Head of Validation and Systems Engineering

At Bedrock were 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 were deploying autonomous systems on heavy construction equipment across the country improving safety on job sites and accelerating schedules on critical infrastructure projects.

Were not here debating the future of AI. Were deploying it in the real just two years weve raised $350M and achieved the first fully autonomous excavator deployments in construction.

This is where algorithms meet steel-toed boots. Youll work alongside construction veterans and world-class engineers to solve physical-world problems that simulations cant touch. If youre ready to do meaningful work on hard problems wed 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 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 aheadintroducing more machine types tackling new tasks each quarter expanding to new sitespushes the boundaries of the safety standards that have brought us this far.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.

Our roles are often flexible. If you dont fit all the criteria or are in another location (especially one where we have an office like SF or NY) please apply anyway! Wed love to consider you.

Bedrock Robotics is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Were 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.

Required Experience:

Director