Director, Head of Safety Case Standards & Assessment

Uber Uber · Consumer · New York, NY +2 · Operations

Seeking a Director to lead the development, assessment, and adoption of safety cases for autonomous vehicle partners, contributing to rigorous safety practices in the AV industry. This role involves maturing Uber's safety case framework, assessment methodology, and governance model, while preparing partners for emerging regulatory requirements. Requires deep expertise in AV safety, risk management, and regulatory frameworks, with strong collaboration across internal teams, external experts, and regulators.

What you'd actually do

  1. Serve as the strategic expert on the development of safety cases for autonomous vehicles, including structured safety assessment approaches, partner guidance, evidence expectations, maturity models, and readiness evaluation processes while leveraging input from both regulatory frameworks and industry best practices.
  2. Collaborate with regulators, technical services, public safety officials, and industry bodies to understand evolving standards for automated driving systems, ensuring partners’ certification pathways are well supported and internal safety and compliance strategies remain aligned with current and anticipated regulations.
  3. Apply technical understanding of AV safety case frameworks to inform and contribute to the development of safety standards and regulations. Collaborate with internal teams to ensure alignment with global safety policies.
  4. Collaborate with many different skilled individuals across Uber, including business development, fleets, product management, legal, policy, safety operations, marketing, engineering, and regional operations teams
  5. Build and lead a high-performing team of safety, systems, and technical program management talent as the program scales.

Skills

Required

  • 10+ years of experience in autonomous vehicles, automotive safety, transportation safety, systems safety, safety assurance, technical program leadership, or another safety-critical domain.
  • Experience leading complex strategic safety programs with cross-functional ownership, executive visibility, and external partner engagement.
  • Strong understanding of autonomous vehicle development, validation, deployment readiness, operational design domains, and advanced autonomous operations.
  • Experience developing or applying safety assurance approaches, readiness assessments, maturity models, evidence-based evaluations, or technical safety governance processes.
  • Familiarity with functional safety, operational safety, safety management systems, safety-critical software development, safety performance measurement, and operational risk management.
  • Knowledge of relevant safety standards, regulatory frameworks, and industry best practices for automated driving systems.
  • Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability to influence senior technical, business, regulatory, and cross-functional stakeholders.
  • Demonstrated ability to build programs from ambiguity, define operating mechanisms, and deliver measurable outcomes across multiple organizations.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to create executive-level materials, technical guidance, and partner-facing documentation.

Nice to have

  • Advanced degree in safety, engineering, robotics, computer science, systems safety, human factors, or a related technical field.
  • Experience with safety case development, structured safety arguments, assurance cases, or evidence-based safety assessments in autonomous vehicles or another safety-critical industry.
  • Experience working in European, Middle Eastern, or other complex regulatory environments for autonomous mobility or automotive technology.
  • Familiarity with Uber’s Safety Guidelines Program and relevant industry standards.
  • Experience with safety assessment tooling, evidence management, maturity heat maps, gap assessments, or partner readiness reviews.

What the JD emphasized

  • safety case development
  • safety assurance
  • regulatory frameworks
  • autonomous vehicle partners
  • structured safety cases
  • safety case quality
  • evidence sufficiency
  • lifecycle safety case monitoring
  • structured safety assessment approaches
  • partner guidance
  • evidence expectations
  • maturity models
  • readiness evaluation processes
  • evolving standards
  • certification pathways
  • safety standards
  • global safety policies
  • safety-critical domain
  • complex strategic safety programs
  • cross-functional ownership
  • external partner engagement
  • validation
  • deployment readiness
  • operational design domains
  • advanced autonomous operations
  • safety assurance approaches
  • readiness assessments
  • maturity models
  • evidence-based evaluations
  • technical safety governance processes
  • functional safety
  • operational safety
  • safety management systems
  • safety-critical software development
  • safety performance measurement
  • operational risk management
  • safety standards
  • regulatory frameworks
  • automated driving systems
  • safety case development
  • structured safety arguments
  • assurance cases
  • evidence-based safety assessments
  • complex regulatory environments
  • safety assessment tooling
  • evidence management
  • maturity heat maps
  • gap assessments
  • partner readiness reviews