Embedded Software Safety Architect
Auburn Hills, MI
$56/Hr W2 OR $130K/Year
Position Context
The Embedded Software Safety Architect is responsible for defining and governing the software safety architecture of automotive embedded systems ranging from ASIL B to ASIL D. The role ensures that software architectures, safety concepts, and implementation strategies comply with ISO 26262 requirements while supporting product performance, reliability, and scalability objectives.
Working at the intersection of System Engineering, Functional Safety, Software Architecture, and Platform Development, the Embedded Software Safety Architect translates safety requirements, semiconductor safety assumptions, and hardware constraints into robust software safety concepts and architectural solutions. The role supports a broad range of computing platforms including MCU- and SoC-based ECUs and software technologies such as AUTOSAR Classic, AUTOSAR Adaptive, QNX, and Safe Linux.
The Embedded Software Safety Architect acts as the software safety authority across the ECU lifecycle, ensuring consistency from safety goals and technical safety concepts through software architecture, implementation, integration, and verification.
Key Responsibilities
- Define, maintain, and govern software safety architectures for ASIL B to ASIL D automotive systems in compliance with ISO 26262.
- Analyze and translate Functional Safety Concepts, Technical Safety Concepts, hardware safety assumptions, and semiconductor safety manuals into software safety requirements and software architectural solutions.
- Define software safety mechanisms, fault detection concepts, monitoring strategies, supervision architectures, degraded modes, fault recovery strategies, and safe-state transitions.
- Assess and integrate safety capabilities provided by MCUs, SoCs, operating systems, hypervisors, communication stacks, and hardware accelerators into the overall software safety architecture.
- Develop safety architectures for AUTOSAR Classic, AUTOSAR Adaptive, QNX, Safe Linux, and mixed-platform environments.
- Ensure proper allocation of safety requirements across application software, middleware, operating systems, communication layers, platform services, and hardware-dependent software.
- Perform software safety analyses, including Software FMEA, critical-path FMEA, failure propagation analysis, safety mechanism analysis, and support for FTA and dependent failure analyses.
- Apply and promote established industry approaches such as EGAS and other safety-oriented design methodologies.
- Define software partitioning, freedom-from-interference concepts, execution monitoring, memory protection, communication protection, and multicore safety strategies.
- Support software verification planning, including requirements-based testing, fault injection, robustness testing, safety mechanism validation, and structural coverage assessments.
- Review software architectures, design specifications, interface definitions, safety analyses, verification evidence, and safety case contributions.
- Collaborate with System Architects, ECU Architects, Functional Safety Managers, Hardware Architects, and Software Development teams to ensure end-to-end safety consistency.
- Provide technical guidance on safety-related software design decisions, technology selection, and safety compliance strategies.
Qualifications and Skills
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Embedded Systems, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, or a related discipline.
- Significant experience in automotive embedded software architecture and Functional Safety engineering.
- Strong knowledge of ISO 26262, particularly software development and safety architecture activities for ASIL B, C, and D systems.
- Proven experience defining safety architectures for safety-critical embedded software platforms.
- Strong understanding of semiconductor architectures, including MCUs, SoCs, multicore processors, hardware safety mechanisms, memory protection, watchdog architectures, and safety islands.
- Experience interpreting chip safety manuals and translating hardware safety assumptions into software safety concepts and requirements.
- Strong knowledge of AUTOSAR Classic, AUTOSAR Adaptive, QNX, and/or Safe Linux architectures.
- Experience with safety analyses including Software FMEA, critical-path FMEA, safety mechanism analysis, failure propagation analysis, and fault tree support activities.
- Knowledge of EGAS principles and safety-oriented software architecture methodologies.
- Good understanding of complete ECU architecture from hardware to software integration level, including communication networks, diagnostics, boot chains, operating systems, middleware, and application software.
- Familiarity with embedded C/C++, model-based development, multicore systems, virtualization, and real-time software architectures.
- Experience with requirements management and lifecycle tools such as DOORS NG, Polarion, Jama, Jira, Git, or equivalent solutions.
- Strong analytical, technical leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills.
- Professional proficiency in written and spoken English.
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