Find the perfect Safety Engineer in Germany in minutes from over 15,000 CVs with the power of AI.
From ISO 26262 automotive safety to machinery compliance and industrial plant design, get matched with vetted, available freelance safety specialists for your engineering projects.
About the role
The Role of a Freelance Safety Engineer in German Industry
In Germany's advanced manufacturing, automotive, and industrial sectors, technical safety is a primary requirement for market entry and operational licensing. A freelance safety engineer ensures that machinery, electrical systems, and complex automotive architectures comply with strict national and international safety regulations. These specialists design fail-safe architectures, conduct meticulous hazard reviews, and draft the documentation required to secure CE marking or pass regulatory audits. Depending on the project phase, they collaborate closely with design teams or conduct on-site physical machinery safety assessments at German production plants.
Core Deliverables and Project Outcomes
- Comprehensive Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOP) and FMEA reports
- Functional safety concepts aligned with ISO 26262, IEC 61508, or ISO 13849
- CE conformity documentation and risk assessment portfolios
- Technical safety requirements specifications for software and hardware developers
- Validation plans and safety case reports for third-party audits
Key Technical Skills and Industry Standards
Successful external safety specialists bring deep expertise in quantitative and qualitative risk analysis methods, such as Fault Tree Analysis and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. They are highly proficient in interpreting complex standards, including the Machinery Directive, the Low Voltage Directive, and specialized standards like IEC 62061. Their toolkits frequently include specialized engineering software for reliability modeling and risk assessment. Beyond technical knowledge, strong professionals are skilled communicators who translate abstract regulatory requirements into practical engineering guidelines for development teams.
When to Onboard an External Safety Specialist
Companies typically bring in freelance safety professionals during periods of intense development, product launches, or major facility upgrades. When internal engineering teams face tight deadlines to secure product certifications, an external expert provides the necessary compliance bandwidth. This approach is also valuable when a project requires specialized safety knowledge, such as transition strategies for new functional safety standards, or when an independent, third-party assessment is necessary to satisfy regulatory bodies before production begins.
Meet FRATCH Safety Engineers
Abdelhak Mahou
Network Architect
Last position:
Network Architect at Bechtle Managed Services GmbH
- Created as-is network documentation for a Bechtle customer
- Analyzed existing configurations and adjusted them
- Advised on Fortinet and Check Point products
- Troubleshot complex routing, switching and application issues
- Tools: MS Azure, FortiManager, Cisco Nexus & Catalyst, Cisco WLAN Controller, Citrix Netscaler SD-WAN, MS Visio, Checkpoint VSX, Wireshark
Norman Richter
Occupational Safety Specialist
Last position:
Occupational Safety Specialist at Baltic Distillery GmbH
- Further development of the quality management system
- Conducting internal audits
- Preparing and following up on audits
- Conducting hygiene audits
- Planning external audits
- Creating and tracking deviations
- Document maintenance and creation
- Training employees (food hygiene, product protection)
- Revising supplier management with the purchasing department
- Digitizing the lab and part of the production with new equipment and electronic document management software
- Close cooperation with purchasing, sales, HR, and production management
- Preparing the management review together with senior management
- Acting as measuring equipment coordinator
Ismail Özer
Cyber Security Engineer
Last position:
Security Engineer at HOLON GmbH
- Main contact for product cyber security within the product domain (vehicle) across the full product lifecycle
- Consulting and implementation of ISO 21434 Cybersecurity – Road Vehicles and UNECE R155 CSMS, building an internal security process, OT security/production processes and security, setting up an ISMS, providing expert support for TARAs
- Active support in system or software development at system level, security by design, off-board subsystems (microcontroller/embedded systems, infotainment, cloud, telematics, key management, HSM, etc.), vulnerability management, attack vectors and exploits in cross-functional agile teams and systems engineering (PreeVision), cyber resilience
- Technical support in functional safety (ISO 26262), Polarion, JIRA easeRequirements (addon)
Pascal Farys
Senior Network Security Consultant
Last position:
Senior Network Security Consultant at IT-Systemhaus
- Provided expert level consulting for lifecycle, upgrades and refresh activities
- Used Remedy for effort recording and billing to customers
- Used ServiceNow for service management and workflow
- Used Jira for project management with agile/Scrum methods
- Used Confluence for documentation
- Worked with customer-specific software tools
- Worked with customer-provided and secured hardware suitable for IT security operations infrastructure setup for customers
- Built firewall rule sets and handed over to service owner and delivery teams
- Environment: Cisco ASA, Cisco Firepower, CSM, Cisco AnyConnect, Cisco ISE, Check Point VSX and gateways
Ralf Hirsch
HSE Manager
Last position:
HSE Manager at Hitachi Energy
- New build of a converter station in Nortorf/Wilster for Tennet.
- Supervision and coordination of the companies involved in the project.
- Advice and support for the commissioning project management on all occupational and fire safety issues.
