Embedded Systems Engineering Lead — Agentic AI Platform

Flexhire; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Full medical, dental & vision coverage

Remote US work

Travel to Shenzhen & Taiwan

Job summary

Flexhire is seeking a hands-on Firmware Engineering Lead to own firmware development in the US and lead the engineering team in Shenzhen.

You will design firmware architecture, manage cross‑zone bring‑up, and bridge hardware execution with software leadership while coordinating with ODMs and silicon partners in Taiwan and China. English communication and travel are essential.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of firmware engineering in consumer electronics or hardware
• Hands-on engineer writing production firmware daily
• Deep Qualcomm platform expertise: BSP bring-up, AOSP, Linux kernel config
• Strong RTOS proficiency and transition from AOSP to RTOS
• Experience leading firmware teams across time zones
• Direct ODM experience with China/Taiwan through NPIs
• Excellent written and verbal English
• BLE/WiFi protocols specialization and low-power firmware

Responsibilities

• Hands-on firmware development on development hardware in the US — active bring‑up, driver development, debugging, and validation
• Design and implement the handoff protocol for around‑the‑clock engineering across time zones
• Firmware architecture across full stack: bootloader, BSP, kernel config, device tree, HAL, sensors, power
• AOSP bring‑up and BSP development; RTOS transition planning and execution
• Technical leadership for Shenzhen firmware team — setting standards, mentoring, feedback
• ODM and silicon vendor relationships — manage technical interface and NPI milestones
• Hardware‑software integration — ensure on‑device AI inference, sensor data pipelines, privacy architecture
• Travel to China/Taiwan regularly — approx 25–30% of time

Skills

Firmware engineering

RTOS

AOSP

Qualcomm BSP

Device tree

Linux kernel

ODM coordination

BLE/WiFi

English communication

Tools

BSP bring-up

Qualcomm platform

Job description

We're building the operating system for the next generation of computing — one where AI agents replace apps, menus disappear, and your technology finally works for you instead of the other way around.

We're a stealth-mode startup with a world‑class founding team with deep roots in consumer AI, extended reality, and wearable technology — including founders of some of the most recognizable hardware and software platforms of the last decade. We're backed by strategic partnerships with leaders in silicon and manufacturing, and we're hiring our first Firmware Engineering Lead to own hands‑on firmware development in the US while providing technical leadership to our engineering team in Shenzhen.

This is a rare opportunity to build the firmware foundation of a platform that doesn't exist yet — on real development hardware, from day one, as part of a genuinely novel around‑the‑clock engineering operation.

Additional product details shared under NDA.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience — range shared in first conversation
• Meaningful early‑stage equity
• Full medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Remote US with approximately 25 to 30 percent travel to Shenzhen and Taiwan

Awear is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Key Responsibilities

This is a deeply hands‑on firmware engineering role with a leadership dimension — not the other way around. It will involve designing firmware architectures, leading device bring‑up sprints, as well as kernel level and user level device drivers authoring and integration.

You will work directly with development hardware in the US, owning active firmware bring‑up and development as part of a continuous engineering operation that runs across time zones. Your counterpart firmware engineers in Shenzhen work their shift. You work yours. Together you design and operate a handoff protocol that keeps development moving around the clock — and you are the person who designs that protocol.

At the same time you are the technical authority for the Shenzhen firmware team — setting direction, reviewing work, unblocking engineers, and bridging the gap between hardware engineering execution and the US product and software leadership. You will also interface directly with our ODM and silicon partners in Taiwan and China, managing the technical relationships that keep hardware delivery on schedule.

You will report directly to the CEO and travel to China and Taiwan regularly — approximately 25 to 30 percent of your time.

We actively use AI‑assisted development tools across our engineering team — Cursor, Claude, Copilot — and expect engineers who use them seriously as a core part of their workflow.

What You Will Build and Own

• Hands‑on firmware development on development hardware in the US — active bring‑up, driver development, debugging, and validation as a working engineer, not a reviewer
• An around‑the‑clock engineering operation — design and implement the handoff protocol between the US and Shenzhen firmware teams that keeps development moving continuously across time zones
• Firmware architecture across the full stack — bootloader, BSP, kernel configuration, device tree, HAL layer, sensor integration, and power architecture across both AOSP and RTOS platforms
• AOSP bring‑up and BSP development — Qualcomm platform primary, owning the stack from XBL and ABL through kernel, device tree, and HAL
• RTOS development — as the platform transitions from AOSP to RTOS, you own that transition technically and ensure continuity of the firmware foundation
• Technical leadership for the Shenzhen firmware team — setting engineering standards, reviewing architecture decisions, mentoring IC engineers across BSP, camera, sensors, audio, connectivity, and power domains
• ODM and silicon vendor relationships — owning the technical interface with our ODM partner in Taiwan through NPI milestones and with silicon vendors on BSP delivery, driver packages, and technical support
• Hardware‑software integration — defining the interface between the firmware layer and the US software platform team, ensuring on‑device AI inference, sensor data pipelines, and privacy architecture requirements are met at the firmware level

Ideal Experience

• 10+ years of firmware engineering experience with strong depth in consumer electronics — wearables, mobile, hearables, or adjacent hardware categories
• Genuinely hands‑on — you are a working engineer who writes production firmware code daily, not someone who reviews other people's work from a distance
• Deep Qualcomm platform expertise — BSP bring‑up, AOSP, Linux kernel configuration, device tree authoring, HAL implementation. You know the full stack from bootloader to HAL and can own work at every layer
• Strong RTOS proficiency — you have built production firmware on RTOS platforms and can lead the technical transition from AOSP to RTOS as the platform evolves
• Experience technically leading or managing a firmware engineering team — you have been the person other engineers look to for technical direction and you have made it work across time zones
• Direct ODM experience — you have managed the technical relationship with a China or Taiwan based ODM through at least one full NPI cycle including EVT, DVT, and PVT
• Comfort operating as a technical bridge — you communicate complex hardware realities to non‑hardware audiences clearly, and you translate product requirements into hardware constraints that engineers can act on
• Willingness and ability to travel to China and Taiwan regularly — approximately 25 to 30 percent of your time
• Excellent written and verbal English
• Strong plus: BT and WiFi protocols specialization — BLE, LE Audio, A2DP, WiFi stack architecture & integration; BES or UNISOC platform experience; IMU, or eye tracking sensor driver development; always‑on low‑power firmware architecture.