---
title: 'Head of Validation and Systems Engineering at Bedrock Robotics Inc'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-validation-and-systems-engineering-bedrock-robotics-inc-san-francisco-0syhpgy2v6ys'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Head of Validation and Systems Engineering at Bedrock Robotics Inc

- **Company:** Bedrock Robotics Inc
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-08-06
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/bedrock-robotics/c4b8a367-42dc-4bae-871a-c47e442ac02a

## Job description

Join the team bringing advanced autonomy to the built world At Bedrock, we're moving AI out of the lab and into the real world. Our team includes veterans who helped launch Waymo, scaled Segment to a $3.2B acquisition, and grew Uber Freight to $5B in revenue. Today, we're deploying autonomous systems on heavy construction equipment across the country, improving safety on job sites and accelerating schedules on critical infrastructure projects.

We're not here debating the future of AI. We're deploying it in the real world. In just two years, we've raised $350M and achieved the first fully autonomous excavator deployments in construction.

This is where algorithms meet steel-toed boots. You'll work alongside construction veterans and world-class engineers to solve physical-world problems that simulations can't touch. If you're ready to do meaningful work on hard problems, we'd love to have you join us.

We are seeking a Head of Validation and Systems Engineering to lead validation, verification, and systems engineering as an integrated discipline. In this role, you will define the criteria for every unsupervised deployment and serve as the technical authority on readiness, participating in critical launch decisions. You will develop a validation architecture where adding a new machine or capability is an incremental, evidence-based process. Rather than inheriting old frameworks, you will leverage cutting-edge research and create new best practices for an emerging industry. Our machines already operate unsupervised at customer sites. Everything ahead—introducing more machine types, tackling new tasks each quarter, expanding to new sites—pushes the boundaries of the safety standards that have brought us this far.

## What you will own

- Safety validation of the system. Design the metrics, scenario libraries, and architectural coverage that quantify end-to-end behavioral safety — and make them hold up as the machine set and task set expand.
- A validation architecture that generalizes. Decide what evidence is platform-independent and what must be re-established per machine, per task, per site. Turn the safety case into something composable instead of something rewritten.
- Systems engineering. Own requirements decomposition and traceability from mission-level intent through subsystems, and use validation findings to expose the gaps, ambiguities, and conflicts that feed back into design.
- V&V strategy and infrastructure. Choose the right instrument for each claim — log playback, closed-loop physics simulation, structured proving-ground testing, or on-site work — and specify the tooling and sim capability needed to make those instruments trustworthy across a growing fleet.
- Hardware and functional safety. Validate the sensing, compute, and actuation kit we install on customer machines, including functional-safety readiness of safety-critical paths, as that kit is ported onto new platforms.
- The org. Grow a team of software, systems, test, and hardware engineers plus data scientists, and scale it ahead of the machine count rather than behind it.
- Decision-grade reporting. Define the KPIs — verification coverage, defect trends, release readiness, system maturity — and turn dense test data into the small number of charts that let leadership, customers, and insurers make a call.

What the first year looks like

- A V&V framework and safety case structure that spans multiple machine types and an expanding task set, and that engineering, customers, and insurers all recognize as rigorous.
- A scenario and coverage model built for the machines and tasks we have not shipped yet, not just the ones we have.
- Readiness criteria that generalize — so the second platform, and the tenth, clear the bar faster than the first did without clearing a lower one.
- A team that outlives any single launch.

Background

- BS or advanced degree in engineering, physics, or another technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 10+ years in test planning and experimental design for safety-critical autonomous or robotic systems, with a bias toward safety and repeatability.
- Track record building and leading multidisciplinary technical organizations — software, systems, hardware, test, and data science under one roof.
- Depth in sensing and compute: cameras, lidar, radar, GNSS, IMUs, edge compute, embedded controllers.
- Fluency in data analysis and test automation (Python, C/C++) sufficient to interrogate results yourself, not only to review them.
- Experience running many parallel test activities across non-colocated teams, sites, and stakeholders.
- Judgment about when a claim is proven and when it merely looks proven.