- Instruction of companies and their employees about the project specifics during commissioning.
- Requesting and collecting job descriptions and associated risk assessments.
- Supervision and issuing of work permits for respective tasks.
- Monitoring compliance with legal requirements for occupational and fire safety on construction sites.
- Maintaining incident statistics and analyzing incidents.
- Regular inspections and documentation.
- Conducting kick-off meetings with client and contractors.
- Monitoring and ensuring compliance with specific work details.
- Monitoring and ensuring proper protective measures during work.
Seyed Farhad Miri
Senior Product Security Engineer
Last position:
Senior Product Security Engineer at Delivery Hero
- Developed a custom tool using the Mistral 7B LLM to scan, validate and report security vulnerabilities.
- Security tested AI agents, bots, and other LLMs with a focus on prompt injection, model inversion, data poisoning, EDR/AV bypass and evasion techniques, membership inference, model evasion, overfitting to malicious inputs and contextual manipulation.
- Onboarded repositories to SAST solutions for security scanning, implemented secrets scanning, DAST, SCA, and utilized ZAP for DAST in CI/CD pipelines.
- Engaged in security awareness trainings, developed CTF challenges and training materials to enhance developer security knowledge.
- Planned and executed bi-annual red teaming operations based on the MITRE ATT&CK framework and led internal and external pentests based on the OWASP Top 10 framework for 70+ applications worldwide, resulting in detection, reporting, and remediation of hundreds of vulnerabilities.
- Triaged HackerOne reports.
Sven Drews
Occupational Safety Specialist and Personnel Trainer / Managing Director
Last position:
Occupational Safety Specialist and Personnel Trainer / Managing Director at Safety and Consulting
- Strategic and operational management with full P&L responsibility.
- Professional leadership in occupational safety and personnel training.
- Designing and conducting safety training sessions and workshops.
- Providing consulting services in various safety areas.
- Developing customized safety solutions for clients.
- Continuously analyzing and adjusting safety measures.
Evgenii Trembach
IT-Cybersecurity Engineer
Last position:
IT-Cybersecurity Engineer at EuroTechStudy
Eberhard Löll
Competent Person for Explosion Protection
Last position:
Competent Person for Explosion Protection at Ölwerke Schindler
Development of an explosion protection concept for a planned pilot plant
Sascha Picchiantano
Security Engineer
Last position:
Security Engineer at Kyndryl
- Operating and further developing a SASE infrastructure based on Netskope
Erik Rippel
Consulting Safety Engineer
Last position:
Consulting Safety Engineer at SGA-Ingenieur
André Itter
PhD in Engineering / Safety Engineer / HSE Manager and Occupational Safety Specialist
Last position:
HSE Manager and Occupational Safety Specialist at Tesla
Annika Kisser
Occupational Safety Specialist Training 3.0
Last position:
HSQE Management
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Safety Engineers statistics
Typical experience
23 years
Average project duration
3.3 years
Certifications per freelancer
7
Top business areas
Operations, Quality Assurance, Project Management
Top industries
Professional Services, Manufacturing, Information Technology
Most common languages
German, English, Arabic
Bachelor's degree or higher
88%
Master's degree or higher
25%
Doctorate
13%
Salary / 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 Safety Engineers & 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
Want to learn more? Find helpful information about FRATCH
While an HSE manager focuses on environmental protection and occupational health guidelines, a safety engineer concentrates on the technical safety of systems, machinery, and products. They analyze technical risks, design fail-safe architectures, and ensure compliance with directives like the Machinery Directive.
In Germany, a freelance safety engineer regularly applies European and international standards such as ISO 13849 for machinery, ISO 26262 for automotive systems, and IEC 61508 for electrical systems. They also align their work with German guidelines like the Betriebssicherheitsverordnung.
A technical safety consultant can perform hazard analyses and document safety concepts remotely. However, physical machinery inspections and final safety validation testing in Germany typically require on-site presence at the production facility.
Hiring a freelance safety specialist is highly beneficial during intense product development phases, system launches, or when preparation for a CE audit creates peak workloads. Freelancers bring immediate expertise without the long-term overhead of a permanent hire.
A qualified functional safety professional should hold recognized certifications, such as TÜV Functional Safety Engineer, and have a strong engineering background. Experience with German regulatory bodies like the Berufsgenossenschaften is also a major advantage.
An external safety design engineer acts as an advisor to the development team, translating abstract safety standards into concrete technical design requirements. They conduct joint FMEA workshops and review technical drawings to ensure safety is integrated early.
The quality of a safety analysis expert is reflected in the clarity of their hazard logs, the robustness of their safety concepts, and the seamless approval of their documentation by external certification bodies. Good experts deliver documentation that stands up to strict regulatory scrutiny.
Yes, because many local regulations, worker safety guidelines, and interactions with German authorities are conducted in German, a safety engineering consultant working in Germany often needs professional proficiency in both German and English.
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Philipp Thomaschewski
FRATCH CEO
