Senior / Staff Systems Engineer - Safety Methodologies

Position Overview

• Location Type: Not Specified
• Job Type: Full-time
• Salary: Not Specified

Waabi, founded by AI pioneer and visionary Raquel Urtasun, is an AI company building the next generation of self-driving technology. With a world-class team and an innovative approach that unleashes the power of AI to “drive” safely in the real world, Waabi is bringing the promise of self-driving closer to commercialization than ever before. Waabi is backed by best-in-class investors across the technology, logistics and the Canadian innovation ecosystem. With offices in Toronto, San Francisco, and Dallas, Waabi is growing quickly and looking for diverse, innovative and collaborative candidates who want to impact the world in a positive way. To learn more visit: www.waabi.ai

At the heart of our mission is an unwavering commitment to safety. We are seeking a passionate and experienced safety or systems engineer to spearhead the development and implementation of critical safety framework methods that underpin our driverless autonomy readiness decisions. This is a unique opportunity to shape how Waabi quantitatively ensures and validates the safety of our autonomous trucking solution, working with our highly realistic simulator, real-world data, and cutting-edge generative AI techniques. You will play a pivotal role in creating the evidence for safe operation and leading efforts in a rapidly evolving and groundbreaking field.

Responsibilities

• Lead and own the creation, documentation, alignment and execution of conflict avoidance and rules of the road within Waabi's broader safety framework to support driverless readiness decisions.
• Define comprehensive verification coverage using Waabi's simulator to verify driving behaviors, and develop quantitative metrics to evaluate system readiness against established safety requirements.
• Collaborate with external partners to collect and analyze real-world truck driving data, enabling the establishment of human performance benchmarks, informing product and societal safety expectations, and supporting robust comparative safety assessments.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to identify safety gaps, recommend improvements, and ensure traceability between requirements, validation artifacts, and safety case claims.
• Implement tools and methodologies to streamline safety validation processes, bringing creativity and a forward-thinking mindset to continuously evolve the assigned safety framework methods.
• Ensure clear, structured documentation of safety artifacts and readiness decisions to ensure transparency and traceability.

Qualifications

• Undergrad required; Masters or PhD within an engineering discipline preferred.
• 5+ years of automotive, robotics, aerospace or related industry experience.
• Experience contributing to the development of a safety case for autonomous vehicles.
• Experience with using simulation and real world testing to make readiness decisions.
• Knowledge of relevant safety methods and standards such as STPA, SOTIF (ISO 21448) and/or UL 4600.
• Strong fundamentals in mathematics, engineering and physics.
• Excellent data analysis skills with modern tools such as Python or Matlab.
• Ability to communicate complex concepts or data in a simple-yet-accurate manner.
• Collaborative team player who works effectively across functional boundaries.
• Passionate about self-driving technologies, solving hard problems, and creating innovative solutions.

Bonus/Nice to Have

• Experience in launching a driverless product.
• Experience implementing software systems components.
• Experience in robotics or machine learning.
• Advanced skills in data mining, mathematics, and statistical analysis.

Perks/Benefits

• Competitive compensation and equity awards.
• Health and Wellness benefits encompassing Medical, Dental and Vision coverage (for full-time employees only).
• Unlimited Vacation.
• Flexible hours and Work from Home support.
• Daily drinks, snacks and catered meals (when in office).
• Regularly scheduled team building activities and social events both o