---
title: 'Closures Engineering Lead at Glydways'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/closures-engineering-lead-glydways-remote-bj62j70vqsn7'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Closures Engineering Lead at Glydways

- **Company:** Glydways
- **Location:** Remote
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-09-04
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/glydways/jobs/5230666007

## Job description

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.

Meet the team:

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 to deliver 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 (Similar to studio engineering or product requirement team), 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.

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.

## About Glydways

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Glydways designs, builds, and operates a private, on-demand autonomous public transit system using dedicated guideways and self-driving “Glydcars,” aiming to deliver high-capacity, low-cost, and environmentally net-negative mobility.
- **Entity Type**: Private (venture-funded; raised a $170M oversubscribed Series C in 2026)
- **Headquarters**: South San Francisco, California, USA (with additional office in Richmond, CA)
- **Founded**: 2016
- **Founders**: Mark Seeger (Co-CEO) and Blake Barber (Co-CEO, CTO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Autonomous transportation / transit technology
- **Target customers**: Municipal governments, transit authorities, and development districts (B2G/B2B)
- **Mission/Purpose**: “Access to mobility is access to opportunity” – the company believes that affordable, congestion-free transit is the key to economic and social equity, and it designs systems to be financially self-sustaining rather than subsidy-dependent.

## Products & Services
- **Glydways Transit System**: A complete autonomous network consisting of small, self-driving Glydcars running on dedicated lightweight guideways. The system provides point-to-point, on-demand rides with no intermediate stops. It integrates photovoltaic power generation to achieve net-negative greenhouse gas emissions. The first networks are expected to launch in 2026 in Atlanta, Contra Costa County (CA), San Jose, and Abu Dhabi.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not disclosed (private company). Latest funding round: $170M oversubscribed Series C (April 2026).
- **Key Metric**: Total disclosed funding exceeds the Series C amount; earlier rounds not detailed in search results.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**:
  - Abu Dhabi Investment Office – partnership announced March 2026
  - Multiple municipal partners: Atlanta (debut system near airport), Contra Costa County, San Jose
- **Growth Signals**:
  - First operational networks scheduled for 2026
  - Oversubscribed Series C indicates strong investor confidence
  - Expanding to international markets (Abu Dhabi) alongside US deployments
  - Headcount ~86 total employees (per Built In) with active hiring across engineering, finance, and cybersecurity

## Competitive Advantages
- **Cost leadership**: Claims 90% lower build cost and 30% lower operating cost versus conventional rail transit
- **High capacity**: Can move up to 10,000 people per hour per direction at scale
- **GHG-negative**: Designed with built-in photovoltaics and ultra-efficient power consumption
- **Financial sustainability**: Business model allows private capitalization of entire systems, eliminating need for ongoing public subsidies
- **Commodity supply chains**: Uses existing, off-the-shelf technologies rather than custom hardware

## Strategic Focus
- **Immediate priority**: Launch the first autonomous transit networks in 2026 (Atlanta, Contra Costa, San Jose, Abu Dhabi)
- **Long-term direction**: Expand to additional cities globally, scale manufacturing, and prove the model of privately-financed, subsidy-free public transit
- **Technical focus**: Refine autonomy stack, integrate with existing urban infrastructure, and reduce per-mile costs further

## Why Work Here
- **Culture highlights**: A team “united by purpose” – employees are driven by solving climate and mobility challenges at infrastructure scale. Leadership emphasizes “better transit unlocks better cities.”
- **Remote/Hybrid policy**: Mixed. Some roles are listed as “Remote” (e.g., Autonomy Integration Software Engineer, Cybersecurity Engineer), while others are “Hybrid” or “In-Office” based in Richmond, CA (e.g., Financial Analyst, Compute Platform Engineer). The Built In profile notes “In-Office or Remote” options.
- **Notable perks/engineering culture**: Deep autonomy experience – CTO Blake Barber previously worked at MIT Lincoln Lab, Lockheed Martin, Uber ATG, and Aurora Innovation. The company offers roles in cutting-edge autonomous systems, embedded software, vehicle integration, and data platform engineering. The work directly addresses climate change and urban congestion.

## Sources
1. [glydways.com](https://www.glydways.com)
2. [glydways.com/about](https://www.glydways.com/about/)
3. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/glydways)
4. [cbsnews.com](https://www.cbsnews.com/atlanta/news/atlanta-to-debut-autonomous-glydways-transit-system-near-airport/)
5. [greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/glydways)

## Other roles at Glydways

- [Site Safety Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/site-safety-manager-glydways-atlanta-vwcfa72j31aw) — Atlanta, GA
- [Accounting Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/accounting-manager-glydways-richmond-42c7zhbj0pm5) — Richmond, CA
- [Autonomy Software Engineer, Integration](https://feeny.ai/job/autonomy-software-engineer-integration-glydways-richmond-erh7cf4qr926) — Richmond, CA
- [Autonomous Vehicle Engineering Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/autonomous-vehicle-engineering-technician-glydways-atlanta-gsvbyg13te9j) — Atlanta, GA
- [Staff Systems Engineer - Autonomous Vehicles](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-systems-engineer-autonomous-vehicles-glydways-remote-q11djt2pd8zs)
- [Senior Systems Engineer - Autonomous Vehicles](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-systems-engineer-autonomous-vehicles-glydways-richmond-0yk04ye2waqg) — Richmond, CA
- [Senior Commercial Counsel](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-commercial-counsel-glydways-remote-6p2n7w808fj7)
- [Software Engineer (Safety & Certification Tooling)](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-safety-certification-tooling-glydways-remote-pbq8p43adkss)
- [Studio Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/studio-engineer-glydways-remote-fbcrdm6w5wr1)
- [Software Engineer, Onboard Integration](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-onboard-integration-glydways-richmond-1bcn8e5eqxg3) — Richmond, CA