Systems Engineer – Autonomous Vehicles

Who we are:
Glydways is reimagining what public transit can be. We believe that mobility is the gateway to opportunity—connecting people to housing, education, employment, commerce, and care. By making transportation more accessible, affordable, and sustainable, we empower communities to thrive and unlock economic and social prosperity.
Our mission is to revolutionize transit with a solution that delivers high capacity, exceptional user experiences, unmatched affordability, and minimal environmental impact.
The Glydways system is a groundbreaking network of carbon-neutral, interconnected transit pathways powered by standardized autonomous vehicles on dedicated roadways. Operating 24/7 with on-demand access, it offers personalized and efficient mobility—without the burden of heavy upfront infrastructure costs or ongoing taxpayer subsidies.
With Glydways, we’re building more than a transportation system; we’re creating a future where everyone, everywhere, has the freedom to move.
Note this role is onsite in Richmond, CA for 4-5 days per week. This is not a network engineering / DevOps role.
Meet the team:
At Glydways, our Systems team is responsible for architecting and verifying complex functional, logical, hardware, and software systems. We work across autonomy, vehicle hardware, safety, infrastructure, and operations to ensure the Glydways system is safe, reliable, and a great product experience. Sitting at the intersection of product vision and engineering execution, we own system requirements, the architecture of safety functions, vehicle definition, and infrastructure guidelines.
Role Overview:
We are seeking a Systems Engineer to bring clarity, rigor, and technical depth to our fast-growing transportation program. This role is perfect for someone who can take vague, open-ended questions – How do we establish ground truth? How close can the vehicles drive to each other? What is comfortable braking? What does comfortable mean? – and drive them to concrete, testable requirements.
The ideal candidate thrives in ambiguity, uncovers the right questions, and applies cross-disciplinary knowledge to solve them. We’re looking for someone who has shipped real products, understands design engineering tradeoffs, and wants to raise the bar through strong requirements writing, Jama discipline, FTA/FMEA rigor, and verification design.
Responsibilities:

Become a domain expert in the Glydways system and share that expertise broadly across the organization.
Decompose top-level functions, behaviors, and features into clear, testable system requirements.
Drive system architecture and design alignment through trade studies, data analysis, and structured decision-making.
Define verification and validation strategies at the integrated system level.
Derive technical requirements (hardware, software, and infrastructure) requirements that balance performance, safety, and budget constraints.
Collaborate with the Safety Engineering team to contribute to the functional safety case.
Conduct analyses (hazard analysis, FTA, and FMEA) to anticipate and mitigate system risks.
Partner with cross-functional teams (autonomy, embedded, hardware, product, infrastructure, operations) to ensure requirements are actionable, measurable, and aligned with program goals.
Diagnose potential system failures, analyze impacts, and propose mitigations.
Ideal Characteristics:

Can turn ambiguity into clarity: drive vague, high-level questions into concrete, testable requirements.
Knows which questions matter most: generates many, but focuses on the critical few.
Has shipped products.
Brings cross-functional depth: ideally with a background in mechanical, electrical, embedded, or software design engineering.
Raises the bar for rigor: requirements traceability, verification planning, safety analysis, and disciplined systems thinking.
Qualifications:
Please apply, even if you don't meet 100% of the qualifications!
We're looking for the best candidates coming with a great skillset who can also learn on the job.
Required

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
6-10+ years of experience in a relevant industry.
3+ years of experience in systems engineering, system architecture.
Strong foundation in systems engineering fundamentals: requirements, architecture, verification/validation.
Demonstrated ability to work across large, complex, multi-disciplinary teams.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
Preferred / Bonus

Master’s degree in Systems, Mechanical, Electrical, or Software Engineering.
Experience with safety-critical systems (FTA, FMEA, hazard analysis, ISO 26262).
Experience with autonomous vehicles, robotics, transit systems, or complex hardware/software integrated products
Familiarity with system test environments (HIL, SIL, simulation frameworks).
Data analysis. Proficiency in Python.
Experience with systems engineering tools (e.g., Jama, SysML, DOORS).
Proven track record of delivering safety-critical products to market.
The pay range for this position at commencement of employment in California is expected in the range below.
$180,000-$250,000 USD plus stock options, commensurate with experience.
Glydways provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.