---
title: 'Functional Safety Manager at FORT Robotics'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/functional-safety-manager-fort-robotics-remote-j0vw0n4bpdfm'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-08'
---

# Functional Safety Manager at FORT Robotics

- **Company:** FORT Robotics
- **Location:** Remote
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-09-22
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-08
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/fortrobotics/jobs/4736658005

## Job description

In today's dynamic worksites, seamless collaboration between people and machines is essential. FORT's platform ensures safe, secure, and dynamic control that surpasses legacy systems and next-generation AI capabilities.

While autonomous machines offer significant advantages, they also introduce new safety challenges. FORT addresses these concerns by providing solutions such as the Wireless E-Stop, which allows operators to instantly stop any machine from a safe distance, enhancing safety during emergencies.

Additionally, FORT's Safe Remote Control enables operators to manage heavy machinery remotely, reducing the risk of accidents and improving visibility.

By ensuring communications integrity across any network, FORT empowers customers to protect their most valuable assets—people, data, and machines—ensuring they remain safe and secure.

We're looking for a Functional Safety Manager to own every standard and regulatory requirement that touches our products and to serve as the named Functional Safety Manager accountable for the lifecycle that proves we meet them. Our products are certified subsystems that other companies build into the machines they place on the market. That makes this role the bridge between one IEC 61508 safety lifecycle and the many certificates, data packs, and safety manuals our customers' own safety arguments depend on.

## What You'll Do

- Own the standards picture across our products and markets IEC 61508, ISO 13849 and IEC 62061, and the sector standards our customers build to (ISO 3691-4, ISO 25119, UL 4600, ISO 21448) deciding at clause level what applies and what evidence satisfies it
- Serve as our named Functional Safety Manager: own the safety plan, the lifecycle phases and their gate criteria, competence records, and the safety case itself
- Hold the gates. You will be accountable at every lifecycle phase for whether our evidence is adequate and independent enough to say when it is not
- Author the safety manuals and subsystem data packs our customers depend on: IEC 61508-2/-3 Annex D content, PFHD and architecture data for ISO 13849 and IEC 62061 integrators, and the assumptions of use that make our capability claims valid
- Own our certification body relationships end-to-end: scope, submission, findings, and surveillance, and represent our safety argument to third-party assessors
- Run the regulatory watch: EU Machinery Regulation readiness ahead of January 2027, standards revisions, and what each one means for our roadmap and for our customers’ conformity files
- Close the loop from the field modification impact analysis and safety anomalies from real installations, fed back into the safety argument

## What You'll Bring

- 7+ years in functional safety as a practising engineer embedded, systems, hardware, or safety-critical software in industrial, automotive, aerospace, medical, or similar regulated domains
- At least one product taken through third-party certification end-to-end, where you personally owned a substantial part of the safety argument and defended it to an assessor
- Deep fluency in IEC 61508 parts 1–3, including what Annex D actually requires of a safety manual and how systematic capability is argued
- Working knowledge of ISO 13849 and IEC 62061 from the supplier side: what an integrator needs from a certified subsystem, and why
- The judgement to review safety analysis critically: to challenge a diagnostic coverage claim, a failure-rate source, or a fault model with a gap in it. In this role, you accept other people’s technical work rather than producing it
- Comfort with influence rather than line authority. This role has no direct reports; its authority comes from the safety plan, the gate, and a direct line to the CTO, deliberately outside the engineering delivery line
- A collaborative, questioning mindset willing to challenge teammates and be challenged in return, because safety depends on it
- B.S. or higher in an engineering discipline, or equivalent experience

Nice to have: TÜV Rheinland FS Engineer or Exida CFSE/CFSP certification; machinery and off-highway experience (AGV and AMR under ISO 3691-4, agricultural machinery under ISO 25119); safety-element-out-of-context or compliant-item work; EU Machinery Regulation readiness programs; autonomy and SOTIF exposure (UL 4600, ISO 21448); or time on the other side of an assessment, at a certification body or as a contracted assessor.

## Compensation & Benefits

Base salary range: $150,000–$200,000, based on experience and location. Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision insurance; unlimited PTO; stock options; 3% 401(k) match, paid holidays, and parental leave. Application window: Applications accepted through the end of December 2026. This date will be updated if the window is extended.

FORT Robotics is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected status.

FORT Robotics uses AI-assisted tools to help our recruiting team review and organize applications. These tools do not make hiring decisions; all decisions are made by FORT employees. To request an accommodation or a review without these tools, contact HR@fortrobotics.com.