Ways to stand out

- You have taken a driverless or unsupervised system through to real deployment and personally held the readiness gate — and then had to do it again for a second platform.
- You have scaled a validation program across a heterogeneous fleet, multiple sites, or successive hardware generations.
- You have authored or led a formal safety case, or contributed to safety standards work (UL 4600, ISO 26262, ISO 21448, or off-road equivalents).
- Functional safety experience on vertically integrated or custom hardware.
- Familiarity with heavy construction machines — excavators, articulated dump trucks, dozers, wheel loaders, motor graders.
- A record of external technical contribution: publications, keynotes, standards bodies, or research leadership. We want this role visible in the field, and we will support that.

## How we work

We are a startup, so we look for engineers with an appetite for agility. We do not compromise on safety and we still find ways to move extremely fast — the entire point of this role is that those two things are compatible when the evidence is good enough. Bedrock Robotics is an Equal Opportunity Employer We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic. Reasonable Accommodations We want our hiring process to be accessible to everyone. If you need an accommodation to participate in the application or interview process, please let your recruiter know so we can support you.

## About Bedrock Robotics Inc

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Bedrock Robotics brings advanced autonomy to heavy machinery, upgrading existing construction equipment for fully autonomous operation to help the industry build faster and safer.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Boris Sofman (Co-Founder & CEO), Kevin Peterson (Co-Founder & CTO), Tom Eliaz (Co-Founder & VP, Engineering), Laurent Hautefeuille (Co-Founder & VP, Engineering)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Robotics Engineering / Autonomous Heavy Equipment / Construction Technology
- **Target customers**: B2B — construction companies, infrastructure developers, and heavy machinery fleet operators
- **Mission or purpose**: Transforming how we develop the world by enabling the construction industry to build at the pace of societal demand through autonomous technology.

## Products & Services
- **[Bedrock Operator]**: An autonomous system that retrofits existing heavy equipment (e.g., excavators) to operate independently, adapting to on-site challenges, tracking productivity, and delivering expert-level quality with superhuman safety. Type: Hardware + Software (Autonomy Platform).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed (latest funding round values the company at a significant premium).
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding — $350M raised (Series B of $270M closed in early 2026).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: NVentures (NVIDIA), Valor Equity Partners, 8VC, Eclipse, Tishman Speyer, and 21+ other investors. Backed by key strategic partners in construction and real estate.
- **Growth Signals**: 
    - Headcount grew 5,950% YoY (from ~1 to 85 employees in its first year).
    - Named "Outperformer" among 15 companies including Caterpillar, Sandvik, and Epiroc by CB Insights.
    - Covered by The New York Times, Forbes, and Engineering News Record for major funding and field deployments.
    - Completed a major project removing 65,000 cubic yards of dirt on a Southwest construction site.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Deep autonomy heritage**: Founding team spent years at Waymo perfecting autonomous systems for complex, safety-critical driving on public roads — a rare and transferable expertise.
- **Real-world deployment**: Technology is proven on active construction sites (not just simulations), with tens of thousands of hours of field data.
- **Retrofit model**: Upgrades existing heavy equipment rather than requiring new machinery, lowering adoption barriers for construction firms.
- **Continuous improvement**: The Bedrock Operator learns and sharpens skills with every project, creating a data moat.

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling deployment of autonomous heavy equipment across major construction projects (housing, data centers, energy, factories).
- Expanding the range of machinery types that can be retrofitted.
- Deepening partnerships with construction firms and equipment manufacturers.
- Growing the engineering and field operations teams to accelerate product development and customer support.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: A passionate, product-driven team that works hand-in-hand with customers. Emphasizes real-world impact — field tests on active construction sites generate as much excitement as breakthrough code.
- **Work Environment**: Hybrid presence with offices in Downtown San Francisco, Soho (New York City), and test facilities in Texas and California.
- **Perks**: Comprehensive health & well-being coverage, daily in-office meals, commuter benefits, unlimited time off, paid parental leave, 401k retirement plan.
- **Engineering Focus**: Work on unsolved problems — bringing autonomous technology to market that will revolutionize construction. Exposure across product, technology, and business. First pair of steel-toed boots provided.
- **Team**: Collaborate with a diverse group of experts from Waymo, Zoox, Cruise, Caterpillar, and other top robotics/autonomy companies.

## Sources
1. [bedrockrobotics.com](https://bedrockrobotics.com/)
2. [bedrockrobotics.com/about](https://bedrockrobotics.com/about)
3. [bedrockrobotics.com/careers](https://bedrockrobotics.com/careers)
4. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/bedrock-robotics)
5. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/bedrock-robotics)

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