Functional Safety & RAS Lead at SiFive in Santa Clara

Functional Safety & RAS Lead

Location: Santa Clara, California, United States

About SiFive

As the pioneers who introduced RISC-V to the world, SiFive is transforming the future of compute by bringing the limitless potential of RISC-V to the highest performance and most data-intensive applications in the world. SiFive’s unrivaled compute platforms are continuing to enable leading technology companies around the world to innovate, optimize and deliver the most advanced solutions of tomorrow across every market segment of chip design, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, automotive, data center, mobile, and consumer. With SiFive, the future of RISC-V has no limits.

At SiFive, we are always excited to connect with talented individuals, who are just as passionate about driving innovation and changing the world as we are.

Our constant innovation and ongoing success is down to our amazing teams of incredibly talented people, who collaborate and support each other to come up with truly groundbreaking ideas and solutions. Solutions that will have a huge impact on people's lives; making the world a better place, one processor at a time.

Are you ready?

To learn more about SiFive’s phenomenal success and to see why we have won the GSA’s prestigious Most Respected Private Company Award (for the fourth time!), check out our website and Glassdoor pages.

Job Description:

We’re looking for a Functional Safety & RAS Lead to help us build safe and highly reliable compute platforms for automotive, robotics, physical AI, data center, and other demanding applications.

This is an individual contributor role for someone who knows functional safety deeply and also likes working with customers and getting complex work done. You’ll work across the product lifecycle, partnering with customers, technical architects, and engineering teams to turn safety and reliability needs into products we can deliver.

What you'll do

• Work with customers and internal teams to understand functional safety and RAS needs, from initial requirements and safety goals through development, assessment, release, and customer support. Partner with the technical architect to define the capabilities to meet customer requirements.
• Be a go-to expert on functional safety, especially ISO 26262 and IEC61508 and how they apply to processor and SoC products.
• Define program scope, milestones, dependencies, risks, and engineering resource needs based on customer and product requirements.
• Keep work moving across architecture, design, verification, software, quality, program management, product, and customer-facing teams.
• Make sure safety requirements and decisions stay traceable through implementation, verification, documentation, product changes, and releases.
• Identify gaps and technical risks, including dependent failures and common-cause concerns, and work with architect and engineering teams to address them.
• Support customer assessments, internal reviews, external assessors, audits, and certification activities.
• Partner with product, sales, and applications teams on customer questions, safety documentation, and product integration guidance.

What we're looking for

• You have a record of getting cross-functional work done across teams you don’t manage.
• Deep knowledge of functional safety and ISO 26262, including FMEDA, fault modeling, diagnostic coverage, safety cases, and fault-injection planning.
• Experience applying functional safety standards to semiconductor, processor, or SoC development and working directly with automotive customers.
• Enough knowledge of processor or SoC architecture and development to work effectively with architecture, design, and verification teams.
• Experience with RAS concepts and mechanisms, including fault detection, error reporting, containment, and recovery.
• Experience running complex, cross-functional technical programs, including scope, dependencies, risks, and resource needs.
• Familiarity with IEC 61508 or other relevant functional safety standards is a plus.
• Active in the standards community, able to influence and get credibility.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in EE, CE, CS,, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of experience in functional safety, RAS, hardware reliability, or related work in semiconductor, processor, SoC, or other complex hardware development.
• 5+ years of experience in semiconductor, SoC, processor-IP, or complex hardware development, including significant architecture or technical-leadership responsibility.
• Deep experience applying ISO 26262 and functional safety methods such as FMEDA, FMEA, fault-tree analysis, diagnostic coverage, and fault injection.
• Strong understanding of SoC and IP development, from requirements and architecture through verification, release, and customer support.
• Experience with features intended to detect and address hardware random failures, such as error detection and reporting, fault containment, redundancy, lockstep, ECC/parity, memory protection, or recovery.
• Experience leading complex, cross-functional technical programs across engineering teams.
• Strong communication and judgment, with the ability to work across technical teams, customers, and other stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with RISC-V processor or SoC architecture and automotive semiconductor IP developed to ASIL-B or ASIL-D objectives.
• Experience with RAS for data center, AI, robotics, or other high-availability compute products.
• Experience with reliability analysis or testing, including soft-error-rate modeling or radiation testing.
• Experience working with certification bodies or external assessors.
• Familiarity with related standards such as ISO/SAE 21434 or cybersecurity engineering is a plus.

Pay & Benefits

Consistent with SiFive values and applicable law, we provide the following information to promote pay transparency and equity. We have a market-based pay structure which varies by location. Please note that the base pay range is a guideline, and our compensation range reflects the cost of labor in the U.S. geographic market based on the location of the role. Pay within these ranges varies and depends on job-related knowledge, skills, and relevant work experience.

For candidates who receive and offer, the starting salary will vary based on various factors including, but not limited to, such qualifications as, skill level, competencies, and work location. The range provided may represent a candidate range and may not reflect the full range for an individual tenured employee.

Base Pay Range

$279,504.00-$341,616.00

In addition to base pay, this role may be eligible for variable/ incentive compensation and/ or equity. In addition, this role is eligible for a comprehensive, competitive benefits package which may include healthcare and retirement plans, paid time off, and more!

Additional Information:

This position requires a successful background and reference checks and satisfactory proof of your right to work in

United States of America

Any offer of employment for this position is also contingent on the Company verifying that you are a authorized for access to export-controlled technology under applicable export control laws or, if you are not already authorized, our ability to successfully obtain any necessary export license(s) or other approvals.

SiFive is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

As an E-Verify employer, we use this system to confirm the employment eligibility of all new hires in accordance with federal law. All applicants will be required to complete a Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, upon hire. We do not use E-Verify to pre-screen job candidates and will comply with all E-Verify regulations.

California residents: please see our job candidate notice for more information on how we handle your personal information and your privacy rights: Privacy Policy Document.