Safety Lead
US$180,000 – US$260,000 / yr base salary
Posted 21 Sep 2026
Advertised as “Safety Lead ”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 10+ yrs
- Management level
- People management
- Employment
- On-Site
| Base salary | US$180,000 – US$260,000 / yr |
|---|
Field of studyComputer Science, Machine learning, Robotics, Systems Engineering
Study levelDoctorate
Who we are
Gatik, the leader in autonomous middle-mile logistics, is revolutionizing the B2B supply chain with its autonomous transportation-as-a-service (ATaaS) solution and prioritizing safe, consistent deliveries while streamlining freight movement by reducing congestion. The company focuses on short-haul, B2B logistics for Fortune 500 retailers and in 2021 launched the world’s first fully driverless commercial transportation service with Walmart. Gatik's Class 3-7 autonomous trucks are commercially deployed across major markets, including Texas, Arkansas, and Ontario, Canada, driving innovation in freight transportation.
The company's proprietary Level 4 autonomous technology, Gatik Carrier™, is custom-built to transport freight safely and efficiently between pick-up and drop-off locations on the middle mile. With robust capabilities in both highway and urban environments, Gatik Carrier™ serves as an all-encompassing solution that integrates advanced software and hardware powering the fleet, facilitating effortless integration into customers' logistics operations.
About the role
As the Head of Systems and Safety Engineering, you will own the overarching safety architecture, risk management strategy, and system safety engineering life cycle for our autonomous vehicle (AV) platform. You will build and lead a high-performing engineering team while managing technical integration, customer safety alignment, and safety governance across clients, internal engineering divisions, vehicle OEMs, and Tier 1 suppliers.
This role is onsite 5 days a week at our Santa Clara, CA office!
What you'll do
- Team Leadership & Program Management: Recruit, mentor, and manage a multidisciplinary systems and safety engineering team. Oversee daily team execution, task prioritization, resource allocation across engineering sprints, performance reviews, and team development.
- Safety Case Leadership: Author, evolve, and defend the end-to-end safety case framework (leveraging UL 4600, ISO 26262, and ISO 21448 / SOTIF) to support commercial deployment, public road operations, and regulatory submissions.
- AI & Machine Learning Safety Strategy: Define and implement safety and verification methodologies tailored for advanced AI and ML-based autonomy models (e.g., perception, prediction, planning) using ISO/PAS 8800. Establish quantitative metrics for model robustness, dataset coverage, and edge-case validation.
- Systems Safety Architecture & Requirements: Define system-level safety requirements, hazard mitigations, functional safety concepts, and fail-operational/degradation paths across hardware, compute, and software stacks.
- Oversee formal risk identification methodologies—including Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment (HARA), FMEA, FTA, and System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA)—ensuring risk traceability matrices remain updated throughout product lifecycles.