Lead Safety Engineer, Robotics

About the Company

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the product safety strategy for robotic systems across the development lifecycle
• Monitor and influence emerging regulatory frameworks, industry standards, and policy developments
• Partner with engineering teams to translate safety requirements into product architecture and design decisions
• Develop and maintain system-level hazard analyses, risk assessments, and safety cases
• Establish safety requirements, verification strategies, and evidence-generation plans
• Lead HARA activities, FMEAs, and other structured risk assessment processes
• Represent the company in discussions with standards bodies, industry groups, and regulators
• Help build and scale the safety engineering function as the robotics organization grows

Requirements

• Ability to apply first-principles thinking to complex safety and risk management challenges
• Comfort navigating ambiguity in evolving regulatory and technological landscapes
• Ability to balance technical, regulatory, operational, and business considerations
• Experience influencing engineering decisions across multiple disciplines
• Passion for building innovative and demonstrably safe products

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep expertise in product safety, functional safety, systems safety, or robotics safety
• Experience with ISO 10218, ISO 13849, IEC 61508, ISO 12100, or ANSI/RIA standards
• Experience developing safety cases for complex electromechanical systems
• Familiarity with robotics, autonomous systems, industrial equipment, or safety-critical technologies
• Experience working with regulators, standards organizations, or certification bodies