Solution Design Engineer (Consultant)
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
As a Solution Design Engineer for Glydways, and as part of the Solution Design Team, you will be at the forefront of designing and defining the systems that will drive the next generation of urban mobility. You’ll collaborate with a multidisciplinary team of world-class engineers, designers, planners, and project managers working together to create transit solutions that exceed the expectations of our diverse global customer base.
The Solution Design Team is a critical part of our commercial scaling and project development efforts, as no system is one-size-fits-all. The team is ultimately built around customer success and the competitive application of the Glydways product toward securing contracts. A critical first step is the evaluation of the business opportunity, project risks, and product fit. This results in a flexible team that understands the Glydways product holistically, its strengths and weaknesses, and has the discipline to bring them to the forefront for evaluation, approval, proposal generation, product development education, and ultimately, commercial success.
Roles & Responsibilities
- Evaluate opportunities from new customers to understand requirements, estimate use demand patterns, assess ridership, and clarify/document corridor constraints and operational considerations.
- Translate customer needs and priorities into a Glydways system design optimized for competitiveness through extensive trade-off analyses.
- Develop and apply microscopic traffic simulation models and to support new system design and evaluation, including:
- Fleet sizing based on ridership projections and proposed alignment/routing.
- Optimization of key performance metrics, such as individual rider travel times, wait times, energy consumption, fleet utilization.
- Performance and cost comparison against traditional aggregated transit modes (bus/train).
- Simulation-based demonstration of new system features, operating modes, and user experience.
- Crowd and user experience simulation.
- Investigate product gaps and conduct high-level market research to determine solutions. Collaborate cross-functionally with engineering, design, and commercial teams to estimate development and implementation risks/costs for new features and products.
- Work with the team to ensure insights are incorporated into proposals and support the commercial effort.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
System problem solving:
- Ability to analyze system-level problems and conduct trade-offs using strong analytical skills.
- Ability to conduct research, evaluate project backgrounds, and review reports.
- Strong communication skills for simplifying rigorous research and explaining concepts effectively.
- Passion for innovation, sustainability, and solving inequality through mobility.
System modeling:
- Strong programming skills, preferably with Python and Visual Basic.
- 3D modeling, for example using Sketchup or Rhino. Experience with BIM would be a plus.
- Experience with transportation modeling is preferred, ideally familiar with microscopic simulation tools such as Vissim/Viswalk or SUMO.
Employment Requirements:
- Minimum duration of 3 months, 20-40 hours per week minus observed holidays.
- Hybrid work with a minimum of one in-office day per week in San Francisco.
- Opportunity for contract extension or transition to a full-time position based on performance and business needs.
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.