Embedded Systems Engineer
Role details
Job location
Tech stack
Job description
- Linux kernel and driver work including device drivers, DMA, interrupts, and userspace interfaces
- Real-time control loops for motion, power, and sensor subsystems
- Hardware and software co-design alongside EEs and mechanical engineers
- Debug at the metal using oscilloscope, logic analyzer, JTAG, and bus traces
- Boot, flash, and update infrastructure for embedded targets including A/B partitions and OTA, * Build more in 1 month than most engineers build in 1 year. We field test weekly. Your work goes downrange, not into a filing cabinet.
- Career velocity is real. At ~10 engineers, there are no layers between you and impact.
- Work on a problem that actually matters. Small cheap drones are changing warfare. Our laser systems are the asymmetric answer - infinite magazine, near zero cost per shot, scalable to every base, border, facility, and truck.
- Join the densest defense startup ecosystem in the country. California is where the next generation of defense companies are being built.
How We Work:
Core hours are Monday through Friday, 9 to 6. When we're sprinting toward a demo or field test, the team ramps up - nights, weekends, whatever it takes to ship. When the sprint lands, we ramp down. We don't manufacture intensity for show.
Requirements
Do you have experience in Python?, Do you have a Bachelor's degree?, * 3 to 8+ years building embedded systems on real hardware
- Strong C and C++ on Linux, plus comfort with Python for tooling
- Hands on Linux kernel, driver, and BSP experience on at least one custom board
- Real-time systems experience including PREEMPT_RT, Xenomai, or RTOS
- Comfortable debugging at the hardware level with scope and logic analyzer
Where you probably come from: Defense companies, robotics, drones, automotive embedded, aerospace, or hardware startups doing real-time embedded work.
We want to talk if: You've shipped embedded code on hardware that has to work outside a lab. You've debugged a problem with a scope at 2am and won.
Not a fit if: You're a pure firmware or FPGA engineer (we have a separate role for that), you're a pure application developer with no hardware debug, or you treat the board as a black box.
Nice to Haves:
- Yocto or Buildroot
- ROS2 integration
- Safety-critical or hard real-time experience
- CAN, EtherCAT, or industrial bus experience
Education:
BS or MS in EE, CE, CS, or equivalent hands-on experience.
How You Operate:
- Extreme bias for action. You ship working code on real hardware, not slideware
- You debug from first principles, not intuition alone
- Comfortable with ambiguity and fast iteration in a startup environment
- Clear communicator across electrical, mechanical, optical, and software teams
- Self directed. You identify what needs to happen next and do it without being told
Benefits & conditions
Pulled from the full job description
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
- Dental insurance, * Competitive salary + equity
- United Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage
- Flexible 18 days PTO + 5 sick days
- Travel to field test events and range days
- Covered daily lunches and office snacks + drinks
- E-bike / scooter stipend ( Up to $500)
- Direct access to leadership and real ownership over your work
Export Control Notice:
This role requires access to export-controlled information or items that require "U.S. Person" status. As defined by U.S. law, individuals who are any one of the following are considered to be a "U.S. Person": (1) U.S. citizens, (2) legal permanent residents (a.k.a. green card holders), and (3) certain protected classes of asylees and refugees, as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).
Compensation Range: $155K - $225K