Functional Safety Lead

FieldAI’s Irvine team is where embodied AI meets real robots, real sensors, and real field deployments. Based in the heart of Southern California’s robotics ecosystem, we build risk-aware, reliable, field-ready AI systems that solve the hardest problems in robotics and unlock the full potential of embodied intelligence. If you want your work to ship, get tested on hardware, and improve through real deployments, Irvine is the place. We go beyond typical data-driven approaches or pure transformer-only architectures, combining rigorous engineering with learning systems proven in globally deployed solutions that deliver results today and get better every time our robots run in the field.

• Define and own Field AI’s product safety vision, strategy, and roadmap
• Establish company-wide safety principles, policies, and governance for robotic systems
• Act as the executive point of contact for product safety decisions and risk acceptance
• Balance innovation speed with rigorous, risk-based safety practices

• Provide technical leadership on system-level safety for autonomous robotic platforms
• Guide safety approaches for:
• Autonomous navigation, perception, and planning
• Human–robot interaction in field environments
• Fault tolerance, degraded modes, and fail-safe behaviors
• Oversee safety treatment of AI/ML-driven components, including uncertainty and edge cases
• Review and approve safety architectures, concepts, and safety cases

• Partner with leaders across:
• Autonomy, perception, software, hardware, and systems engineering
• Field operations, deployment, and customer programs
• Influence product architecture and roadmap decisions through a safety lens
• Provide clear, actionable guidance to executives on safety risks, tradeoffs, and mitigations

• Own Field AI’s approach to safety standards, regulatory alignment, and compliance
• Guide interpretation and application of relevant standards (e.g., ISO 12100, IEC 61508, ISO 13849, ISO 10218)
• Lead engagements with customers, partners, regulators, and third-party assessors
• Ensure safety arguments are credible, defensible, and scalable across products

• Build, lead, and mentor a high-impact product safety team
• Define roles, responsibilities, and career growth paths for safety engineers
• Establish scalable safety processes that integrate naturally with engineering workflows
• Champion a strong safety culture without slowing execution

• Provide executive oversight for:
• Field deployment risk assessmentsIncident response, investigations, and corrective actions
• Define thresholds for risk acceptance and deployment readiness
• Ensure lessons learned from the field are systematically fed back into product design

Our salary range is generous and we consider each individual’s background and experience when determining final compensation. Base pay may vary based on role scope, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and the Irvine, California market.

Why Join FieldAI in Irvine?

In Irvine, you will work where the robots are. Our local team builds and tests systems on real hardware with real sensors, then ships them to operate in unstructured, previously unknown environments around the world. We are solving one of robotics’ hardest challenges: reliable deployment outside the lab. Our Field Foundational Models™ raise the bar for perception, planning, localization, and manipulation, with an emphasis on explainability and safety for real-world use.

You will collaborate with a world-class team that thrives on creativity, resilience, and bold thinking. We bring deep experience from organizations such as DeepMind, NASA JPL, Boston Dynamics, NVIDIA, Amazon, Tesla Autopilot, Cruise, Zoox, Toyota Research Institute, and SpaceX, along with a track record of field deployments and strong performance in DARPA challenge segments.

Be Part of the Next Robotics Revolution

We are looking for builders who want their work to leave the whiteboard and show up on robots. If you enjoy tackling tough, uncharted questions and working across disciplines, you will find your people here. Our teams span AI, software, robotics engineering, product, field deployment, and technical communication, all focused on shipping systems that perform in the real world.

Our headquarters is in Irvine, and we partner closely with teams there as well as colleagues across the US and around the world. Join us in Southern California and help define what dependable, field-ready autonomy looks like.

We value diverse perspectives and are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace. We evaluate candidates and employees based on merit, qualifications, and performance, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin, ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or any other legally protected status.