About Altera
At Altera™, our independence as the world’s largest pure‑play FPGA solutions provider gives us the focus, speed, and agility to innovate without compromise. With more than four decades of industry‑leading FPGA expertise, our singular mission is to deliver the programmable technologies that help customers differentiate, innovate, and scale across rapidly evolving markets like AI, cloud, networking, and edge. As an independent company, we move faster, invest deeper, and partner more closely—empowering our teams to drive breakthrough innovation and shape the future of the FPGA industry.
About the Role
Altera is seeking a Functional Safety Architect to lead and oversee the functional safety activities across various semiconductor and IP development projects for Avionics, Space, Defense, Automotive, and Industrial market segment. In this role, you will own the device safety architecture and lead the efforts to achieve safety goals by developing technical safety concepts including safety mechanisms derived from safety analyses; and allocating decomposed safety requirements to each IP sub-blocks for next-generation semiconductor devices.
You will collaborate with architects, IP owners, RTL design engineers, physical design, firmware and verification teams to deliver critical safety collaterals ensuring end goal of achieving successful functional safety certification.
Additional responsibilities may include ensuring process and product compliance with ISO 26262, IEC 61508, and other relevant safety standards such as DO-254/DO-178, collaborating with internal teams and external stakeholders to demonstrate systematic capability throughout the safety lifecycle. As a technical leader, you will drive engineering teams toward the successful delivery of safety rated devices and IPs for our customers.
Become a member of our world-class SoC architecture and development team!
Key Responsibilities
- Collaborate with the Architects, Silicon Design, Software teams to architect new safety concepts and safety mechanism features and guide future development.
- Perform safety analyses (FTA, FMEA, DFA methodologies) against CCF, CF to ensure FFI, independence & Fault tolerance requirements are met.
- Define safety architecture techniques (lockstep CPUs, ECC memories, watchdogs, redundancy).
- Review and contribute to writing safety requirement specifications with FSEs.
- Guide teams on ASIL/SIL decomposition, fault tolerance, diagnostics coverage, etc.
- Review hardware/software safety designs for compliance and feasibility.
- Collaborate with design verification teams to define safety V&V strategy (fault injection, fault simulation, test methodologies).
- Ensure achievement of diagnostic coverage metrics (SPFM, LFM, PMHF).
- Document and present defensible safety case evidences aligned with IEC 61508, ISO 26262 ensuring clarity and traceability for stakeholders and assessors.
- Perfom safety manager role on certain projects to meet management of functional safety per the standard
- Support process related activities in achieving systematic capability (SIL3/ASIL D)
Soft Skills Needed:
- Demonstrated strong ability to move seamlessly between levels of abstraction – from system to the “nuts and bolts” implementation
- Excellent written & oral communication skills to construct clear, evidence-based safety arguments and build trust in safety cases with both internal and external stakeholders
Salary Range
The pay range below is for Bay Area California only. Actual salary may vary based on a number of factors including job location, job-related knowledge, skills, experiences, trainings, etc. We also offer incentive opportunities that reward employees based on individual and company performance.
$187,000 - $270,700
We use artificial intelligence to screen, assess, or select applicants for the position. Applicants must be eligible for any required U.S. export authorizations.
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Qualifications:Minimum Qualifications:
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering or related field + 10 years silicon industry experience or MS + 8 years of silicon industry experience
7+ years of safety professional experience, including possessing certifications (Eg. FSCP, FS Professional license)
7+ years of experience in certifying devices from concept through certification for ASICs/PLDs/CPUs with EXIDA, TUeV or Equivalent
7+ years of experience with SysML, FMEA/FMEDA, FTA, HAZOP and requirements-management tooling (e.g., Jama).
Preferred Qualifications:
Familiarity with RTL coding and simulations/debug of SoC Architectures.
Desire to develop deep understanding of end user needs and engagement with customers to enable use of SoCs in safety design applications
Desire to commit and follow through on complex, multi-year programs
Ability to resolve complex issues in creative, efficient, and effective ways
Hands-on experience with creating safety documents (Safety Cases, Safety Management Plans, Safety Manuals) is a plus.
Functional Safety Management (safety manager) experience in achieving systematic capability SC3/ASIL D is a plus.
US Citizenship is a plus.
Skills Required
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering or a related field, plus 10 years of silicon industry experience; alternatively, a Master’s degree plus 8 years of silicon industry experience.
- 7 or more years of professional safety experience, including functional safety certification such as FSCP or Functional Safety Professional license.
- 7 or more years of experience certifying ASICs, PLDs, or CPUs from concept through certification with EXIDA, TÜV, or an equivalent organization.
- 7 or more years of experience with SysML, FMEA/FMEDA, FTA, HAZOP, and requirements-management tools such as Jama.
- Familiarity with RTL coding and simulation/debugging of SoC architectures.
- Interest in understanding end-user needs and engaging customers to enable safety-oriented SoC applications.
- Ability to commit to and follow through on complex, multi-year programs.
- Ability to resolve complex issues creatively, efficiently, and effectively.
- Hands-on experience creating safety cases, safety management plans, and safety manuals.
- Functional Safety Management or safety manager experience achieving systematic capability SC3/ASIL D.
- U.S. citizenship.
Altera (altera.com) Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Altera (altera.com) and has not been reviewed or approved by Altera (altera.com).
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Retirement Support — Feedback suggests retirement programs are robust, with offerings such as a 401(k) and a pension. This breadth supports long-term financial security.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Feedback suggests time-off policies are generous, including PTO, paid sick days, and paid holidays. Wellness initiatives like gym memberships further support balance.
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Parental & Family Support — Feedback suggests parental leave is generous. Family-building support, including fertility benefits and adoption reimbursement, is highlighted as part of the package.
Altera (altera.com) Insights
What We Do
Altera: Accelerating Innovators Altera provides leadership programmable solutions that are easy-to-use and deploy in applications from cloud to edge, offering limitless AI possibilities. Our end-to-end broad portfolio of products including FPGAs, CPLDs, Intellectual Property, development tools, System on Modules, SmartNICs and IPUs provide the flexibility to accelerate innovation. Altera is helping to shape the future through pioneering innovation that unlocks extraordinary possibilities for everyone on the planet.
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