← All roles

Process Safety Engineer

Periodic Labs· Engineering
Apply on company site
Menlo Park, CA$200k - $250kFull-timePosted 1w ago

About the role

We’re an AI and physical sciences company building state-of-the-art models to accelerate breakthroughs across materials, energy, and beyond. Periodic Labs is expanding its high-throughput autonomous lab, focusing on hazard-reviewed, safe-to-run processes and training AI to reason about risk in experimental planning and execution.

Responsibilities

  • Lead and document HAZOPs, PHA/FMEA, and risk assessments for new processes and lab systems, including toxic and pyrophoric material, high-pressure operations, glovebox workflows, and thin-film deposition platforms.
  • Establish operational readiness and laboratory reliability systems for autonomous operations, including pre-startup safety reviews (PSSR), management of change (MOC), commissioning validation, alarm rationalization, startup/shutdown procedures, and critical equipment inspection programs.
  • Partner with automation and controls teams to implement machine safeguarding, fail-safes, interlocks, robotics safety controls, functional safety validation, safety PLC reviews, and automated motion hazard assessments for autonomous experimental systems.
  • Develop and maintain EHS standards, specifications, procedures, and governance systems that can scale across multiple facilities.
  • Collaborate with ML/AI engineers on training an LLM to reason through process hazards, risk assessments, and safety constraints during experimental planning and autonomous execution — making EHS a first-class input to our AI’s decision-making.
  • Provide technical expertise in high-throughput R&D with a strong focus on chemical safety, including the thin-film lab's specialty gas delivery, vacuum, and RF/high-voltage systems.
  • Lead incident investigations and root cause analyses, own injury reporting and recordkeeping (Cal/OSHA 300 log, serious-injury reporting), and drive corrective actions to closure.
  • Assess permitting and MAQ implications of new processes and chemistries across our labs, represent process safety during fire marshal and CUPA inspections, and partner with EHS operations on CERS and BAAQMD compliance.
  • Serve as Chemical Hygiene Officer, maintaining the Chemical Hygiene Plan across our labs.

Qualifications

  • 7–10+ years of experience in EHS, process safety, or chemical operations in labs, pilot plants, or semiconductor fabs, preferably with a strong chemistry background (solid-state chemistry, materials processing, or lab automation a plus).
  • Hands-on experience leading HAZOPs or FMEAs and running PSSR and MOC programs.
  • Working knowledge of functional safety: interlocks, safety PLCs, and ISO 13849 / IEC 61508 concepts.
  • Working knowledge of Cal/OSHA, OSHA PELs, ACGIH TLVs/BEIs, NIOSH, and ANSI standards.
  • Comfort working on-site in a fast-paced, high-complexity lab environment where experiments run 24/7 and the hazard profile evolves as new processes and equipment are introduced.

Skills

Required:HAZOPs and FMEAPSSR and MOCFunctional safety (interlocks, safety PLCs)Cal/OSHA, OSHA standards
Last updated Oct 14, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Periodic Labs

From bits to atoms.

Periodic Labs is an artificial intelligence research company pioneering the next leap in scientific discovery. We operate at the intersection of machine learning and scientific experimentation under the thesis that that true understanding of the universe is only possible by interacting and experimenting on it.

artificial intelligencescientific discoverymachine learningscientific experimentation
Company profileWebsite

More open roles at Periodic Labs