Functional Safety Innovation Lead

Job Title

Functional Safety Innovation Lead

Role Summary

Lead a global team of managers inside the CTO Functional Safety Competence Center to define and deliver NXP's functional safety innovation strategy. The role sets the vision for new safety solutions, secures funding and drives research and standards participation to influence future product capabilities.

Reports to the Vice President of Global Safety and works with product-line leadership, IP development teams, and central Functional Safety teams to support internal technical decisions and customer-facing technical discussions.

Experience Level

Senior — leadership/manager-of-managers role. Posting indicates 10–20 years of industry experience with combined 15+ years of technical experience in functional safety, chip and electronic system design; 10+ years of semiconductor functional safety experience; 5+ years in innovation and 5+ years managing globally-dispersed teams.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include strategic leadership, team management, standards engagement, and technical advocacy.

• Lead and empower managers to deliver Functional Safety innovation projects and translate research into product differentiators.
• Define and execute participation and influence strategies for industry safety standards.
• Coordinate innovation plans across internal innovation and product development teams; propose and secure funding for innovation activities.
• Spearhead development of new capabilities (including exploring AI-enabled approaches) to advance functional safety features.
• Build collaborative partnerships internally and externally to support capability development and standards influence.
• Provide technical support and represent NXP in customer technical discussions related to functional safety in automotive and industrial systems.
• Promote and maintain a strong safety culture across organizational boundaries.
• Travel domestically and internationally as required.

Requirements

Must-have technical leadership, functional safety domain expertise, and experience managing global teams. Nice-to-have items noted separately.

• Must-have: Proven organizational leadership and people-management skills; experience inspiring and developing senior engineering teams.
• Must-have: Strong communication, stakeholder management and influencing skills; ability to navigate a matrix organization and align diverse stakeholders.
• Must-have: High-level functional safety technical knowledge for automotive and industrial semiconductors and systems engineering experience (hardware/software/architecting/design/simulation/analysis).
• Must-have: Demonstrated ability to set and deliver innovation and industry-standards strategy; experience securing funding and driving cross-team alignment.
• Must-have: Experience managing globally-dispersed teams working on innovation, technology development or design.
• Must-have: Comfortable with ambiguity, making tradeoffs, and leading introduction of new technologies in complex functional safety products.
• Must-have: Excellent verbal and written communication for technical and executive audiences; experience presenting to customers and leadership.
• Nice-to-have: AI and robotics safety knowledge.

Education Requirements

Posting specifies a Bachelor or Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science. The role also expects extensive experience: 10–20 years industry experience; combined 15+ years technical experience in functional safety, chip and electronic system design; 10+ years semiconductor functional safety experience (including intimate knowledge of ISO 26262 and IEC 61508); 5+ years in semiconductor innovation/technology development; and 5+ years managing globally dispersed teams.

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.