Functional Safety & RAS Lead

Job Title

Functional Safety & RAS Lead

Role Summary

Individual contributor responsible for defining and delivering functional safety and reliability, availability, serviceability (RAS) capabilities for SiFive processor and SoC products. Works across product lifecycle with customers, architects, and engineering teams to translate safety and reliability requirements into validated product deliverables.

Experience Level

Senior - requires extensive experience; the role expects 10+ years in functional safety, RAS, hardware reliability, or related work and significant technical leadership responsibility in semiconductor or SoC development.

Responsibilities

Lead safety and RAS activities across customers and internal teams from requirements through release and support.

• Gather and translate customer safety and RAS requirements into product capabilities and development plans.
• Apply and interpret ISO 26262 and IEC 61508 for processors and SoCs; act as subject-matter expert.
• Define program scope, milestones, dependencies, risks, and resource needs; drive cross-functional execution.
• Ensure traceability of safety requirements and decisions through implementation, verification, and documentation.
• Identify and mitigate technical risks, common-cause and dependent failures; coordinate with architecture and engineering teams to address gaps.
• Support customer assessments, internal reviews, external assessors, audits, and certification activities.
• Provide safety documentation and product integration guidance to product, sales, and applications teams.

Requirements

Must-have skills, experience, and conditions for the role.

• 10+ years in functional safety, RAS, hardware reliability, or related roles in semiconductor, processor, SoC, or complex hardware development.
• 5+ years in semiconductor/SoC/processor-IP development with substantial architecture or technical-lead responsibility.
• Deep practical experience applying ISO 26262 and methods such as FMEDA, FMEA, fault-tree analysis, diagnostic coverage, and fault injection.
• Solid understanding of SoC and IP development lifecycle: requirements, architecture, verification, release, and customer support.
• Experience with RAS mechanisms: error detection/reporting, containment, redundancy, lockstep, ECC/parity, memory protection, and recovery strategies.
• Proven ability to run complex, cross-functional technical programs and to influence without direct authority.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for technical teams and customers.
• Must be able to pass background checks and any required export-control authorization for access to export-controlled technology.

Nice-to-have:

• Familiarity with IEC 61508 or related functional safety standards.
• Experience with RISC-V processor or SoC architecture developed to ASIL-B or ASIL-D objectives.
• RAS experience for data center, AI, robotics, or other high-availability compute products.
• Experience with reliability analysis or testing (soft-error-rate modeling, radiation testing) and working with certification bodies or external assessors.
• Familiarity with ISO/SAE 21434 or cybersecurity engineering.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

About the Company

Company: SiFive

Headquarters: San Mateo, California, United States

SiFive is a pioneering company in the RISC-V ecosystem, focused on transforming the future of computing by delivering high-performance, data-intensive RISC-V solutions. Their compute platforms empower leading technology firms to innovate across various markets, including AI, machine learning, and automotive sectors. SiFive is recognized for its commitment to ongoing innovation and fostering collaboration among talented teams, impacting lives by enabling advanced chip design.