Safety Operations Lead

Job description

**Who we are** Atoms is building the machines that power the next era of progress. Over the last decade, software has transformed the digital world. But the physical world, where food is made, minerals are mined, goods are moved, and industries are run, remains far less intelligent, far less efficient, and far more constrained. We’re changing that. Atoms builds Physical AI— real-world robots for the industries that move civilization forward, starting with food, mining, and transport. Our systems are designed to understand, predict, and control the real world with precision, turning complex physical operations into something more reliable, more scalable, and more productive. This work requires more than robotics. It requires deep integration across hardware, software, AI, operations, manufacturing, and real estate. We don’t just build machines in a lab. We deploy them into real environments, operate them, learn from them, and improve them until they work at scale. We are roboticists, engineers, operators, and builders. We believe the next great technology companies will not only transform information, but the physical systems that shape everyday life. If you want to work on hard problems with real-world impact, join us. **About the role** Our safety practice is not a document exercise — it is an operating discipline that has to run at the speed of the fleet. This role owns that discipline. You will stand up and run the operational safety machinery: how we manage incidents, how we train and qualify the people in and around our vehicles, how field events get triaged and routed, and how investigations turn into engineering change. Today these functions exist on a smaller scale. Your job is to make them a coherent system that scales as we add vehicles, routes, and customers. This is a hands-on role. You will write the next version of most of these processes yourself, run the first dozen investigations yourself, and only then hire against the parts that need scale. **What you’ll do** - Incident management. Own the end-to-end response process: detection, notification, severity classification, on-scene coordination, containment decisions, root cause investigation, corrective action, and closure. Recommend who should have the authority to hold operations and under what conditions, and make sure that authority is real. - Event triage. Build the pipeline that turns raw field telemetry, disengagements, operator reports, and near-miss data into a ranked, actionable queue. Set the taxonomy and severity model. Own the triage rate, the backlog, and the time-to-disposition — and make those numbers visible to engineering and leadership. - Investigations. Lead investigations of collisions, disengagements, and anomalous behavior. Drive them to a defensible causal account, not a narrative. Track corrective actions through to verified closure. - Training and qualification. Design the training and recurrent-qualification program for safety drivers, autonomous vehicle operators, and remote support staff. Own the curriculum, the practical evaluation, and the qualification records. - Safety data and reporting. Own the operational safety metrics set and the reporting cadence, and make sure our internal records can withstand outside scrutiny. - Feedback into engineering. Be the channel that carries field reality into the product. Partner with the Head of Safety so that operational evidence feeds hazard analysis and change assessment rather than sitting in a separate system. **What success looks like** **First 45 days:** Incident response process documented, socialized, and exercised at least once in a tabletop. Event taxonomy and severity model in place with the current event backlog classified against it. A clear-eyed written assessment of where our operational safety practice is weakest. **First 3 months:** Triage running on a predictable cadence with published metrics. Investigation process producing written reports with tracked corrective actions. Training program rebuilt with documented qualification records for every person on duty. You have identified the AI-native tooling that will scale this work. **First 12 months:** The system runs without you personally in every loop. That tooling is implemented and in daily use. You know what the next hire needs to be and why. **Working AI-native** We expect this function to run leaner than it traditionally has run, and we expect AI tooling to be the reason. We are looking for someone who uses LLM-based tooling as part of the actual work — querying and summarizing large volumes of event data, drafting and maintaining investigation reports and training material, doing first-pass classification of an event backlog, pattern-finding across incidents that a human reading one at a time would miss — and who builds their own small tools rather than waiting on a roadmap. The boundary matters as much as the leverage: AI output is a hypothesis and a drafting accelerant, never the basis for a safety determination or a regulatory submission. Every conclusion still needs a human who has looked at the evidence and will stand behind it. **What we’re looking for** - 8+ years in safety operations, fleet safety, transportation safety, or operational risk in a safety-critical domain — commercial trucking, autonomous vehicles, rail, aviation, or industrial operations. Direct AV or commercial fleet experience is a strong plus but not a hard requirement. - Demonstrated experience leading real incident investigations to root cause and driving corrective actions to closure. We will ask you to walk through specific investigations in detail. - Fluency with structured investigation and risk methods — root cause analysis, causal factor charting, human factors analysis, hazard identification — and the judgment to know which one a given event actually warrants. - Experience designing training for operational staff, including practical evaluation and qualification decisions. - Data-driven by default. You are comfortable working directly with event data: querying it, building your own views, and forming a defensible position from it. SQL and basic scripting are expected; you should not need an analyst to tell you what the fleet is doing. - Working knowledge of the US vehicle regulatory environment, — AV-specific reporting such as the NHTSA Standing General Order, FMCSA regulations, hours of service. Familiarity with SAE J3016 levels and ODD concepts. - The disposition this work requires: calm under a live incident, rigorous when it would be easier to be reassuring, and willing to be the person who says stop. - Willingness to be on-site and on-call. Incidents do not respect business hours. **Nice to have** - Experience at an AV developer or an operator running AV pilots on public roads. - Experience building a safety function from a near-blank slate rather than inheriting a mature one. - Exposure to safety management systems, safety case development, or aviation-style safety assurance practice. - Experience preparing safety material for regulators or insurers. **Why join us** At Atoms, you’ll work on one of the defining challenges of our time—bringing automation into the physical world to drive real, lasting impact. We exist to uncover valuable unknown truths and turn them into progress, which means constantly pushing beyond what’s known and building what doesn’t yet exist. The work is ambitious and often challenging, but it’s grounded in a shared sense of purpose and a team committed to seeing it through together. Our work only matters if it serves others, and we know that meaningful progress depends on the trust of the people we serve and the strength of our team—so we invest in both, creating an environment where you can do your best work and grow. **What else you need to know** This role is based in our San Francisco office. Atoms is a company driven by invention and continuous change - we are constantly reimagining our industries, building new products, and refining how we operate. We do our best work together. That’s why all of our office-based teams work onsite, five days a week. The base salary range for this role is **$182,000 - $230,000 per year.** Actual compensation will be determined on an individual basis and may vary depending on experience, skills, and qualifications. Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package. You may also be eligible for equity awards. **Benefits Summary (USA Full-Time Exempt Employees):** - Medical, Dental, Vision, Disability, and Life Insurance - Flexible Spending Account / Health Savings Account Options - 401(k) - Equity - Sick Time, Unlimited Flexible Time Off, and Paid Holidays - Paid Parental Leave - Pre-Tax Commuter Benefit Plan - Team lunch in our SoMa office every Tuesday and Thursday Benefits are subject to change at the company's discretion. Atoms accepts applications on an ongoing basis. **Ready to join us as we serve those who serve others?** *#LI-Onsite*