Principal System & AI Safety Engineer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at Edge Case Research

Principal System & AI Safety Engineer

Help reinvent how the world assures autonomous and AI-enabled systems.

About Edge Case:

At Edge Case, our mission is to enable the safe deployment of frontier technologies and sophisticated systems.

Edge Case exists to solve one of technology's most consequential problems: deploying autonomous, AI-enabled,and complex systems without compromising safety.

Our team includes recognized leaders in autonomous-system safety. Across defense, aerospace, automotive,energy, and other high-consequence industries, we help organizations move frontier technologies from promising prototypes to trusted real-world systems.

Guardian AI is our AI-assisted safety intelligence platform. It combines modern software with expert judgment to help teams identify hazards earlier, develop stronger safety arguments, and maintain decision-ready safety evidence.

The Opportunity:

This is not a conventional compliance role.

We are looking for a system safety thought leader and entrepreneurial builder who wants to solve problems that no single engagement or engineering team could address alone.

You will apply Guardian AI to complex customer programs, identify repeatable problems, invent better methods, and work directly with our product team to turn expert knowledge into scalable capabilities. You will help define the emerging discipline of AI-assisted safety engineering while influencing the product, company, and broader field.

This role is ideal for someone who combines deep technical credibility with entrepreneurial energy: someone who sees an unsolved problem and wants to build the method, workflow, and product that solves it.

What You'll Own:

Solve high-consequence safety problems

• Lead system safety work for autonomous and complex systems. Help customers reason through novel hazards, operational uncertainty, and increasingly software- and AI-driven behavior.

Pioneer AI-assisted safety engineering

• Use Guardian AI to accelerate and strengthen analyses such as PHA, FHA, SHA, FTA, FMECA, STPA, and HARA.
• Determine where AI improves engineering performance and where expert judgment must remain decisive.

Set the technical bar

• Critically evaluate AI-generated outputs for rigor, traceability, completeness, and alignment with applicable standards.
• Establish validation practices customers can trust in safety-critical environments.

Turn expertise into product

• Recognize recurring customer problems, prototype better workflows, and partner with our software team to transform those insights into Guardian AI capabilities.

Shape safety architectures and requirements

• Advise customers on CONOPS, ODDs, hazard controls, system and subsystem safety requirements, levels of rigor, mitigations, and verification strategies.

Advance digital safety cases

• Help organizations move from static documents to connected, maintainable digital safety cases and decision-ready safety evidence.

Help move the field forward

• Develop technical viewpoints and, where appropriate, contribute to publications, standards, conferences, and senior industry conversations.

Elevate the team

• Mentor engineers, challenge assumptions, share emerging research, and strengthen a culture of rigor, experimentation, and high ownership.

What Success Looks Like

• Customers solve safety problems that previously seemed too complex, expensive, or time-consuming.
• Recurring engineering challenges become reusable Guardian AI workflows and product capabilities.
• AI-assisted workflows improve speed and insight without weakening rigor, traceability, or human accountability.
• Edge Case becomes increasingly recognized as a leader in next-generation system safety.

Required Qualifications:

• A strong record of accomplishment in system safety through high-consequence programs, influential research,
• technical leadership, or a combination of these.
• Expertise in methods such as PHA, FHA, SHA, FTA, FMECA, STPA, HARA, or related approaches.
• Experience with frameworks such as MIL-STD-882E, JSSSEH, ISO 26262, ISO 21448/SOTIF, ARP4761, or
• DO-178C.
• Experience developing safety requirements, plans, cases, assessment reports, or comparable assurance
• artifacts.
• Ability to move between detailed analysis, system architecture, customer strategy, and Product design.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• A builder's mindset: initiative, curiosity, comfort with ambiguity, and a desire to create repeatable solutions.
• Enthusiasm for AI and automation, paired with sound judgment about their limitations.
• U.S. work authorization. Employment sponsorship is not available.

Preferred Qualifications:

• PhD preferred in system safety, systems engineering, robotics, controls, computer science, AI/ML, human factors, or a related field. Exceptional equivalent experience is welcomed.
• Recognized contributions through research, publications, patents, standards, conference presentations, or industry leadership.
• Experience with autonomous systems, ML safety, AI assurance, behavioral safety, or adaptive systems.
• Startup, product, advanced research, or zero-to-one development experience.
• Familiarity with digital engineering, MBSE, Cameo, or digital safety cases.
• Experience working directly with software product and engineering teams.
• CSP, CFSE, CFSP, or a related certification.

Why Edge Case?

• Work on a defining problem: Help society realize the benefits of autonomous and AI-enabled systems without accepting unmanaged risk.
• Create impact at scale: Shape a platform used across customers, programs, and industries - not just one system.
• Build, don't just advise: Develop the product capabilities and methods that solve the problems you identify.
• Influence the direction: Work closely with company leaders, customers, and the Guardian AI product team.
• Stay at the intellectual frontier: Engage with unresolved questions in autonomy, AI assurance, digital engineering, and complex-system behavior.
• Join a high-agency culture: Work with a remote-first team that values expertise, intellectual honesty, experimentation, and ownership.
• Competitive Compensation & Benefits: We offer a competitive salary, benefits package, and opportunities for professional growth and development.

Pay Rate:

The annual base salary range for this position is $200,000 - $215,000. Please note that the salary information is a general guideline only. Edge Case considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate’s work experience, education/ training, key skills as well as market and business considerations when extending an offer.

Benefits offered: Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, 401(k) match, Flexible Spending Accounts, Parental Leave, Paid time off, and Holidays.

Washington state applicants only: Full-time employees accrue at least 13 hours per month of Paid Time Off (PTO) to be used for incidental absences and other reasons; and receive at least 96 hours for holidays.

Edge Case Research is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status or any other basis covered by appropriate law. ECR values all employees’ talents and supports an environment that is inclusive and respectful.