Saphira AI

Vanta for Hardware

Senior Industrial Functional Safety Engineer

$100K - $200K0.10% - 2.00%San Francisco, CA, US / Remote (US; DE)
Job type
Full-time
Role
Engineering, Robotics
Experience
3+ years
Visa
US citizenship/visa not required
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Akshay Chalana
Akshay Chalana
Founder

About the role

We are seeking a Senior Functional Safety Engineer to join our team and lead customer-facing engagements across the safety and compliance lifecycle. The ideal candidate brings hands-on experience in functional safety engineering, risk assessment, and certification, and can provide both technical expertise and structured leadership in achieving certification outcomes. Candidates must have experience in industrial functional safety, not just automotive, and should have a relevant TÜV or similar certification.

Responsibilities

  • Lead Safety Cases & Risk Assessments
    Drive the development and execution of safety cases across robotics, automotive, and industrial applications. Collaborate with customers to evaluate hazards, conduct risk analyses, and define mitigation strategies.
  • Certification Enablement
    Support customer certification efforts to meet requirements for UL, CE, FCC, and other global conformity marks. Apply standards-based approaches across domains, including:
    • Machinery/Robotics: ISO 12100, ISO 10218-1/-2, ISO 13849-1/-2
    • Functional Safety / EMC: IEC 61508, IEC 61010-1, IEC 62368
  • Tools, Templates, and Methods
    Develop and maintain checklists, templates, and structured methods for evaluating hardware and software against safety and compliance requirements.
  • Lifecycle Leadership
    Bring proven experience leading safety and compliance initiatives end-to-end — from hazard analysis to functional safety concept definition, requirements management, and verification/validation activities.
  • Collaboration & Integration
    Work with internal teams to build datasets, workflows, and safety engineering knowledge into the Saphira platform for scalable use across customer projects.

Qualifications

  • 5+ years of experience in functional safety engineering or safety consulting.
  • Strong knowledge of international safety standards and certification processes across robotics, automotive, or related industries.
  • Demonstrated experience leading safety case development and certification initiatives.
  • Proficiency with safety and requirements management tools (e.g., DOORS, Polarion) and analysis methods (FMEA, FMEDA, FTA, HARA).
  • Ability to navigate ambiguity and balance trade-offs while ensuring compliance with applicable standards.
  • Excellent communication skills and experience working directly with customers or external certification partners.

About the interview

  • Fit / behavioral interview (30 mins)
  • Paid work trial period

About Saphira AI

Saphira AI is building the tools to allow safety and compliance teams within hardware companies to accelerate and streamline their processes. Hardware organizations ranging from small startups to industry leaders in semiconductors, aerospace, and robotics use Saphira to ensure that they reach their safety and compliance outcomes faster and cheaper.

Saphira AI
Founded:2024
Batch:S24
Team Size:6
Status:
Active
Location:San Francisco
Founders
Oscar Avatare
Oscar Avatare
Founder
Akshay Chalana
Akshay Chalana
Founder