Find the perfect Functional Safety Manager in Germany in minutes from over 15,000 CVs with the power of AI.
Secure your engineering projects with specialists in ISO 26262, IEC 61508, and ISO 21448 SOTIF. We match you with vetted, available freelance professionals who ensure compliance and safety across automotive, aerospace, and industrial machinery sectors.
About the role
Navigating Complex Safety Standards in Germany
German industrial and automotive companies must comply with strict international safety standards to bring products to market. A freelance functional safety specialist ensures that electrical, electronic, and programmable electronic systems operate safely under all conditions. They implement rigorous safety lifecycles, mitigating risks of physical injury or damage to health. By integrating these experts early, organizations ensure compliance with European directives and global standards, avoiding costly redesigns and certification delays.
Typical Deliverables of a Safety Specialist
Freelance safety consultants manage the entire safety lifecycle from concept to decommissioning. They create structured documentation that stands up to audits by official certification bodies.
- Compilation of Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment documents
- Definition of Functional Safety Concepts and Technical Safety Concepts
- Creation of safety cases for system, hardware, and software levels
- Execution of quantitative analyses such as FMEDA and FTA
- Preparation for and defense during official certification audits
Technical Expertise and Methodologies
Successful safety engineers possess deep knowledge of industry-specific standards such as ISO 26262 for road vehicles, IEC 61508 for industrial automation, and ISO 13849 for machinery. They are proficient in utilizing analysis tools like APIS IQ-FMEA, Ansys medini analyze, or fault tree analysis software. Beyond technical compliance, these professionals bridge the gap between systems engineering, software development, and hardware design, ensuring that safety requirements are seamlessly integrated into the technical architecture.
Strategic Advantage of Freelance Safety Consultants
Bringing in external expertise allows companies to address critical project phases without long-term overhead. Functional safety demands highly specialized knowledge that is often only needed during specific development stages, such as risk assessment or final auditing. Freelancers offer the flexibility to scale safety engineering capacity immediately. Their exposure to various projects across different tiers and original equipment manufacturers brings valuable best practices directly into your development team.
Meet FRATCH Functional Safety Managers
Armin Wehrle
Head of Functional Safety & R&D Processes
Last position:
Interims Head of Functional Safety & R&D Processes at SEMIKRON Danfoss GmbH & Co KG
- Planning and coordination of all safety activities and organizational development to meet the requirements of ISO 26262 and IEC 61508
- Process development according to Automotive SPICE™ and ISO 26262
- Establishment and technical leadership of the CoC Functional Safety Management and coordination and responsibility of safety activities across all projects (ASIL C and ASIL D)
- Stakeholder management and alignment with OEMs, DIA/RASIC coordination
- Steering of staff on developing functional safety and relevant work products for safety evidence
- Planning, coordination, monitoring and progress analysis of work package creation and action tracking
- Planning and execution of safety assessments and audits for internal sub-projects and external suppliers
- Creation of the safety plan and support in creating work packages for the safety case
- Conducting FMEAs, FMEDAs and FTAs
- Coordination, development and execution of safety training
- Resource and deployment planning, budget planning and controlling
- Planning, tendering, contracting and coordination of temporary external support services
- Interdisciplinary planning and coordination of activities in functional safety management according to ISO 26262
- Conducting ASPICE™ maturity assessments and deriving process improvements based on the standard requirements
- Planning, coordination and creation of the safety assurance documentation
- Central point of contact for functional safety for all organizational levels as well as NBs, OEMs and suppliers
- Reporting to the division manager
Daniel Opitz
Deep automotive expertise in product development, project management and functional safety
Last position:
FMEA Moderator and Expert at Tier1 Automotive
Creating structured item definitions as a basis for FMEA execution
Redesign/optimization of existing FMEAs according to the VDA/AIAG manual in PeakAvenue/Plato. Focus on the quality of defining functions and failure modes
Adding functions and failure modes
Revising the risk analysis. Adding and rating prevention and detection measures
Developing a framework for improved tracking of measures
Team training
Improved FMEA with a focus on early failure prevention / early failure mode avoidance
Successfully held customer reviews
Ould Aly Isselmou
Functional Safety Assessor
Last position:
Functional Safety Assessor at VW
