Senior Hardware Systems Integration Engineer

Volley Automation • Denver, CO

5d • Onsite

About The Position

Volley Automation is building the future of parking through fully automated robotic parking systems. Our mission is to create sustainable parking solutions that are compact, efficient, and adaptable throughout a building’s lifecycle, while making EV charging easier and more accessible. Volley Automation builds fully automated parking. Drivers hand off their car at the entry bay and walk away. From there the building takes over: AGVs move vehicles on trays, vertical conveyors move them between floors, and a controls and software stack orchestrates everything. The result is a garage that fits more cars into less concrete, in exactly the urban cores where parking is most expensive to build. Our systems go into real buildings, on real construction schedules, with real occupancy dates. That constraint shapes everything about how we build, develop, and engineer our product.

Volley's parking system is not one machine. It is a system of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), vertical conveyors and lifts, trays, EV charging, vehicle interchange bays, doors and safety interlocks, fire and life-safety systems, building controls, and the software that drives all of it. Some elements of the system we design while others come from outside suppliers that we integrate and optimize through partnerships. Making all of it behave as one performant and integrated system is the engineering challenge in front of us.This role owns that problem. You will define the interface specifications, flow requirements down to vendors, review their designs, and define what "acceptable" means and what evidence proves it. When a subsystem misbehaves, you are the engineer who can reason across mechanical, electrical, controls, and software to say why, and can support driving the process with supporting functions (e.g. operations) to get it fixed. You set the standard and build the evidence that translates to fielded system performance. When something behaves differently at a customer site than it did in Denver, you are the technical authority they escalate to and seek innovative solutions to contain the issue and resolve the problem.

Requirements

• BS in engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, or Computer Science), or equivalent experience
• 8+ years developing and deploying complex electromechanical or robotic systems, including at least one you followed all the way into the field
• Deep experience with CAD tools, drawing generation, and lifecycle management
• Experience with configuration management best practices, processes, and/or systems
• Willingness to be in our Denver office five days a week. This is not a hybrid or remote role. The prospect of joining an in person dynamic team is exciting to you.
• Demonstrated ownership of system-level architecture: interface control documents, requirements flow-down, tolerance and error budgets, and the discipline to keep them current when the design moves
• Real experience as the technical owner of an outside supplier: writing the specification, reviewing their design, defining acceptance, and holding the line on deviations or changes, and executing change management when it is required
• The ability to troubleshoot across domains (mechanical, electrical, controls, software, and operations), and to take on the problems that sit between owners
• A track record of raising the technical bar around you: mentoring less experienced engineers, reviewing others' designs or architecture decision, and getting a cross-functional group to converge on a decision without holding authority over anyone
• Working fluency with industrial communications and controls: Modbus, OPC UA, CAN, TCP/IP, PLCs, servo and motor drives, safety-rated I/O, and sensing (depth, vision, position, temperature, current)
• Enough Linux and Python to pull logs apart and test a hypothesis yourself. You do not need to be a software engineer, but you do need to be able to read one's work
• Literacy in safety and agency certification: hazard analysis, risk assessment, creating functional safety concepts, and the practical realities of UL, IEC, ISO, and CE
• A high tolerance for ambiguity, and the judgment to know when to resolve it with a decision versus a test
• Writing that holds up: a specification a vendor can build to and a test report a reader can act on

Nice To Haves

• Experience with software development in ROS/ROS2, C++, and/or Python
• AGV/AMR fleet integration generally and more applicable VDA5050 or comparable interface protocols
• Vertical transport and material handling: VRCs, scissor lifts, and conveyors, and the standards that govern them (ASME B20.1, ISO 13849, and for automated parking specifically, EN 14010)
• EV charging, including automated or robotic charging, OCPP, and NFPA 70 Article 625
• Work with building codes and authorities having jurisdiction: IBC, IMC, NFPA, permit review, alternative means and methods
• Requirements and model-based systems engineering tooling, used because it helped rather than because it was mandated
• Automotive or vehicle integration, debugging and troubleshooting experience
• Having built the process, not just followed it and ideally in early-stage environments where the standard is whatever you wrote down and others adhere to it because its the right way to execute
• Formal training or experience with problem resolution processes

Responsibilities

• System architecture, interface control, and configuration management.
• Define and maintain the interfaces between subsystems: mechanical envelopes and tolerance stack-ups, power and grounding, signal and network topology, command and state semantics, timing, and failure behavior.
• Own the interface control documents and keep them true, because in this system those gaps can lead to failures with a lead time.
• Own the configuration management of the HW system, both as built/deployed as well as under development evolution.
• Requirements flow-down and traceability. Translate customer commitments, site constraints, and building code obligations into verifiable requirements on each subsystem, and keep the thread from a customer's throughput number to a supplier's acceptance test intact.
• Supplier technical ownership. Be the technical counterpart to our AGV, vertical transport, charging, and controls suppliers, from specification and RFQ through design review, factory acceptance, and warranty.
• Evaluate platforms on their merits, write specifications a vendor can actually build to, and say no when what shows up is not what was specified.
• Integration and protocol conformance. We drive supplier AGVs over VDA5050. Other subsystems speak Modbus, OPC UA, CAN, and vendor-specific APIs. You will own conformance to the interface spec and make sure vendor deviations stay documented and contained at the boundary rather than leaking into our architecture.
• The acceptance standard. Define what gets proven at the bench, at the supplier's factory, at our Denver test facility, and on site, and what evidence closes each requirement.
• Author the acceptance criteria and test plans that the field team executes against, and you are the one who judges whether the results clear the bar.
• The interface to the building. Automated parking lives inside civil and structural reality: slab flatness and levelness, clearances, structural deflection, power, ventilation, and fire protection.
• Define what the building has to provide, and work with architects, general contractors, and code consultants when what was built diverges from what was drawn.
• Technical leadership. This is an individual contributor role and it stays one in the immediate future. Your leverage comes from your own judgment, your specifications, and the decisions you make, not from headcount.
• As the program grows you may have an engineer or two working under you, and you will set their technical direction and review their work, but the job is to build, not to manage.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental and Vision coverage covered up to 90% for employee and 75% for dependents.
• 401(k) plan with matching contributions
• Generous paid time off
• Paid Holidays
• Life & Disability coverage

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior