Embedded Software Engineer San Jose

Hark, Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Hark, Inc. in San Jose, CA, is looking for a firmware engineer to develop critical firmware components for consumer products. You will be heavily involved with the hardware team, focusing on ARM-based systems, optimizing for battery performance and reliability.

Applicants should have over 3 years of experience with embedded systems, significant C/C++ skills, and familiarity with RTOS. The position offers a comprehensive salary ranging from $120,000 to $300,000 annually, contingent on experience and qualifications.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional firmware or embedded systems development.
• Strong proficiency in C and/or C++ in resource-constrained environments.
• Experience with ARM Cortex-M or Cortex-A processors.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain embedded firmware in C/C++ targeting ARM-based SoCs.
• Own BSP development and peripheral driver integration.
• Optimize power consumption for always-on, battery-powered operation.

Skills

C/C++ programming

Embedded systems development

Debugging tools

RTOS experience

Wireless protocols

Tools

Logic analyzers

Oscilloscopes

JTAG

Job description

Hark is an artificial intelligence company building advanced, personalized intelligence. One that is proactive, multimodal, and capable of interacting with the world through speech, text, vision, and persistent memory.

We're pairing that intelligence with next-generation hardware to create a universal interface between humans and machines. While today's AI largely operates through chat boxes and decade-old devices, Hark is focused on what comes next: agentic systems that interact naturally with people and the real world.

To get there, we're developing multimodal models and next-generation AI hardware together - designed from the ground up as a single, unified interface for a new era of intelligent systems.

About the Role

You'll own critical pieces of the firmware stack that powers Hark's consumer products — from board bring‑up and peripheral drivers to the runtime environment that hosts on‑device intelligence. This isn't firmware in a vacuum. You'll work directly with the hardware team on new silicon and sensor integrations, with the agent team on model execution and memory constraints, and with products on experiences that ship to real users. The problems are real, the constraints are tight, and the work matters immediately.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain embedded firmware in C/C++ targeting ARM‑based SoCs and microcontrollers
• Own BSP development, peripheral driver integration (SPI, I2C, UART, I2S), and RTOS task scheduling
• Optimize power consumption and thermal performance for always‑on, battery‑powered operation
• Build and maintain OTA update infrastructure for reliable field updates
• Collaborate with the on‑device AI team to support model inference within memory and latency budgets
• Develop factory test and calibration firmware for manufacturing
• Debug complex hardware‑software interactions using logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and JTAG

Requirements

• 3+ years of professional firmware or embedded systems development
• Strong proficiency in C and/or C++ in resource‑constrained environments
• Experience with ARM Cortex‑M or Cortex‑A processors and associated toolchains
• Hands‑on experience with RTOS (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or similar)
• Familiarity with wireless protocols (BLE, Wi‑Fi, or Thread)
• Comfort reading schematics and working alongside hardware engineers during board bring‑up
• Experience with embedded debugging tools and workflows

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience with power optimization for battery‑powered consumer devices
• Familiarity with secure boot, firmware signing, or hardware root of trust
• Exposure to ML inference runtimes on embedded platforms
• Experience shipping consumer electronics through EVT/DVT/PVT milestones

Compensation

The US base salary range for this full‑time position is between $120,000 - $300,000 annually.

The pay offered for this position may vary based on several individual factors, including job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package may also include additional components/benefits depending on the specific role. This information will be shared if an employment offer is extended.