- Pre-assessments and review of functional safety status for ADAS ECUs and body controller components
- Conduct functional safety audits
- Review the functional safety status of the E3 1.2 in a pre-assessment
- Document interviews
- Document findings and generate internal reports
Methods:
- ISO26262
- Automotive SPICE Level 2, 3
- Agile methods, SAFe
Tools:
- DOORS
- Enterprise Architect
- JIRA & Confluence
- IQ-FMEA
- Isograph
Daniel Hess
Functional Safety Manager / Requirements Engineer – Embedded Battery Management System (BMS)
Last position:
Functional Safety Manager / Requirements Engineer – Embedded Battery Management System (BMS) at Tier-1 Automotive
- Technical control, planning, and coordination of safety-related development activities for an embedded battery management system (ASIL-B to ASIL-D) across all project and series phases
- Coordination of interdisciplinary work packages between hardware, software, and system development as well as external suppliers for module and series management
- Management of development, evaluation, and maturity level assurance of safety mechanisms (diagnosis, monitoring, degradation) for series release
- Active risk, problem, and escalation management when facing target conflicts between safety, cost, schedules, and series readiness
- Stable, release-ready series safety architecture with no major findings
- Significantly increased planning and decision-making security in module and release committees
- Sustainable improvement of coordination and control processes between system, HW, and SW teams
Patrick Jäger
Functional Safety Manager in Platform E³ 1.2
Last position:
Functional Safety Manager in Platform E³ 1.2 at Cariad SE
- Coordination of sub-suppliers
- Release planning
- Ensuring ISO26262 compliance
- Ensuring meeting project milestones
- Assessment planning, tracking, and review of FuSI work products
- Tools: Jira/Confluence: activity tracking/documentation, cPlace FuSi: Functional Safety Management, GroupDMS: configuration management, DOORS: requirements engineering, Stages: process management
Stephan Johne
Managing Partner
Last position:
Responsible CRA Risk Analysis - Moderator (Cyber Resilience Act, Cyber Security) at DEUTA-Werke Bergisch Gladbach
Risk analyses according to CRA for E/E systems with safety levels SIL2 and SIL3 according to IEC61508 & EN 50126 ff. in the rail sector, Role: Responsible CRA Risk Analysis - Moderator
Tanvir Hussain
Functional Safety Expert
Last position:
Functional Safety Expert at Manitowoc Cranes
- Model-based development of safety functions for mobile work machines according to ISO 13849 and IEC 62061 in MATLAB/Simulink
- Development and execution of unit, integration, and system tests
Kavin Trivedi
Freelance Software Expert – Functional Safety & AUTOSAR
Last position:
Freelance Software Expert – Functional Safety & AUTOSAR at Bosch
- Development and optimization of software architectures for safety-critical embedded systems in the automotive sector according to ISO 26262 and ASPICE.
- Performing safety analyses (FMEA, DFA, FTTI, HARA) for safety-relevant software.
- Technical consulting and support in acquisition processes for safety-critical software projects.
- Evaluating AUTOSAR architectures and integrating safety-relevant software solutions.
- Collaborating with OEMs and suppliers to ensure compliance with safety standards and process conformity.
- Leading functional safety assessments and ASPICE assessments.
- 2016–2019: Body Computer Module – Role as Lead Software Integrator. Responsible for the software integration of safety-critical ECUs, implementation of AUTOSAR software components, and system integration testing.
- 2019–2022: PowerNetGuardian – Role as Software Architect. Developed a safety-critical software architecture, ASIL decomposition, and created software safety requirements according to ISO 26262 and ASPICE.
- 2022–Present: PowerNetGuardian Plus – Role as Lead Software Architect. Responsible for the overall software architecture, safety and cybersecurity concepts, FMEA analyses, and technical consulting during OEM negotiations.
Phani Meher Ganti
Fusa Expert
Last position:
Fusa Expert at HOLON GmbH
- Act as the primary point of contact and lead FuSa activities in accordance with ISO 26262 and SOTIF for L4 AD shuttle
- Establishment of processes, guidelines, procedures and templates related to functional safety in accordance with ISO 26262 and SOTIF
- Item definition, safety goal definitions of L4 AD shuttle with regards to ADS ECU domain namely perception, trajectory planning and execution
- Carry out HARA and STPA for different domains of L4 AD shuttle
- Evaluate the nominal and degraded performance under edge-case conditions
- Define functional safety requirements and allocate them to system, hardware, and software levels
- Implementation and evaluation of safety concepts (FSC and TSC) with respect to fail operational, fail safe strategies and architectures as part of the overall system requirements
- Develop and maintain safety cases and associated work products, ensuring ASIL D compliance
- Independent review of safety analyses including advice for creation, cooperation in, and maintenance of FTAs, FMEA, FMEDA etc.
