAS 21448, or similar (DO-178, ARP-4754, IEC 62304, etc.)
• Strong Systems Engineering fundamentals. 
• Bachelor of Science in Electromechanical/Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical field.

Preferred Experience and Skills

• Hands-on experience in embedded system development, software development, and/or verification and validation of such systems.
• Understanding of ECU HW designs and automotive interconnects such as CAN or Automotive Ethernet.
• Safety analysis for L3-L5 autonomous vehicles.
• Experience with embedded Linux,  ROS2 and/or AWS.
• Deep understanding of vehicle architectures and system design.
• Ability to analyze large data sets to identify critical patterns.

At Blue River, we’re passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity.  While we have more work to do to advance diversity and inclusion, we’re investing in our programs, including recruiting, mentorship, career development, and learning & development to ensure they support our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals. We support each employee in living a full life, enabling a thriving career, and accomplishing a meaningful, challenging mission while collaborating with incredible people. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align completely with the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request an accommodation. 

The US annual base salary range for this position is $166,000 - $244,000, along with eligibility for Blue River’s bonus and benefit programs.

Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your location during the hiring process. During the recruitment process, we may identify an alternative role or level to which you are more suited. If your ideal role at Blue River differs from the advertised position, we will provide an updated pay range as soon as possible during the hiring process.