Embedded Software Engineer, Perception (All Levels)

JobVista; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 154,000 - 212,000; Full time

Job summary

Parallel Systems in Los Angeles is seeking an Embedded Software Engineer, Perception, to build low-level firmware powering sensor stacks on our autonomous, battery-electric rail vehicles.

You will own drivers, kernel components, and performance optimizations across CUDA/TensorRT and Jetson Tegra, collaborating with hardware and ML teams; requires 4+ years in embedded or systems software and strong Linux knowledge.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS/EE or related field.
• 4+ years in embedded, firmware, or systems software.
• Strong Linux internals and ARM driver knowledge.
• Proficient in Rust and C++ for systems programming.
• Experience with NVIDIA Jetson/Tegra platforms.
• Experience with high-throughput sensors (cameras, lidar) and data capture.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain drivers, kernel modules, and firmware for embedded Linux on ARM and NVIDIA platforms.
• Write low-level systems software in Rust and C/C++ for perception components.
• Build, modify, and optimize drivers for high-throughput sensors, including capture pipelines and synchronization.
• Own performance of sensing hardware; reduce latency and jitter; ensure deterministic pipelines.
• Test and validate sensor configuration changes across firmware and revisions.
• Profile and optimize GPU/kernel performance on NVIDIA platforms (CUDA, TensorRT).

Skills

Embedded Systems

Rust

C++

Linux kernel

Driver development

NVIDIA Jetson

GStreamer

V4L2

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/EE

Tools

Yocto

CUDA

TensorRT

Jetson

Job description

Los Angeles, CA Full Time USD 154,000 - 212,000 12 days ago

About The Job

Parallel Systems is pioneering autonomous battery-electric rail vehicles designed to transform freight transportation by shifting portions of the $900 billion U.S. trucking industry onto rail. Our innovative technology offers cleaner, safer, and more efficient logistics solutions. Join our dynamic team and help shap...

Embedded Software Engineer, Perception (All Levels)

Parallel Systems is seeking an experienced Firmware Engineer to build the low-level software that powers the perception sensing stack on our fully autonomous, battery-electric rail vehicles. In this role, you'll own the drivers, kernel components, and firmware that get high-throughput camera and lidar data off the s...

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain drivers, kernel modules, and firmware for embedded Linux systems running on ARM and NVIDIA (Jetson/Tegra) compute platforms.
• Write low-level systems software in Rust and C/C++ for perception-critical components, from board bring-up through production hardening.
• Build, modify, and optimize drivers for high-throughput sensors such as camera, lidars, IMUs, including capture pipelines, buffer management, and data integrity under sustained load.
• Own the performance of sensing hardware and drive real-time optimizations — implementing timesync, reducing latency and jitter, eliminating dropped frames, and keeping multi-sensor pipelines deterministic under load.
• Test and validate low-level sensor configuration changes across firmware and sensor revisions to confirm correct behavior under different test conditions
• Profile and optimize GPU and kernel-level performance on NVIDIA platforms (CUDA, TensorRT, scheduling, memory/IO) to meet real-time constraints for perception workloads.
• After 30 Days: You've developed a working understanding of our embedded Linux stack, NVIDIA Tegra/Jetson build system, and sensor architecture. You've identified initial performance bottlenecks and created a development plan to address them.
• After 60 Days: You've landed driver or kernel-level improvements on at least one sensor pipeline, contributed hands-on to the Yocto/Tegra build alongside the embedded platform team, and built diagnostics for latency, dropped frames, and timing drift. You're actively contributing to the real-time system that handles sensor data ingestion and feeds ML model inference in production.
• After 90 Days: You own a driver or firmware subsystem end-to-end, with a measurable reduction in latency and jitter and improved timesync across the camera/lidar pipeline. You're contributing to the real-time perception pipeline, including the system handling sensor data and ML model inference, and to GPU/kernel optimization work with clear impact on overall perception throughput.

Required Skills & Abilities

• Bachelor's or higher degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline
• 4+ years of hands‑on experience in embedded, firmware, or systems software engineering.
• Strong knowledge of Linux internals and driver development on ARM-based platforms.
• Proficiency in Rust and C++ for systems‑level programming.
• Experience with NVIDIA embedded platforms (Jetson/Tegra)
• Experience developing or maintaining drivers for high‑throughput sensors such as cameras and/or lidar, including data capture, buffering, and timestamp synchronization.
• Comfortable debugging across the hardware/software boundary (device tree, kernel logs, oscilloscope, logic analyzer).
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with experience working on interdisciplinary teams.
• Experience with GPU and kernel‑level optimization on NVIDIA platforms (CUDA, TensorRT).
• Experience with Yocto‑based builds.
• Hands‑on experience with V4L2, GStreamer, MIPI CSI‑2 camera stacks.

Experience In Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics, Or Other Safety‑critical Domains.

• Familiarity with ROS2, sensor fusion, or SLAM.
• Knowledge of and experience contributing to real‑time perception streaming pipelines, including GStreamer‑based media pipelines.

We are committed to providing fair and transparent compensation in accordance with applicable laws. Salary ranges are listed below and reflect the expected range for new hires in this role, based on factors such as skills, experience, qualifications, and location. Final compensation may vary and will be determined during the interview process. The target hiring range for this position is listed below.

Target Salary Range

$154,000—$212,000 USD

Qualifications

Experience: 4 years experience