Safety Expert - Robotics & Drones at Aptiv

Safety Expert, Robotics & Drones

We are Aptiv - a global technology company with 200,000 specialists in 48 countries. We develop innovative software and build the hardware to bring autonomous driving cars, advanced driver-assistance systems, connected vehicles and smart cities to life in a way that only we can. We work in partnership with almost all car manufacturers. Our sensors, systems and software can already be found in almost all passenger cars today.

Aptiv is building a new Robotics business focused on Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) and Drones for warehouses, industrial, and adjacent markets. Safety is foundational to this effort. As a Robotics Safety Architect, you will be the technical authority for robotic system safety, owning the definition, realization, and validation of end‑to‑end safety concepts for autonomous robots operating alongside people and industrial equipment.

You will define how functional safety, autonomy, and system architecture come together, ensuring that Proofs of Concept evolve into certifiable, scalable, and reusable safety‑compliant platforms deployable across multiple customers, applications, and form factors.

You will work cross‑functionally with product management, system safety, hardware/SoC teams, software engineering, DevOps, and external partners to deliver safe-by-design robotic architectures across the entire product lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities: Safety Architecture & System Design

• Own the end-to-end robotics safety architecture for AMR and drone platforms, spanning sensors, perception, localization, planning, control, actuation, human–machine interaction, and connectivity.
• Define and maintain the system-level safety concept, including functional safety architecture, safety goals, safe operating states, degraded modes, and fault response strategies.
• Architect safety mechanisms and patterns, including:
• Safety monitors and supervisors
• Redundant and diverse sensing and compute paths
• Watchdogs and heartbeat mechanisms
• Safe motion and emergency stop behaviors
• Diagnostics, fault containment, and recovery
• Partition safety-critical and non-safety workloads across So Cs, MCUs, safety MCUs, and offboard services, with clear freedom-from-interference strategies.
• Define clear interfaces, safety contracts, and assumptions between perception, localization, planning, control, safety functions, fleet systems, and cloud components.
• Ensure that the software and system architecture meets all derived safety, performance, timing, moding, and availability requirements.

Safety & Compliance Leadership

• Lead software and system architecture alignment with applicable robotics and machinery safety standards, including (as applicable):
• IEC 61508
• ISO 13849
• ISO 10218
• ISO 3691-4
• ISO 12100
• Collaborate with system safety engineers to:
• Define hazard analyses and risk assessments (HARA)
• Perform and review FMEAs, FTAs, and fault injection strategies
• Develop and maintain structured safety cases and safety arguments
• Drive architectural decisions that enable certification, audits, and third-party assessments.
• Establish traceability from hazards -> safety goals -> technical safety requirements -> architecture -> implementation -> verification.

Technical Leadership & Governance

• Serve as the technical authority for robotics safety architecture decisions, including trade‑offs between safety, performance, cost, and complexity.
• Lead architecture and safety design reviews across programs.
• Provide technical direction to teams developing perception, autonomy, control, and safety software.
• Mentor engineers on:
• Safety‑oriented design patterns
• Defensive programming and diagnostics
• Fault‑tolerant robotics systems
• ROS 2 usage in safety‑constrained systems

Validation, Simulation & Safety Verification

• Define how simulation and digital twins (Gazebo, Isaac Sim, Webots, or custom platforms) support:
• Hazard validation
• Scenario‑based safety testing
• Regression testing of safety behaviors
• Shape testing and validation strategies including:
• Fault injection and robustness testing
• Safety regression and release qualification
• Collaborate with DevOps and tooling teams to ensure CI/CD pipelines support safety evidence generation.

Lifecycle Robustness & Operations

• Architect for robust operation in real‑world industrial environments, including sensor degradation, network loss, environmental uncertainty, and human interaction.
• Define safe strategies for:
• Over‑the‑air updates
• Remote monitoring and diagnostics
• Logging, telemetry, and observability
• Ensure post‑deployment changes preserve or improve the safety posture of deployed fleets.

Customer & Partner Engagement

• Translate customer, regulatory, and partner safety expectations into system architecture and technical requirements.
• Support safety‑critical Po Cs, pilots, and demos with AMR, drone, and industrial automation partners.
• Contribute to long‑term platform and ecosystem strategy:
• ROS 2 distributions
• Safety middleware and toolchains
• Build‑vs‑buy decisions for safety‑relevant components

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years in robotics or embedded software, with 3–5+ years owning system or safety architecture.
• Hands‑on experience deploying software on real robots (AMRs, AGVs, drones, industrial robots).
• Strong experience with ROS 2, including architecture‑level use of nodes, DDS, executors, lifecycle management, and real‑time considerations.
• Proven experience designing systems that include:
• Multi‑sensor perception and fusion (vision, lidar, radar)
• Mapping and localization (SLAM, VIO, VO, fusion)
• Motion planning, navigation, and control
• Low‑level motor control, actuator interfaces, and real‑time loops
• Linux and embedded systems background, including containerization and networked middleware.
• Ability to produce clear, auditable architecture and safety documentation.
• Excellent cross‑functional communication and technical leadership skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Direct experience delivering safety‑certifiable robotics systems in industrial, logistics, or warehouse environments.
• Formal involvement in functional safety development processes (IEC 61508, ISO 13849, ISO 26262, or related).
• Experience with safety MCUs, lockstep processors, and hardware safety mechanisms.
• Familiarity with heterogeneous So Cs (NVIDIA, Qualcomm, TI, Renesas, etc.) and safety partitioning.
• Experience with scenario‑based safety testing and fault injection.
• Knowledge of industrial communication protocols (CAN, Ethernet, TSN).
• Exposure to cybersecurity considerations in safety‑critical robotics.
• Experience working in startup or incubation environments with high ambiguity and ownership.

Traits we seek:

• Curiously investigate everything – ability to solving problems analytically, creatively and collaboratively

• Lead with confidence – thought leaders who empower those around them

• Learn by doing – an entrepreneurial mindset that’s driven by hands-on experimentation

• Embrace resilience – seeing every challenge as a learning opportunity and invitation to grow

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Aptiv is an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.