Principal Hardware & IC Functional Safety Architect
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Nov 4, 2026. First seen by Alion on Oct 21, 2026. NXP Semiconductors scores B on the Alion truth index.
Principal Hardware & IC Functional Safety Architect
Come and join NXP and our Functional Safety Competence Centre as we shape the next generation of intelligent energy solutions with Power & Energy business.
NXP collaborates with global leaders to enable sustainable, autonomous, reliable, and safe energy solutions, leveraging decades of experience in innovative, robust, reliable, safe, and secure technologies.
Our Power & Energy portfolio addresses energy management, power conversion, and energy storage, with applications extending from automotive and industrial systems to data centers, energy infrastructure, and robotics.
Within this dynamic environment, you will play a key role in defining and driving the Functional Safety architecture of NXP’s future power and energy semiconductor Analog solutions.
Your Role
As a Hardware & IC Functional Safety Architect, you will be a recognized technical expert responsible for defining the functional safety architecture of analog, mixed-signal, and power semiconductor products.
You will work across safety-related product developments, ensuring that hardware architectures, safety mechanisms, and associated safety analyses are appropriate to achieve the targeted ASIL and/or SIL according to ISO 26262 and IEC 61508.
The role combines semiconductor expertise with functional safety system and hardware. You will translate application-level safety needs into robust and efficient IC-level safety concepts, balancing safety integrity, product performance, design complexity, silicon impact, and cost.
The role addresses traditional automotive safety applications as well as an expanding range of Power & Energy applications, including automotive electrification, energy management, data-center power infrastructure, industrial automation, and robotics.
Key Responsibilities
Functional Safety Architecture
- Define and drive the hardware functional safety concept and architecture for safety-related IC developments.
- Translate system and application safety needs into IC-level safety requirements, safety mechanisms, and architectural concepts to achieve the targeted ASIL/SIL.
- Ensure consistency between safety requirements, product architecture, safety mechanisms, safety analyses, and assumptions of use.
- Identify opportunities for optimized and compact safety architectures, avoiding unnecessary complexity while maintaining the required safety integrity.
- Deliver Safety manual integration documentation and facilitate usage of the IC in safety related applications.
Safety Analysis
- Conduct hardware safety analyses, including FMEA, FMEDA, FTA, and DFA.
- Evaluate hardware failure modes, diagnostic coverage, dependent failures, and residual risks.
- Demonstrate the relevant quantitative hardware architectural metrics objectives.
- Ensure that analysis results are fed back into architecture and design decisions.
Power & Energy Application Scope
The architect will provide functional safety expertise across semiconductor solutions addressing applications such as:
- Power management and power distribution
- Data-center power and energy infrastructure
- Industrial power and automation systems
- Robotics and autonomous industrial equipment
- Other safety-related analog, mixed-signal, and power semiconductor applications
Collaboration
The Hardware & IC Functional Safety Architect will work closely with:
- Product, System Architects and Definition teams
- Hardware and IC Design teams
- Functional Safety Managers
- Verification and Validation teams
- Functional Safety assessors and auditors
- Application and system engineering teams
- Customers and ecosystem partners, where appropriate
Your Profile
Technical Background
- Master's degree or equivalent experience in Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Semiconductor Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- Strong experience in semiconductor hardware architecture, IC design, product development.
- In-depth knowledge of ISO 26262 and/or IEC 61508.
- Practical experience with hardware safety analysis techniques such as FMEDA, FMEA, FTA and DFA.
- Understanding of requirements-driven semiconductor development and the relationship between system-level safety requirements and IC implementation.
Leadership Profile
The successful candidate will demonstrate:
- Technical leadership and architectural thinking
- Ability to challenge complex architectures constructively
- Excellent communication across engineering, management, customers, and safety assessors
- Ability to connect system safety needs with practical semiconductor implementation
- A pragmatic approach to achieving the required safety integrity with an optimized HW architecture