Functional Safety Engineer, Software

About the role

Kodiak AI, Inc. (Nasdaq: KDK), founded in 2018, is a leader in Physical AI, developing driverless technology that powers machines that move. Its Kodiak Driver is a vehicle-agnostic autonomous driving system that combines AI-powered software with modular hardware. Today it operates in long-haul trucking, industrial trucking, and defense. In 2024, Kodiak launched commercial Driver-as-a-Service operations with no one in the cab, and plans to launch driverless long-haul service between Dallas and Houston by the end of 2026.

Kodiak has partnered with many of the biggest names in freight, including Bosch for scaled hardware production, AWS, and leading customers including Atlas Energy Solutions, IKEA, Bridgestone, Werner Enterprises, C.R. England, Roehl Transport, and General Dynamics Land Systems.

We are looking for a Functional Safety Software Engineer to join us and drive the development and management of our autonomous vehicle safety cases as we bring the Kodiak Autonomy System to market. We first published our Safety Report in 2019 and have based our development on systems engineering, the ISO26262 process and SOTIF principles.

In this role, you will:

- Facilitate bringing the software safety work products across the finish line, following the Safety Plan, reviewing inputs, assisting software teams in understanding the expectations and packaging the information for Independent Assessment.

- Participate in specification of software safety requirements.

- Review software safety architectural design as part of development

- Review software safety unit design and implementation

- Develop and/or review test plans, test procedures, verification reports at the software unit and software integration levels, given software safety requirements input on design from the software teams. Support system level testing from a software safety perspective

- Perform software safety analyses (e.g. dependent failure analysis) to comply with ISO 26262.

- Support Hardware-Software Interface development and derive safety measures.

- Collaborate with Kodiak internal and external stakeholders to review and assess work products for compliance with ISO 26262

What you’ll bring:

- Bachelor’s degree or higher in software, electrical, mechanical or other related engineering and/or a Bachelor’s degree with professional experience in a high tech environment

- Experience with functional safety assessment, preferably at the vehicle component level, and have applied ISO26262 standard to guide the safety case

- Good communication skills with a collaborative approach

- Proactive problem solvers with hands-on experience

- Comfortable preparing safety argumentation

- Ability to structure project tasks and drive evidence development among teams

- Experience with Part 4, 6, 8 and 9 of ISO 26262. Special emphasis on implementation of Part 6 for vehicles