About the Position

Safety Operations Lead

San Francisco, CA

About the Company

Atoms is building the machines that power the next era of progress. We are transforming the physical world with Physical AI-real-world robots for industries like food, mining, and transport. Our systems are designed to understand, predict, and control the real world with precision, making complex physical operations more reliable, scalable, and productive.

We are a team of roboticists, engineers, operators, and builders. We believe the next great technology companies will transform not only information but the physical systems that shape everyday life.

Responsibilities

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.
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.

Requirements

6-8+ 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.
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.
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.

We Offer

Competitive salary range: $182,000 - $230,000 per year.
Comprehensive benefits package including:
- 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

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.

Apply for this Job

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.

Ready to join us as we serve those who serve others?

#LI-Onsite

Safety Operations Lead

Job description