Tesla

Makes electric cars, robotaxis and grid batteries

Staff Functional Safety Engineer - Product Safety Team

Engineering LeadershipConfirmed live in the last 24 hours

Full-timePalo Alto, CA, USANo salary listedIn-person

About the Job

Requirements

A degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Systems, or Automotive Engineering, or equivalent experience.
Typically 8+ years of experience in functional safety, vehicle systems, product safety, systems engineering, or safety-critical product development.
Demonstrated experience leading or building a small technical team, or clear readiness and desire to do so.
Ability to work across diverse vehicle systems and technologies, with comfort at vehicle and system level rather than deep specialization in a single domain.
Experience defining functional safety requirements, interfaces, and validation plans for complex multidisciplinary products.
Working knowledge of automotive functional safety methods and standards, including ISO 26262, HARA, FMEA, and safety concepts, applied at vehicle or feature level.
Ability to interface effectively with AI, software, and firmware organizations, challenge assumptions, and align on interface-level functional safety.
Ability to present risk, trade-offs, and recommendations to senior stakeholders.
Practical, hands-on approach and ability to drive issues to closure in a fast-moving environment.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end functional safety strategy for assigned future-vehicle platforms and features, from early architecture through validation and launch readiness.
Build and lead a small team of functional safety engineers.
Define and drive system-level functional safety analyses and requirements spanning mechanical, electrical, and software domains.
Partner with hardware, systems, SI platform, and firmware teams to ensure interfaces, assumptions, and failure modes are explicitly owned and validated; serve as a functional safety integration point across these domains.
Lead functional safety activities such as Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment (HARA), Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and Safety Concept development for multi-system features; translate findings into actionable design, test, and process requirements.
Establish functional safety validation strategies combining simulation, lab, vehicle, and fleet evidence; track residual risk and drive closure with design owners.
Represent functional safety in architecture reviews, program forums, and executive discussions; communicate trade-offs and risk to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Desired Qualifications

Vehicle bring-up, field issue investigation, or production launch experience.

Category	Engineering & Information Technology
Location	Palo Alto, California
Requisition ID	279652
Type	Full-time

Job Description

<p>As a member of the Product Safety Engineering group, you will be at the forefront of ensuring the safety of Tesla's products across Vehicles, Energy, and Robotics. Our team is responsible for understanding extreme real-world scenarios to inform the design of our products, helping us lead the industry in handling these conditions.</p><p>We're seeking a Staff Functional Safety Engineer for future vehicle platforms—work that spans many systems and technologies and carries broad impact and high organizational exposure. You will own vehicle-level functional safety strategy from architecture through launch, build and lead a small team, and partner closely with SI, firmware, hardware, and systems teams on interfaces, assumptions, and failure modes.</p>

Job Responsibilities

Own end-to-end functional safety strategy for assigned future-vehicle platforms and features, from early architecture through validation and launch readiness
Build and lead a small team of functional safety engineers
Define and drive system-level functional safety analyses and requirements that span mechanical, electrical, and software domains
Partner with hardware, systems, SI platform, and firmware teams so interfaces, assumptions, and failure modes are explicitly owned and validated; serve as a functional safety integration point across these domains
Lead functional safety activities such as Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment (HARA), FMEA, and Safety Concept development for multi-system features; translate findings into actionable design, test, and process requirements
Establish functional safety validation strategies that combine simulation, lab, vehicle, and fleet evidence; track residual risk and drive closure with design owners
Represent functional safety in architecture reviews, program forums, and executive discussions; communicate trade-offs and risk clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders

Job Requirements

Degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Systems, or Automotive Engineering, or equivalent experience
Staff-level technical depth: typically 8+ years in functional safety, vehicle systems, product safety, systems engineering, or safety-critical product development
Demonstrated experience leading or building a small technical team, or clear readiness and desire to do so
Proven ability to work across diverse vehicle systems and technologies. Comfort at the vehicle and system level rather than deep specialization in a single domain
Experience defining functional safety requirements, interfaces, and validation plans for complex multi-disciplinary products
Working knowledge of automotive functional safety methods and standards (e.g., ISO 26262, HARA, FMEA, safety concepts) applied at vehicle or feature level
Ability to interface effectively with AI, software, and firmware organizations: ask the right questions, challenge assumptions, and align on interface-level functional safety
Seasoned communication skills, with comfort presenting risk, trade-offs, and recommendations to senior stakeholders
Practical, hands-on, can-do attitude with a bias to drive issues to closure in a fast-moving environment
Vehicle bring-up, field issue investigation, or production launch experience a plus

About the Company

Tesla

Makes electric cars, robotaxis and grid batteries

Tesla makes electric cars and batteries that store power for homes and utilities, and it develops self-driving software and humanoid robots. In 2023, its Model Y became the first electric vehicle to rank as the world's best-selling car. Buyers order the Model 3 sedan, Model Y SUV, or Cybertruck pickup directly from Tesla instead of through dealers, and they charge on its Supercharger fast-charging network. It also sells Megapack and Powerwall batteries, runs a robotaxi service, and charges drivers a monthly fee for self-driving software that still needs their supervision. Tesla was founded in 2003, with Elon Musk as its lead early investor and a recognized co-founder, and it is based in Austin, Texas.

Company size: 10,001+
Company stage: IPO
Headquarters: Austin, TX
Founded: 2003

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