Vehicle Platform Engineering Lead (Closure Systems) - Glydways

About Glydways

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.

Team Overview

The Vehicle Platform Engineering Team is responsible for the design, validation, and delivery of the Glydways Autonomous Transit Vehicle hardware to align with the installation of the Glydways mass transit system. The team works with internal engineering and vendors and is responsible for delivering a vehicle design that generates a fantastic experience for customers while meeting mass transit regulations and all performance criteria. The team works cross-functionally with product design, test validation, external suppliers, and prototype and production manufacturers to design, develop, and build a unique vehicle architecture.

Roles & Responsibilities

• Own the technical roadmap and product delivery for Glydways door and closure systems, including structures, mechanisms, rails, latches, seals, actuators, sensors, interfaces, electrical & electronic systems, and related software.
• Translate vehicle-level requirements into closure-system requirements, architectures, design decisions, verification plans, and acceptance criteria.
• Lead the design and integration of complex mechanisms, including kinematics, actuator selection, latch and hinge integration, packaging, tolerance definition, and interface management.
• Drive cross-functional alignment across mechanical, electrical, software, systems, product, safety, validation, manufacturing, quality, industrial design, and operations teams.
• Coordinate technical work with external engineering, manufacturing partners, and suppliers across Japan, the United States, and Europe.
• Lead prototype builds, vehicle integration, durability testing, root-cause investigations, design iterations, and production-readiness activities within a demanding development and build schedule.
• Anticipate manufacturing, assembly, service, quality, reliability, and cost challenges through design-for-manufacturability and design-for-assembly practices.
• Establish effective processes for requirements, issue tracking, design reviews, change management, documentation, and decision-making.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Significant experience developing automotive closures or complex mechanical and electromechanical systems through multiple product-development stages; sliding-door experience is highly valuable.
• Strong understanding of mechanism design, kinematics, actuators, latches, hinges, seals, tolerance management, design verification, and reliability.
• Experience collaborating with suppliers, manufacturing partners, and cross-functional teams in automotive, mobility, robotics, aerospace, or a similar complex-product environment.
• Strong communication, organization, judgment, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to work independently in an ambiguous and rapidly changing international and multicultural environment.
• Experience taking a closure system or complex mechanism from concept through sourcing, validation, production, and launch.
• Working knowledge of design for manufacturability, design for assembly, GD&T, tolerance analysis, FMEA, and quality-planning methods.
• Experience with CATIA, 3DX, or comparable CAD and PLM tools, at least DMU-level proficiency; experience using CAE tools for product development is a plus.
• Professional fluency in English; Japanese language skills are a plus.
• Willingness and ability to travel internationally, including extended collaboration or assignments in Japan and the United States, as business needs require.