Principal Engineer Team Lead, Safety & Targets

Mission Summary:

The Systems Readiness and Performance team is the crucial bridge between software development and real-world deployment. We are responsible for driving system design, for verifying and validating the autonomy stack, and for defining, measuring, and validating system performance targets. We work closely with stakeholders in autonomy, infrastructure, and operations to build the definitive safety case for the commercial launch of our fully driverless IONIQ 5 robotaxis in Las Vegas later this year.

We are looking for a passionate, self-starting engineering leader to lead the Safety & Targets team within the SRP organization. This team owns the safety functions and the quantitative performance targets that gate our commercial launch. We develop and validate Motional’s critical safety systems, including collision detection and response, imminent collision handling, and high-authority braking and we own the benchmark program that defines acceptable performance across all three dimensions our riders and the public experience:

safety, comfort, and assertiveness. We set those targets against human driving, using human crash and naturalistic driving data, evasive maneuver modeling, discomfort modeling, and predicted crash-rate analysis. The team produces the systems engineering evidence (hazard analysis, STPA, FMEA, requirements, and coverage argumentation) that underwrites our safety case and our regulatory reporting.

We are seeking a hands-on Principal Engineer Team Lead to drive the design, validation, and scaling of these safety functions and performance targets, grounded in real-world crash and on-road data, large-scale simulation, and closed-course testing. You will lead a high-performing team whose work directly determines where and how our vehicles operate.

What You’ll Do:

• Own Motional’s safety critical functions: Drive the development and maturation of collision detection and response and imminent collision handling across autonomy, remote vehicle assistance, and operational functions. Define the requirements, thresholds, and response behaviors, then prove them out.
• Own the benchmark program across safety, comfort, and assertiveness: Establish and expand human driving benchmarks for all three dimensions across every key capability area, not safety alone. Close the gap where capabilities have launch criteria but no benchmark, and convert each benchmark into measurable acceptance criteria that autonomy teams can implement against.Advance our next-generation evasive maneuver and preventability modeling to enable direct comparison against human drivers in imminent collision situations.
• Own Coverage and Gap analysis: Define what sufficient coverage for our validation looks test suites look like, identify gaps and work cross functionally to close them
• Deliver the safety case evidence: Own the systems engineering lifecycle deliverables such as hazard analysis, STPA, HAZOP, FMEA, requirements, and coverage for safety critical systems. Sustain and expand safety case claims through external assessment and regulatory review.
• Scale through tooling and automation: Productionize crash database analysis, collision event ingestion and labeling, and automated continuous monitoring reports so safety insight scales faster than fleet miles.
• Lead and scale: Mentor and grow a high-performing engineering team. Foster a culture of technical excellence, scientific rigor, and data-driven decision-making.
• Cross-functional collaboration: Partner with Autonomy, Infrastructure, Operations, Legal, and the other Systems teams to drive design improvements and ensure features generate a net positive effect on system safety, comfort, and assertiveness and meet our launch criteria.

What We’re Looking For:

• Bachelor’s degree and 7+ years of experience in Systems Engineering, Functional Safety, Autonomous Systems, or Robotics, with deep expertise in one and working knowledge of the others. Or Master’s degree/PhD and 5+ years of experience.
• 3+ years of experience leading safety-critical development, validation, or safety assurance programs for autonomous driving or other emerging safety-critical technologies.
• A hands-on technical leader with a proven track record of growing small, high-performing teams.
• Demonstrated track record defining quantitative performance targets and acceptance criteria spanning safety, comfort, and assertiveness and producing the analysis and evidence that justifies them.
• Working expertise in hazard and safety analysis methods such as STPA, HAZOP, FMEA, and hazard analysis and risk assessment.
• Expert at leveraging large-scale simulation, track, and road data to extract actionable technical insights that drive resolution with development teams.
• Familiarity with SOTIF, ISO 26262, UL4600, and AVSC behavior competencies and other industry standards.
• Proven track record of building consensus across multidisciplinary teams by leveraging technical influence over organizational authority.
• Ideally, You Also Have: Experience with collision and crash data analysis, including public crash databases and regulatory incident reporting.
• Strong foundation in statistical methodology, data science, and scientific rigor; proficiency in Python, SQL, and data visualization.
• Experience establishing and leveraging industry benchmarks and human naturalistic driving behavior to evaluate autonomous driving safety, ride comfort, and assertiveness.
• Familiarity with ride comfort and motion-sickness modeling, or with metrics that balance assertiveness against conservatism in driving policy.
• Experience presenting safety argumentation to external assessors, regulators, or certification bodies.
• Excellent communication skills; capable of articulating complex concepts to technical peers and executive leadership alike.
• Self-starter with a proactive mindset for driving ambiguous projects to completion.
• Experience publishing safety research or white papers, or participating in industry consortia.
• Experience collaborating within agile environments and global, distributed teams.
• We encourage a hybrid schedule with in-office time at one of our locations in Boston, Pittsburgh, or Las Vegas to support collaboration, or this role can be fully remote.

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors including but not limited to specific skills, experience and expertise, role location, certifications, licenses, and business needs. The estimated compensation range listed in this job posting reflects base salary only. This role may include additional forms of compensation such as a bonus or company equity.

The recruiter assigned to this role can share more information about the specific compensation and benefit details associated with this role during the hiring process.

Candidates for certain positions are eligible to participate in Motional’s benefits program. Motional’s benefits include but are not limited to medical, dental, vision, 401k with a company match, health saving accounts, life insurance, pet insurance, and more.