Functional Safety for AI - Technical Lead

Job Title

Functional Safety for AI - Technical Lead

Role Summary

Lead the Safety & AI innovation team to ensure AI-based systems at NXP are safe, certifiable, and deployable. Drive system safety architecture, convert AI behavior into safety requirements, and coordinate innovation projects across development horizons.

Experience Level

Senior. The role expects 10+ years of experience in architecting, designing, and validating safety-critical embedded systems, with automotive experience required.

Responsibilities

Accountable for executing the Safety & AI roadmap through innovation projects and for the delivery of the Safety & AI team.

• Translate the Safety & AI roadmap into concrete innovation projects and ensure execution.
• Define system safety concepts for AI-driven features and derive safety requirements and mechanisms.
• Specify fail-safe or fail-operational behavior and design runtime safety mechanisms.
• Coordinate innovation projects with NPI (new product introduction) and applications teams to enable deployment.
• Apply model validation, robustness checks, fault injection, and provide structured feedback on safety gaps.
• Collaborate with enablement teams to update development processes to incorporate standards such as ISO 8800.
• Manage and develop the Safety & AI innovation team; support career paths and delivery performance.

Requirements

Key technical and leadership requirements for successful candidates.

• Must-have: Intimate knowledge of ISO 26262; strong understanding of the Safety & AI landscape.
• Must-have: 10+ years architecting, designing, and validating safety-critical embedded systems; proven delivery across complex projects.
• Must-have: Automotive experience required; experience with AI/ML in embedded systems.
• Must-have: Ability to bridge architecture, safety, and execution teams and drive cross-functional coordination.
• Nice-to-have: Experience with IEC 61508.
• Nice-to-have: Prior people-management experience and demonstrated technical leadership.

Education Requirements

PhD or Master of Science (MSc) in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Embedded Systems. The posting specifies at least 10 years of industry experience in addition to the degree requirement.

About the Company

Company: NXP Semiconductors

Headquarters: Nijmegen, Netherlands

NXP Semiconductors N.V. is a global semiconductor company that provides High Performance Mixed Signal and Standard Product solutions. With over 45,000 employees and operations in more than 35 countries, NXP is a leader in secure connectivity solutions for embedded applications, catering to automotive, industrial IoT, mobile, and communication infrastructure markets. The company is committed to innovation and sustainability, advancing a smarter, safer, and more sustainable world through technology.