Senior Safety Management System (SMS) Lead - Autonomous Driving

Safety Management System Development & Governance

The Safety Management System (SMS) Senior Engineer is responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining the SMS for autonomous driving programs. They own the definition and operation of SMS governance structures, including safety roles, responsibilities, escalation paths, and safety decision-making forums. They ensure SMS alignment with automotive and autonomous driving safety standards and guidance.

They define SMS processes covering safety policy, roles and responsibilities, escalation, and decision-making. They define and maintain safety policy, safety objectives, and safety performance indicators (SPIs). They define governance, processes, and acceptance criteria for safety case development, review, and approval within the SMS. They maintain SMS documentation, safety plans, and safety cases at program and system level.

Safety Culture & Cross-Functional Collaboration

Promote a strong safety culture within autonomous driving development and operations teams. Provide guidance and training on SMS processes, safety risk management, and reporting. Collaborate closely with systems engineering, software, AI/ML, validation, quality, and operations teams. Support management decision-making with clear safety risk assessments and recommendations.

Safety Assurance & Lifecycle Integration

Integrate safety assurance activities across the V-model and system lifecycle. Define SMS-level safety acceptance criteria and evidence expectations for lifecycle milestones and release gates. Monitor safety performance through leading and lagging safety indicators. Define and govern system-level safety risk assessment methodologies, acceptance criteria, and evidence expectations across the system lifecycle. Support safety incident processes, particularly post-incident analyses from an SMS learning and systemic risk perspective. Ensure that system safety cases and VSSA are developed, reviewed, and maintained in alignment with Safety Management System requirements. Review systemic corrective and preventive actions (CAPAs) arising from operational incidents, audits, and assessments for effectiveness at the system and organizational level.

Change Management, Release & Operational Safety

Support safety impact assessments for system changes, software updates, and feature releases. Ensure safety considerations are addressed for continuous integration, continuous deployment, and OTA updates. Contribute to operational safety processes including monitoring, incident response, and field feedback. Support definition and execution of safety readiness reviews prior to testing or deployment.

Regulatory, Audit & External Interface

Support regulatory submissions, safety assessments, and audits related to autonomous driving systems. Contribute to safety cases and documentation supporting approvals, permits, or exemptions. Act as an interface with regulators, certification bodies, and external assessors on safety matters. Track evolving global ADS regulations and translate them into internal SMS requirements.