- Coordinate safety activities and measures with internal and external stakeholders, and other relevant parties with reference to DIA
- Support project teams in the creation of work products in accordance with the safety life cycle in relation to system, software and hardware development
- Implementation of an effective SMS in accordance with EU 2022/1426
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Functional Safety Managers statistics
Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.
Experience
18 years
Position duration
2.6 years
Positions per freelancer
10
Top business areas
Product Development, Quality Assurance, Project Management
Top industries
Automotive, Manufacturing, Aerospace and Defense
Certification focus areas
Quality Assurance, Product Development, Information Technology
Bachelor's degree or higher
100%
Master's degree or higher
75%
Doctorate
25%
Certifications per freelancer
2
Most common languages
German, English, French
Speak two or more languages
100%
Daily Rate Distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of freelancers in this role are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows how many freelancers charge within that range. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Average rates for Functional Safety Managers & Seniority distribution
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.
Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Frequently Asked Questions
Got questions? Learn key details about FRATCH right now
A functional safety manager is responsible for ensuring that safety-critical electronic systems comply with relevant industry standards. They coordinate the entire safety lifecycle, define safety requirements, perform risk analyses, and compile the final safety case. They serve as the primary point of contact for external auditors and internal development teams.
In Germany, the automotive sector relies heavily on ISO 26262 for road vehicles, as well as the emerging ISO 21448 for SOTIF. For machinery and industrial automation, IEC 61508 and ISO 13849 are the leading standards. A qualified safety engineer must have deep practical knowledge of the specific standard governing your product category.
Look for certified qualifications from recognized bodies such as TÜV SÜD or TÜV Rheinland. A top-tier functional safety professional should also be able to present a portfolio of successfully completed safety cases that have passed official audits. Their reference projects should match the specific safety integrity level, such as ASIL D or SIL 3, required for your system.
Hiring a freelance functional safety consultant is ideal during peak phases of the safety lifecycle, such as initial risk analysis or final safety case generation. Since safety audits require independent review, an external expert brings an unbiased perspective to the project. This setup provides immediate, high-level expertise without the long-term overhead of a permanent position.
While technical documentation is often written in English, project coordination and stakeholder communication in Germany often require fluent German. A bilingual safety manager ensures smooth collaboration with local engineering teams and German certification bodies. Having an expert who speaks both languages reduces the risk of requirements being misunderstood.
A safety engineer focuses on technical analyses, implementing safety requirements, and executing calculations like FMEDA or FTA. In contrast, a functional safety manager takes on a leadership role, planning safety activities, managing the safety plan, and coordinating the overall assessment process. On smaller projects, a senior consultant may perform both roles simultaneously.
Much of the documentation, hazard analysis, and safety case compilation can be performed remotely. However, a freelance safety manager should occasionally be present on-site in Germany for critical milestones, hardware integration testing, and final audit preparations. A hybrid model usually offers the best balance of efficiency and close collaboration.
Classic functional safety, governed by ISO 26262, addresses hazards caused by system malfunctions or hardware failures. On the other hand, a SOTIF specialist focuses on safety of the intended functionality, managing hazards that arise from functional limitations or unexpected environmental conditions. Both aspects are crucial for modern autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance systems.
The average hourly rate for Functional Safety Managers in Germany is 120 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 957 € based on an 8-hour working day.
Of the freelancers working as Functional Safety Managers in Germany, 100% hold at least a Bachelor's degree, 75% hold at least a Master's degree, and 25% hold a doctorate.
On average, freelancers working as Functional Safety Managers in Germany have 18 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 2.6 years.
The most common languages among freelancers working as Functional Safety Managers in Germany are German (100%), English (89%), and French (44%).
The most common industries among freelancers working as Functional Safety Managers in Germany are Automotive (100%), Manufacturing (67%), and Aerospace and Defense (33%).
The most common business areas among freelancers working as Functional Safety Managers in Germany are Product Development (100%), Quality Assurance (100%), and Project Management (67%).
FRATCH Functional Safety Managers main locations
Our freelancers and interim experts are at home across the DACH region — available on-site in the major business hubs or fully remote. Choose a location to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.
Berlin Hamburg Munich Cologne Frankfurt Stuttgart Dusseldorf Leipzig Dortmund Essen Bremen Dresden Hanover Nuremberg Request a Free Demo
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Philipp Thomaschewski
FRATCH CEO
