---
title: 'Safety Engineer at Mind Robotics'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/safety-engineer-mind-robotics-palo-alto-9dj1w3rw5pv5'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-11'
---

# Safety Engineer at Mind Robotics

- **Company:** Mind Robotics
- **Location:** Palo Alto, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-05-06
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/mindrobotics/45d92210-c1b2-4eef-b10c-e70c22e0325d/application

**Skills:** ISO 13849, IEC 62061, IEC 61508, ISO 10218, ANSI/RIA R15.06, ISO/TS 15066, FMEA, FTA, HAZOP, STPA, Safety Certification

> The Senior Safety Engineer owns the functional safety lifecycle for a humanoid platform, handling hazard analysis, architectural decisions, component selection, and certification. The role involves designing safety architectures for mobile, dynamically balancing robots and partnering with cross-functional teams to e...

## Job description

## About Mind

Mind Robotics is building Physical AI for real-world industrial deployment, starting with the factory floor. We believe the hardest problems in AI are solved when researchers and engineers are hands-on with the physical world every day - and we're looking for people who are passionate about robotics, value ownership, and are excited to tackle difficult problems. Join us if you want to move beyond digital intelligence and put intelligence into motion.

## About the Role

We're looking for a Senior Safety Engineer who can own functional safety end-to-end for our humanoid platform: hazard analysis, architectural decisions, component selection, certification, and the messy real-world testing in between. Standards like ISO 3691-4, and ISO 10218 tell you what outcomes you must achieve. ISO 25785-1 is currently under development requiring robot dynamic stability control including zero-energy pose protocols, and fall zone markings. They do not tell you how to get there with a bipedal, dynamically balancing, multi-DOF system that doesn't fit cleanly into the assumptions those standards were written under. We need someone who treats that gap as the interesting part of the job — not a blocker.

## Responsibilities

- Lead the safety lifecycle for our humanoid platform: hazard analysis, risk assessment, SIL/PL determination, safety requirements specification, and validation.
- Design safety architectures (E-stops, safety-rated monitored stops, power and force limiting, speed and separation monitoring) appropriate to a mobile, dynamically balancing robot.
- Select and justify safety-rated components : controllers, sensors, contactors, and where no off-the-shelf component fits, design or specify alternatives that achieve equivalent safety integrity.
- Drive certification efforts , and own the technical file.
- Partner with mechanical, electrical, controls, and AI teams to bake safety into the design rather than bolt it on.
- Build the test fixtures, procedures, and evidence needed to prove our safety claims.
- Stay ahead of evolving standards (ISO 25785-1, the in-progress humanoid-specific work, etc.) and translate them into engineering decisions..

## Qualifications

- 5–10 years of safety engineering experience on industrial robots, collaborative robots, AGVs/AMRs, or comparable machinery.
- Deep working knowledge of ISO 13849, IEC 62061, IEC 61508, and ISO 10218 (or ANSI/RIA R15.06); familiarity with ISO/TS 15066 for collaborative applications.
- Software safety experience (IEC 61508-3) in addition to systems-level work.
- Hands-on experience taking a product through safety certification — not just supporting it, but owning the technical narrative and defending it to assessors.
- Comfort with the full toolkit: FMEA, FTA, HAZOP, STPA, and the judgment to know which to reach for.
- A creative mindset. Standards rarely dictate components; they dictate outcomes. We want someone who can architect a novel solution, justify it against the standard's intent, and convince a notified body it meets the bar.
- Strong communication — you'll be explaining safety tradeoffs to executives, engineers, and external assessors who all need different versions of the same story.

## About Mind Robotics

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Mind Robotics builds AI-driven robotic systems for industrial deployment, focusing on creating general-purpose physical intelligence for the world's most demanding manufacturing challenges.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2025
- **Founders**: Not publicly disclosed (founding technical team includes Sriramana Sankar, Ruijie He, Vishal J., and Ury Zhilinsky as Founding Technical Members)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Robotics Engineering, Industrial Automation, Artificial Intelligence
- **Target customers**: B2B, Enterprise (industrial manufacturing, factory floors)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Building the generalized physical intelligence required to solve the world’s most demanding industrial challenges." The company believes the path to general-purpose robotics begins where the need is most acute and the environment is most structured: the factory floor.

## Products & Services
- **AI-Enabled Industrial Robots**: Intelligent robotic systems designed for industrial deployment, focusing on creating collaborative platforms for manufacturing environments. The company builds "physical AI" for real-world industrial challenges, emphasizing hardware-in-the-loop development where researchers and engineers work hands-on with hardware.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding of **$615M** across two rounds
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz (co-lead Series A), Accel (co-lead Series A), Kleiner Perkins (led most recent round), Eclipse (seed), Prysm Capital, Menlo Ventures. Partners include Silicon Valley Robotics.
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Raised a $115M seed round in late 2025, followed by a massive $500M Series A in March 2026 co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz
  - Closed an additional funding round in May 2026 led by Kleiner Perkins
  - Headcount of ~21 employees with a monthly growth rate of +42.9%
  - LinkedIn following of 9,654 with +38.5% monthly growth
  - Talent sourced from top companies including Tesla, Rivian, Databricks, and Physical Intelligence

## Competitive Advantages
- **Massive capital advantage**: With $615M in total funding raised within its first year, Mind Robotics is one of the best-capitalized early-stage robotics startups, enabling aggressive hiring and R&D investment.
- **Top-tier investor backing**: Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, and Kleiner Perkins — some of the most prestigious venture firms in the world.
- **Hardware-in-the-loop philosophy**: The company emphasizes that the hardest problems in AI are solved when researchers and engineers are hands-on with hardware, creating a unique engineering culture focused on real-world deployment.
- **Lean, high-impact team**: With only ~21 employees and massive funding, each individual has outsized ownership and impact.

## Strategic Focus
- **Industrial deployment first**: Targeting factory floors as the most structured environment for deploying general-purpose robotics, believing this is the fastest path to broadly capable robots.
- **Physical AI development**: Building the intelligence layer for robots that can operate in messy, complex real-world environments.
- **Aggressive scaling**: With $615M in funding, the company is rapidly expanding its team across hardware engineering, software, and data platform roles.

## Why Work Here
- **Massive impact per person**: The company explicitly states it is "building a lean, collaborative team where every individual has a massive impact" — a rare promise for a company with over half a billion in funding.
- **Hardware-in-the-loop culture**: Engineers and researchers work directly with physical hardware daily, solving real-world problems rather than just simulation.
- **Top-tier team**: Colleagues include alumni from Tesla, Rivian, Databricks, and Physical Intelligence, creating a high-caliber peer group.
- **Work policy**: Hybrid workspace (combination of remote and on-site work) with a strong in-office presence in Palo Alto, CA. Most roles appear to be on-site or hybrid.
- **Open roles**: 22 active positions across hardware engineering (actuation, motor design, electrical design, tactile sensing), software engineering (robotics, firmware, controls, ML infrastructure), and data platform roles.
- **Culture highlights**: The company looks for "builders who are passionate about robotics and live for the challenge of making systems work in messy, complex environments." They emphasize a lean, collaborative team where every individual has massive impact.

## Sources
1. [mindrobotics.com](https://www.mindrobotics.com/)
2. [mindrobotics.com/careers](https://www.mindrobotics.com/careers)
3. [LinkedIn - Mind Robotics](https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindrobotics)
4. [Built In - Mind Robotics](https://builtin.com/company/mind-robotics)
5. [Ashby Jobs - Mind Robotics](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/mindrobotics)

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