Professor Burton currently holds the chair of systems safety at the University of York.
His research explores the intersection of systems safety engineering, artificial intelligence and the legal/ethical and regulatory considerations necessary to form convincing safety assurance arguments for complex, autonomous and AI-based systems.
He has several decades of experience in research, development and consulting including at DaimlerChrysler (Mercedes) and Bosch. Most recently he was scientific director for safety assurance at the Fraunhofer Institute of Cognitive Systems. He is very active in several standardisation committees including being a convenor of the ISO working group (ISO TC22/SC32/WG14) on safety and AI for road vehicles. This work led to the development of the ISO PAS 8800 Road vehicles - Safety and artificial intelligence standard.