System Safety Engineer, Reliability

Are you excited about shaping the future of human-robot collaboration? We’re looking for a Systems Engineer, Reliability who will help us define the way our novel robotic systems achieve safety certification and long-term system reliability. This is a unique opportunity to join a startup on the ground floor of a safety certification program and help build a robust framework for analyzing and validating robot safety and reliability from day one.

Collaborative Robotics is a team of innovators and builders redefining the future of human-robot interaction. We are working to realize a world where robots are a trusted extension of your surroundings. They work, adapt, and react around you. Not the other way around.

This role is located at our Santa Clara, CA headquarters.

Key Responsibilities:

• Perform detailed reliability and safety analyses (e.g., FMEDA, FTA, FIT) to validate design and component selection, with a focus on meeting certification and safety performance criteria.
• Support safety certification efforts by executing analysis under the IEC 61508 (or similar) standard for functional safety.
• Translate failure and reliability insights into clear, actionable requirements for engineering teams to implement.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with hardware and software engineers to assess and improve component and subsystem robustness.
• Participate in the definition and evolution of internal tools, processes, and documentation standards for safety and reliability evaluation.
• Support the creation of safety certification work products and interface with certification bodies as needed.
• Communicate complex technical topics clearly, avoiding jargon, to support collaboration across disciplines.

Minimum Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical field such as Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace, or Systems Engineering.
• 3+ years of experience in Systems Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience with reliability-focused safety analysis techniques such as:
• Failure Modes, Effects, and Diagnostic Analysis (FMEDA)
• Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)
• Design Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (DFMEA)
• Familiarity with safety metrics including:
• Single Point Fault Metric (SPFM)
• Latent Fault Metric (LFM)
• Probabilistic Metric for Hardware Failure (PMHF)
• Failures in Time (FIT)
• Experience implementing designs with IEC 61508 or equivalent functional safety standard.
• Experience writing, managing, and tracing safety and reliability requirements across development stages.
• Highly motivated teammate with excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Enjoy working in a fast paced, collaborative and dynamic start-up environment as part of a small team.
• Willing to occasionally travel.

Preferred Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience in Systems Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience with safety certification processes or generating certification work products.
• Prior collaboration with certification authorities or agencies.
• Exposure to software reliability analysis.
• Strong analytical background and working knowledge of statistical tools (JMP, Matlab, R) and techniques (e.g., Weibull, Markov)
• Familiarity with other reliability/safety analyses such as:
• Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
• Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) assessments
• Experience with taking robotics hardware from concept to certification.

The base salary range for this position is $175,000-$195,000 plus equity and comprehensive benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role and experience level. The range reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position in the noted geographic area. Within the range, individual pay is determined by additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

Collaborative Robotics is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Collaborative Robotics is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let your recruiter know.

To all recruitment agencies: Collaborative Robotics does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our employees. Collaborative Robotics is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.