Functional Safety Innovation Lead

Overview

As a recognized leadership and technical expert in Innovation within the CTO Functional Safety Competence Center, you lead a global team developing new safety solutions for future product applications. You work with other internal innovation and product development teams as well as business leaders to set the vision for Functional Safety Innovation. Your team, in collaboration with other innovation teams, secures funding for and executes the research to accomplish that FuSa innovation objectives. You determine and execute the plan and goals for Functional Safety industry standards participation and influence. You and your team support FuSa technical discussions internally as well as with customers. This is a manager position who leads a team of managers and reports to the Vice President of Global Safety in the organization led by NXP’s Chief Technology Officer. The key stakeholders/interfaces of this role are the leadership teams of the NXP Product Lines, the IP development teams, and the business-aligned and central teams in Functional Safety.

Responsibilities

• As part of the Functional Safety Competence Center management team, drive Functional Safety innovation to become a clear product differentiator for NXP.
• Empower manager(s) within your team to drive development and delivery of Functional Safety innovation projects.
• Define and deliver on the plan for Industry Safety Standards participation.
• Drive alignment on innovation plans for FuSa with other innovation and technology development plans across NXP. Propose and secure funding for innovation activities.
• Spearhead development of new capabilities, including technologies such as AI, to deliver breakthrough improvements in functional safety product capabilities.
• Forge collaborative partnerships both internally and externally to support development of new FuSa capabilities.
• Understand NXP’s product safety concepts and customers’ system safety concepts in automotive and industrial applications, serving as a technical resource internally as well as for customer interactions. Interact with customers on technical aspects of Functional Safety in their applications, and provide technical support for internal Functional Safety applications as needed.
• Maintain / Enhance the Safety Culture within the company - Evangelize the Functional Safety approach across organizational boundaries and with management.
• Travel domestically and internationally as required.

Skills Required

• Strong organizational leadership skills. Ability to organize work to meet commitments efficiently as well as to inspire, engage, and motivate.
• Strong communication, stakeholder management and influencing skills.
• Navigate the organizational matrix, build networks, collaborate productively with others and own collective outcomes. Leverage relationships and ecosystem to drive momentum, networks; integrate diverse needs into sound choices
• Ability to identify, drive, and balance organization performing and transforming objectives and initiatives.
• High level of functional safety technical knowledge in automotive and industrial semiconductors, ideally with some systems engineering knowledge, and willingness to stand firm to maintain safety standard compliance.
• Ability to set and delivery innovation and industry standards strategy
• Attract the industry's best talent. Inspire and accelerate teams to perform beyond what they think is possible and the industry's state of the art. Expertise in coaching team members to continuously enhance capabilities.
• Capability to shift from technical discussion to coordinating activities across internal and external parties
• Comfortable working with the ambiguity inherent, venturing into the unknown, making tough calls and addressing difficult issues in implementing new technologies in complex Functional Safety products
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills spanning technical contributors, customers, and external partners
• AI and robotics safety knowledge nice to have.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor or Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science with 10-20 years of industry experience.
• Combined 15+ years technical experience in functional safety, chip design, and electronic system design. Systems, hardware and software engineering (architecting, designing, simulation, analysis) knowledge and experience preferred.
• 10+ years of semiconductor Fuctional Safety experience, including an intimate knowledge of ISO26262 and IEC61508 (other industry safety standards also beneficial).
• 5+ years’ experience working on innovation and technology development of semiconductors
• 5+ years managing a globally-dispersed team working on innovation, technology development or design
• Experience presenting to customers and internal audiences, from technical teams to executive management