Safety Engineer

OUR MISSION:

At Sunrise Robotics, we are dedicated to augmenting humanity through intelligent robotics. Our mission is to elevate the world of manufacturing by introducing intelligent, flexible robots that enhance human capabilities and existing machinery, ushering in the next era of production at higher quality, with less waste, and lower cost.

OUR VISION:

We see a future where every element of manufacturing, from design to assembly, is optimised with intelligent automation. Our vision is to integrate flexible robotic solutions, based on generic hardware and advanced software/AI capabilities, into manufacturing, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises, to make automation economically viable and accessible, for all sizes of manufacturers. We are not just building robots; we are creating the strategically crucial components for autonomous, intelligent agents of the future.

THE ROLE

At Sunrise Robotics, this role owns the safety of our robotic cells as a product, from the first design decision to the cell running on a customer's floor. That covers functional safety, safety in our robotics software, and the sign-off of every deployment.

Our robotic cells combine two industrial robot arms, cameras, a safety PLC, radar presence sensing and software that changes what the cell does from one product variant to the next. Every new application changes the hazards. Your job is to know exactly what changed, and to stop us repeating safety work for everything that didn't.

You are part of the design, not a check at the end. You work with our robotics and software engineers on motion planning, perception and how the cell behaves around people, and decide early which risks need a safety function and which the software can handle.

We are creating a new way of doing high-mix manufacturing, and safety standards were written for machines that do one fixed job. That leaves a grey zone where the standards give no clean answer. We need someone creative who can operate in that grey zone and bring clarity: work out a safe answer, defend it, and write it down so others can follow it. That means being creative about how we reach a safe design, never about whether a design is safe.

WHAT YOU'LL OWN

• The safety concept for our cell platform: which hazards and safety functions are assessed once, so each new application assesses only what it changes.
• Safety in design: input to our robotics software from the first design review, safety requirements in every product and application requirements document, and sign-off on each solution design.
• Functional safety: you specify each safety function in the safety PLC and robot safety controller, including how reliable it must be, and prove it works. Our robotics integration engineer writes the PLC code.
• Risk assessments, the CE technical file and the Declaration of Conformity for each cell, including our move to the new EU Machinery Regulation.
• Site safety for each deployment, from layout and guarding to operator access, and safety checks at every acceptance test.
• Our rules for testing cells safely in R&D, including Reduced Safety Mode.
• Root cause investigation of safety faults and incidents.
• Safety content for the cell manual, and customers' safety questions in presales.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• At least five years of machinery safety work on industrial machines or robotic cells, including risk assessments and CE marking you prepared or signed.
• Functional safety experience: specifying and validating safety functions on safety PLCs, robot safety controllers and safety sensors such as radar, scanners and light curtains.
• Working knowledge of EU machinery law, including the new Machinery Regulation, and of the two core standards: ISO 12100 for risk assessment and ISO 13849 for functional safety.
• You can read a software design and talk with robotics engineers about how their algorithms behave around people.
• You have made safety calls where no standard gave a direct answer, and written them up so others could follow and challenge the reasoning.
• The judgement to hold a line on safety under schedule pressure, and to bring senior engineers with you.
• Clear written English. Your requirements can be built and tested without anyone coming back to ask what you meant.
• Willingness to travel about 25% of the time.

WHAT MAKES YOU STAND OUT

• A recognised machinery safety qualification, such as TÜV Functional Safety Engineer or CMSE.
• You have built one safety concept that covered a family of machine variants.
• Experience with collaborative or fenceless robot applications.
• Experience bringing safety into robot motion, control or perception software, and a view on where machine learning ends and safety functions begin.
• Time at a machine builder or integrator that went from a handful of machines a year to dozens.

HOW YOU'LL WORK

You'll work with product, robotics, software and mechanical engineers, our forward …