Founding Engineer · Embedded Software
Every line of software on the device: firmware, drivers, power behavior and how the product feels in your hands.
Position summary
You own all software on the device: firmware, drivers, power behavior and the on-device experience, including the interactive games and play modes that ship with the product. You become the software backbone the product team extends after launch.
This is a permanent role on the core team: end-to-end work with hardware, product and AI, from bring-up on dev boards through production units and factory test support.
Key responsibilities
- Device firmware: drivers, boot flow, power modes, sleep and wake, runtime behavior.
- Integration of software across hardware modules into one coherent architecture: SoC, radios, audio, sensors, storage.
- On-device interactive experiences: the games and play modes that ship with the release.
- Hardware validation support: production image flashing, factory test hooks, debug tooling and issue triage with the hardware team.
- The software release path: build system, versioning, OTA or update workflow, and documentation for manufacturing and the developers who come after you.
Required qualifications
Read this block before applying. If most of these are a no, we won't be able to take you on this role, and we'll both lose the time.
- 10+ years in embedded or device software, with at least two shipped consumer or IoT products where you owned firmware end to end.
- Strong C/C++ on resource-constrained targets. You read schematics and datasheets alongside hardware engineers.
- Hands-on driver and BSP work: GPIO, I2C, SPI, UART, storage, audio or display. Application-only mobile development is not a fit here.
- Power management: sleep modes, wake sources, battery-aware behavior, stable boot and recovery paths.
- Production readiness: you have built and supported images for factory flashing, written production test procedures and debugged real hardware in the field.
- RTOS or embedded Linux in production: FreeRTOS, Zephyr or equivalent. Be ready to explain the real-time and stability trade-offs you made.
- Build and CI for firmware: reproducible builds, artifact versioning and a working path to ship updates after launch.
Nice to have
- Smart toys, voice companions, wearables or kids consumer devices.
- WiFi and BLE bring-up, pairing and reconnect behavior on constrained hardware.
- On-device audio pipeline: capture, playback and latency-sensitive interaction.
- OTA updates with rollback and safe-fail behavior.
- AI on edge: on-device inference, wake word or streaming to cloud agents.
Stack
- Languages: C, C++, Python for tooling and test automation
- Embedded: FreeRTOS, Zephyr or Embedded Linux; CMake and Make build systems
- Interfaces: I2C, SPI, UART, GPIO, common SoC vendor SDKs
- Practices: Git, firmware CI, JTAG/SWD debug, logic analyzer and scope workflows
Success metrics
This is what the work in this role is measured against, and what we'll walk through at the final interview.
- Drivers, firmware, power modes and device behavior implemented and stable on target hardware.
- A production-grade image delivered, with support for factory test and manufacturing flows.
- All component software mapped into a single documented architecture the team can extend without you.
Employment terms
- Format
- Full-time, remote. Sync windows by agreement, CET as the anchor.
- Location
- Europe and LATAM
- Compensation
- $6,000–10,000/mo: base plus bonuses for shipped releases
- Equity
- Options or equity in the products you lead
- Venture studio
- The option to launch your own startup inside the studio: infrastructure, team, funding, network
- Network
- Direct work with Silicon Valley funds and the studio founders
What we offer
- The option to launch your own startup inside the venture studio.
- A fixed base set by role and stream, plus bonuses for shipped releases and metrics hit.
- Revenue share on the product or stream and options in the pool. You earn like a co-owner.
- A fast track earned by results: more products, more budget, more equity.
- Remote-first, flexible hours, core overlap 15:00–19:00 CET. Work from anywhere.
- Direct access to the founders and an AI-native stack with a budget. No five layers of approvals.
How the process works
We hire slowly and deliberately. Every step is about keeping it honest and aligned for both sides.
Screening
We read every application ourselves, no ATS black box. Then a short call with the hiring team to align on experience, expectations and motivation.
Deep interview
A long conversation with the stream lead about your track record, real cases and how you decide under uncertainty.
Culture fit
One-on-ones with the core team and a founder. We look at values, ethics and how you behave when things get hard.
References
We talk to people you've actually worked with. Hygiene for us, not a formality, and we always do it.
Pilot contract
Two to four weeks on a real product with a clear Definition of Done and concrete artifacts. We don't give take-home tasks.
A 30/60/90 plan and the long game
We match results both ways, set a plan for the first three months and go long. Or part ways honestly.