Safety Case Research - Product Development Lead

The Waymo Safety team works to promote and help to continuously improve the safety of Waymo’s fully autonomous driving technology. Our experts develop safety goals and strategies, and conduct safety engineering analyses to ensure safety is being considered throughout the design and development of our vehicles. The team develops and promotes safety strategies and policies for autonomous vehicles for its work with regulatory authorities, lawmakers, law enforcement and public and non-profit organizations. Our Safety Team also helps advise on compliance with applicable environmental, health, and safety regulations.

In this hybrid role, you will report to the Head of Safety Management.

You will:

• Drive the integration of safety case claims related to design and development processes, such as those related to: software development best practices, launch reviews, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) safety.
• Revise and support new content within the safety case, as informed by international regulatory compliance requirements.
• Collaborate with the current safety case drafting team to ensure consistency in processes and content included in the safety case, as well as parity of rigor and maturity. 
• Ensure that management of change practices and other safety case policies continue to be upheld, and evaluate change impact across Waymo’s expanding Operational Design Domain, and across vehicle platforms. 
• Support the expansion of the safety case to multi-platform architectures.
• Develop far-reaching strategies and related communications for operational excellence and scalability, specifically within the Safety Management System (SMS) and policy domain.
• As appropriate, engage with internal and external stakeholders/regulators regarding safety processes and standards.
• Contribute to the research agenda on critical safety topics and contribute to overall best practices for the Safety Management and Best Practices team.

You have:

• Master degree in an engineering field (e.g., mechanical, aerospace)
• Minimum 3 years software release management first-hand experience, inclusive of software development best practices, software quality assurance reviews, and updates management.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex external regulations, standards, or nascent industry best practices into actionable, robust internal policies and procedures.
• Proven experience conducting change impact analysis and evaluating the effects of system or process changes across multiple platforms or operational domains.
• Experience in drafting, contributing to, or maintaining official safety-related documentation, such as a Safety Case, for regulatory submissions.

We prefer:

• PhD in an engineering field (e.g., mechanical, aerospace)
• Preferred experience with safety-critical software.
• Experience in the certification of safety-critical software and/or hardware.
• A track-record of engagement in scientific research.

Travel:
The Safety Best Practices team is spread across multiple regions. Travel is required for team on-sites as well as for project-based activities such as audits (internal or external).