Senior Systems Engineer - Autonomous Vehicles

Glydways•Richmond, VA

16h•Hybrid

About The Position

Glydways is reimagining public transit with 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. The Systems team is responsible for architecting and verifying complex functional, logical, hardware, and software systems, working across autonomy, vehicle hardware, safety, infrastructure, and operations to ensure the Glydways system is safe, reliable, and provides a great product experience. They own system requirements, the architecture of safety functions, vehicle definition, and infrastructure guidelines. As a Senior Systems Engineer – GATN (Glydways Automated Transit Network), you will be the technical owner for how new features and system changes are implemented on the guideway. You will design, create requirements, and demonstrate novel features, judge the health of safety functions using logs and metrics, define and execute integration test plans, and drive issues to closure to ensure the system operates safely and meets availability targets. This role involves hands-on work at the track, with logs and dashboards, and in tools to translate system needs into concrete scenarios, parameters, and decisions. The position is ideal for someone who has shipped complex hardware/software systems, enjoys integration and test work, and is comfortable managing complexity in a multi-team environment.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
4+ years of experience in a relevant industry.
1+ years of experience in systems integration and test, system test, or verification and validation for complex hardware/software systems
Ability to collaborate across diverse teams (autonomy, embedded, systems, operations, product) and drive alignment without direct authority.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
Experience planning and executing integration or systems-level test campaigns, including scenario design, success criteria and analysis.
Strong root-cause skills across software and hardware interfaces
Comfort working hands-on at the test track
A desire to figure out what to build next

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Systems, Mechanical, Electrical, or Software Engineering.
Experience with autonomous vehicles, robotics, transit systems, or complex hardware/software integrated products
Familiarity with system test environments (HIL, SIL, simulation frameworks).
Experience with systems engineering tools (e.g., Jama, SysML, DOORS).
Proven track record of delivering safety-critical products to market.
Exposure to safety and reliability topics (e.g., safety functions, operational envelopes, availability metrics, RAMS) and how they show up in system integration work.

Responsibilities

Own feature landing for GATN: Design, plan and execute integration of new system capabilities on the track (product features including reduced headways, fail-operational behaviors, meeting availability targets, ticket kiosk flows, dispatch behaviors, new ATP functions).
Define and run integration scenarios: Design Tier 2+ integration scenarios that exercise safety functions, throughput behaviors, and operational workflows across vehicles, wayside, and dispatch / OCC.
Improve regression and mileage test suites: Improve the regression test suite and mileage-accumulation campaigns that gate releases, including test selection, ordering, and coverage criteria for GATN features.
Guardrail and safety-function health: Review logs, metrics, and track behavior to judge the health of safety functions (e.g., separation assurance, route obstruction, emergency stop behaviors), and recommend parameter or design changes where needed.
Drive release readiness: Partner with Systems Engineering, Autonomy, Vehicle SI, and Operations to define entry/exit criteria for on-track testing, release candidates, and feature “go live” decisions.
Coordinate multi-vehicle and multi-site integration: Support integration efforts across project sites (e.g., GDF2 and customer locations), including parity targets, mobile test sites, and project-specific constraints.
Translate requirements into track reality: Write system-level requirements, CONOPs, and analysis outputs from the Systems Engineering & Architecture team and ensure they are implemented, testable, and validated on the GATN.
Triage and root cause issues: Lead technical triage when integration or regression tests fail—coordinate logs, reproduce issues, work with domain owners, and drive to clear, documented resolutions.
Improve integration process and tooling: Identify gaps in test infrastructure, logging, metrics, and configuration management that slow down feature landing; propose and help implement improvements.
Communicate clearly and often: Provide crisp status on feature readiness, risks, and blockers; document decisions and operational guardrails so that product, operations, and leadership have a clear picture of system state.