## About FORT Robotics

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: FORT Robotics provides a safety-rated distributed control platform that enables the safe, secure, and reliable operation of autonomous machines and robots across industries.
- **Entity Type**: Private (VC-funded; Series unknown from public data, $56.9M total funding)
- **Headquarters**: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- **Founded**: 2018
- **Founders**: Samuel Reeves (CEO), Nathan Bivans (Founding CTO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Automation Machinery Manufacturing; Robotics Safety & Security; Industrial Control Systems
- **Target customers**: B2B — OEMs, machine builders, integrators, and end-users in warehousing, manufacturing, construction, defense, agriculture, mining, transportation, delivery, and turf care. Customers include Fortune 500 companies and leading robotics startups.
- **Mission statement**: "To ensure robots cause no harm."

## Products & Services
- **FORT Distributed Control Platform**: A unified suite of hardware, software, and ecosystem integrations providing communications integrity, wireless safety commands (e-stop), secure real-time control, and SIL 3-certified safety for any machine application. Enables safe human-robot collaboration and machine-to-machine communication.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding of $56.9M (3 prior rounds). Annual Revenue estimated at $9.0M (LinkedIn data).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not named in available sources, but company is VC-funded. Has integrated with NVIDIA Halos for Robotics and supports RAS-G IOP / OpenJAUS for defense compliance.
- **Growth Signals**: 600+ customers globally; headcount of 44 employees (+13.0% YoY); active job postings for multiple senior roles across Sales, Engineering, and Product; LinkedIn followers growing at +49.9% yearly; recent acquisitions (Mapless AI) and executive hires (Rinus Strydom as CRO).

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-of-its-kind safety infrastructure**: Built from the ground up to solve the trust gap in physical AI and autonomy, with a decade of founder experience in landmine clearance.
- **SIL 3 certification**: Provides a certified safety foundation required for autonomous systems to scale in high-stakes environments.
- **Cross-industry applicability**: Platform works across defense, agriculture, logistics, construction, mining, transportation, and more — reducing fragmentation for customers.
- **Trusted by industry leaders**: Hundreds of customers including Fortune 500 companies, with products shipping daily.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling the trust layer for Physical AI**: Extending platform capabilities (e.g., Outside-In Safety with NVIDIA Halos) and expanding into defense and autonomous vehicle markets.
- **Geographic and commercial growth**: Hiring senior account executives across the US, UK, and Canada; growing customer solutions and engineering teams.
- **Acquisition and integration**: Recently acquired Mapless AI to add new capabilities to the trust platform.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Emphasizes building together, delivering customer experience worthy of loyalty, and accomplishing the impossible. Proactively inclusive hiring and team leadership.
- **Work environment**: Flexible work environment; remote roles available for many positions (USA, UK, Canada). Philadelphia HQ for hardware/embedded roles.
- **Compensation & benefits**: Competitive pay, unlimited PTO, 100% paid employee healthcare benefits, 3% 401(k) match, paid life insurance, employee assistance program, stock options.
- **Impact**: Work on mission-critical safety technology deployed in real-world autonomous systems — from warehouse robots to defense vehicles. Join a fast-growing, VC-funded company with 600+ customers and products shipping daily.

## Sources
1. [fortrobotics.com](https://www.fortrobotics.com/) - Company website
2. [fortrobotics.com/about](https://www.fortrobotics.com/about) - Company mission, story, values, leadership
3. [fortrobotics.com/careers](https://www.fortrobotics.com/careers) - Careers page with benefits and open roles
4. [linkedin.com/company/fort-robotics](https://www.linkedin.com/company/fort-robotics) - Employee count, revenue, growth metrics
5. [cbinsights.com/company/fort-robotics](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/fort-robotics) - Total funding, headquarters, patent data

## Other roles at FORT Robotics

- [Embedded Test and Validation Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-test-and-validation-engineer-fort-robotics-philadelphia-44rjmp9qacw7) — Philadelphia, PA
- [Embedded Software Engineer II](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-software-engineer-ii-fort-robotics-philadelphia-6pmf7qqbqx5t) — Philadelphia, PA
- [Senior Account Executive, Great Lakes Region](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-account-executive-great-lakes-region-fort-robotics-remote-bvcd05dbqmr2)
- [Functional Safety Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/functional-safety-manager-torc-robotics-ann-arbor-tkwcs8td6tmb) — Ann Arbor, MI / -, United States
- [Functional Safety Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/functional-safety-manager-plusai-santa-clara-3gy9rsh3n7ym) — Santa Clara, CA