Staff Systems Engineer (m/f/d) - Fernride GmbH

Fernride is building the future of autonomous logistics by combining advanced automation technology with human‑guided teleoperations. We enable logistics companies to transition toward safer, more efficient, and more sustainable driverless operations. With strong expertise in robotics, AI, and automotive engineering, Fernride delivers scalable solutions that bring real‑world autonomy to industrial environments.

The Quantum Systems Land Domain is developing leading-edge autonomous UGV technology for defense — a domain where no blueprint exists. The product strategy starts with a UGV that is useful on today’s battlefields and can be built with current technology, then progressively increases the authority of the autonomy system while reducing the need for human supervision — across ever more complex operating environments, up to fully autonomous operation in proximity to civilians.

As a senior design assurance expert, you will own and shape this discipline from the ground up: establish the safety architecture, build the assurance processes, and drive design integrity across hardware, software, and ML. You will bridge the gap between safety analysis and engineering implementation — working with system safety, product security, engineering teams, and V&V to ensure safety functions are correctly implemented through the technical architecture. As the product matures, you will grow your domain into a team.

What is your Day to Day Mission:

• Design Assurance – Sicherstellen, dass sicherheitsrelevante Funktionen korrekt in Hardware, Software und ML‑Elementen umgesetzt werden.

• Safety Analysis – Durchführung von Hardware‑ und Software‑Sicherheitsanalysen (z. B. FMEA/FMECA, Failure Rates, Diagnostics).

• ML Safety – Bewertung sicherheitskritischer ML‑Komponenten inkl. Datenqualität, Validierung und Robustheit.

• Safety Mechanisms – Definition von Redundanzen, Monitoring, Plausibilitätsprüfungen und Safe‑State‑Strategien.

• Fault Injection – Mitarbeit bei der Entwicklung von Fault‑Injection‑Tests und Abnahmekriterien.

• Requirements Management – Pflege der Systemanforderungen und Sicherstellung vollständiger Traceability.

• Compliance – Unterstützung bei regulatorischen Anforderungen (z. B. LVD, EMC, REACH, RoHS) und Umwelt‑Dokumentation.

• Cross‑Functional Collaboration – Enge Zusammenarbeit mit System Safety, Product Security und Engineering‑Teams.

• Verification & Validation – Definition von Verifikationskriterien und Review von V&V‑Nachweisen.

What you bring to the team:

• Hands-on expertise in hardware safety, software safety, and fault-tolerant system design — FMEA/FMECA, diagnostic coverage analysis, safe-state design, and safety mechanism specification — with an engineering mindset and hands-on attitude.

• Experience translating high-level safety functions into verifiable, allocatable system requirements and managing full traceability across the engineering lifecycle.

• Ability to evaluate cost-benefit tradeoffs between alternative safety architectures and present quantitative safety arguments (PFH, PFHd, MTTFd, DCavg, SFF, PL metrics).

• Strong collaboration skills — you bridge the gap between safety analysis and engineering implementation.

• Interest in AI-assisted engineering workflows and willingness to shape how AI tools support requirements management and compliance verification.

• Comfortable working with software development tools — GitHub, VS Code, Bazel, Markdown, CI/CD pipelines — to operate and evolve the AI-assisted methodology.

Your Benefits: 

• Direct impact: See your contributions rapidly integrated from cutting-edge research into industrialized products, flying in the field within short development cycles. 

• Culture & Environment: A dynamic, fast-paced, and collaborative startup environment with flat hierarchies, efficient collaboration, and a strong emphasis on continuous learning opportunities. 

• Work-life Balance: We offer flexible work schedules, and 30 days of paid vacation each year to support your personal and professional life. 

• Lunch Benefit: We promote healthy eating and the well-being of our employees with a monthly lunch budget. 

• Health & Wellness: We support your physical well-being with a company-subsidized eGym Wellpass membership, giving you access to thousands of gyms and sports facilities.