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Safety Engineer

The safety engineer (SE) is responsible for ensuring that the R&D organization adheres to the applicable safety standards, such as the IEC 61508 or IEC 61511, and that safety is achieved and demonstrated for all safety-related 1 development and maintenance.

The role is mandatory for any safety-related development or maintenance project. This is done by defining, coordinating, participating in, and/or conducting the safety-related activities carried out in a safety-related project.

Description​

The SE mainly operates in the system and development streams. He/she is knowledgeable of the safety technical aspects of the safety-relevant standards and assists the streams and the software/hardware/test engineers with solving product-related safety issues in the projects.

The SE ensures that the safety-related processes and activities are performed according to the functional safety management (FSM) and is the speaking partner for safety issues within the R&D organization as well as functions as the main contact point for the functional safety certification body.

The SE coordinates safety activities during the product’s complete lifecycle both between and within development and maintenance projects.

Responsibilities​

  • Define the safety-relevant parts of PCP R&D Processes.
  • Participate in the definition of the safety requirements
  • Review and/or participates in defining safety-related concepts/high-level design and parts of the functions.
  • Advise regarding tools used for specifications, development, verification, and validation from an FSM perspective.
  • Act as an interface to the functional safety certifying body for safety assessments, audits, and factory inspections.
  • Train and mentor in the functional safety procedures and methods.
  • Identify deviations and issues that can affect functional safety for the development and maintenance projects and inform the project manager to take corrective actions.
  • Escalate problems that cannot be solved within the project to the FSM manager and/or to the cluster lead.
  • Conduct safety assurance activities for development and maintenance projects on behalf of the FSM manager. This includes but is not limited to:
    • Review and monitor the safety-related activities (such as HAZOP and FMEDA) and the relevant project-related activities (such as project meetings and gate/milestone meetings).
    • Report and follow up on the outcome continuously.
    • Perform internal FSM audits.
    • Coordinate and plan required activities to ensure the streams’ adherence to the FSM processes in PCP R&D Processes for the development and maintenance projects.
    • Escalate the deviations that cannot be solved within the project or at the stream level to the FSM manager.

Competence​

  • Undergone IEC 61508 functional safety training either in-house or externally.
  • At least 3 years of business experience in the area of functional safety is desired.
  • Higher technical education, degree or diploma, in a related discipline or equivalent engineer-level responsibilities status certified by the employer in a reference letter.

Footnotes​

  1. A safety-related system is, according to IEC 61508-4, 3.4.1, a designated system that:
    - implements the required safety functions necessary to achieve or maintain a safe state for the EUC (Editor’s note: Equipment Under Control: the equipment machinery, apparatus, or plant used for manufacturing, process, transportation, medical, or other activities); and
    - is intended to achieve, on its own or with other E/E/PE (Editor’s note: electrical/electronic/programmable electronic) safety-related (systems and other risk reduction measures, the necessary safety integrity for the required safety functions). ↩