AV Safety Data Engineer (Contract) The Safety Strategy & Operations team is responsible for developing and implementing safety processes from comprehensive safety planning and risk management to operational safety in the field, data analysis, and regulatory reporting, ensuring autonomous vehicles operate safely and meet all federal and state compliance requirements. This role will be pivotal in evaluating and improving the behavioral safety and hardware performance of our autonomous vehicles by leveraging fleet and simulation data. We analyze fleet data to identify critical safety events, evaluate system behavior, and refine strategies that directly influence how our vehicles behave in complex environments. As an AV Safety Data Engineer, you will play a critical role in developing and maintaining robust data infrastructure to surface safety-relevant interactions, assess AV events, and inform autonomy development through data-driven insights. You will build scalable pipelines and metrics that ensure we receive strong, reliable signals from data, directly influencing how we assess system readiness and accelerate safe deployment, while also supporting the crucial task of event triage and analysis. In this role you will: Develop and maintain miners that identify events of interest from fleet and simulation data. Improve the accuracy and efficiency of existing miners through advanced statistical and ML techniques, ensuring high signal quality. Build scalable data pipelines and dashboards to monitor miner performance, signal quality, and key safety metrics. Conduct exploratory data analyses to uncover trends, failure modes, and opportunities to improve vehicle behavior, specifically focusing on critical safety events and system anomalies. Triage and assess AV events including both system behavior and hardware related anomalies, for potential safety/legal/regulatory concerns or system gaps, using contextual judgment grounded in safety, legal, and engineering principles. Develop and maintain clear triage guidelines and criteria for both onshore and offshore triage teams. Support regulatory reporting processes by providing data and analysis as needed. Qualifications Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or a related quantitative or Engineering field such as Transportation Engineering, Systems Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Electrical Engineering. 6-8 years of experience working with safety-critical systems in AV, Automotive, Transportation Engineering, or a closely related industry. Strong programming skills in Python and SQL. Experience with large datasets and distributed data processing frameworks (e.g., Spark, Databricks). Strong data engineering skills, including data wrangling and expertise in building maintainable, scalable, and efficient data pipelines. Familiarity with statistics and probability, and experience with sampling and estimation methodologies. Proven ability to design metrics, run analyses, and translate findings into actionable recommendations. Strong understanding of behavioral safety concepts and the ability to interpret vehicle behavior in real-world contexts, along with knowledge of AV requirements, road user behavior, and traffic regulations. Experience working with cross-functional teams and clearly communicating technical content to both engineering and non-technical audiences. Strong organizational skills with attention to detail, especially in process development and documentation related to data pipelines and safety analysis. Bonus Qualifications PhD in Engineering or a related technical field. Prior experience with AV safety or system behavior triage. Experience with geospatial data analysis. Experience with business intelligence tools (e.g., Looker) to support analysis. Familiarity with ISO 26262 or other functional safety standards
Benefits
Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)
Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)
Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)
Training & Development
Retirement Plan (401k, IRA)
Free breakfast and lunch
Skills Required
- Master's Degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or a related field
- 6-8 years of experience in safety-critical systems in AV, Automotive, Transportation Engineering, or a related industry
- Strong programming skills in Python and SQL
- Experience with large datasets and frameworks like Spark and Databricks
- Strong data engineering skills, including building scalable and efficient data pipelines
- Familiarity with statistics and probability
- Proven ability to design metrics and translate findings into actionable recommendations
- Strong understanding of behavioral safety concepts
- Experience working with cross-functional teams
- Strong organizational skills with attention to detail
What We Do
Sigma Software Vertex is where engineering excellence meets human connection. As part of Sigma Software Group, a global tech powerhouse with 2,000+ experts across 20 countries, we bring 22+ years of award-winning IT consulting into a bold, fresh context. We believe in loyalty, real relationships, and helping both talent and companies grow to their full potential. With roots in Swedish values and a global reach, we specialize in connecting ambitious engineers with forward-thinking companies across industries. Our name says it all: Vertex is the peak, and we’re here to climb it with you. Whether you're a client or a consultant, this is a place to build, evolve, and thrive.
