THE ROLE
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, fill the gaps with bespoke 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 or create innovative solutions to contain the issue and resolve the problem.
WHAT YOU WILL OWN
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. You will also 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 and internal technical design 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. Some projects or components will require detailed designs driven by and you will be expected to run the full spectrum from ground up design to higher level integration.
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. You 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. You will 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…