Director of Embedded Systems & Hardware

Socket.dev; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance

Life and Disability Insurance

Paid Family Leave

401k Matching

Collaborative work environment

Job summary

Socket.dev in Austin, TX is seeking a Director of Firmware and Hardware Engineering to lead a senior, multi-discipline team building rugged embedded systems. This on-site role combines strategic architecture with hands-on direction to ensure cohesive system-level delivery.

You will drive AI-first practices across firmware, electronics, and mechanical work, set design standards, and mentor engineers toward system-level thinking while delivering measurable field performance improvements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
• 10+ years shipping embedded products with deep firmware expertise (C/C++, RTOS, low power, connectivity).
• 2+ years leading engineers as a people manager or technical lead.
• Electronics literacy to lead schematic/layout reviews and power/EMI trade-offs.
• Mechanical fluency for packaging, DFM, and contract-manufacturer direction.
• Daily use of AI tools in engineering with measurable impact.
• Track record from concept through production and field performance.
• Experience coaching teams to co-design at the system level.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership across firmware, electronics, and mechanical engineering to ship one integrated system.
• Champion an AI-first design framework across hardware disciplines.
• Set and enforce firmware standards, reviews, and field-release hygiene.
• Oversee early system validation and bench/HIL-driven issue catching.
• Lead a small multi-discipline team and coach engineers toward system-level thinking.
• Establish KPIs for schedule, quality, field issues, and release health.
• Own high-severity field issues and drive root-cause analysis into design.
• Partner with Product on technician- and user-centered design decisions.

Skills

Firmware engineering

C/C++ programming

RTOS/bare-metal

Low-power operation

Connectivity integration

People management

System-level ownership

AI tooling adoption

HIL/CI collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering or Computer Science

Tools

HIL/CI tooling

Job description

Socket.dev in Austin, TX is seeking a Director of Firmware and Hardware Engineering to lead a senior, multi-discipline team building rugged embedded systems. This on-site role combines strategic architecture with hands-on direction to ensure cohesive system-level delivery.

You will drive AI-first practices across firmware, electronics, and mechanical work, set design standards, and mentor engineers toward system-level thinking while delivering measurable field performance improvements.