Founding Wearable Hardware Engineer

Socket.dev; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Socket.dev in San Francisco seeks a hardware systems lead to move Subvocal from lab to wearable. The role covers mixed-signal design, embedded firmware, FPGA, wireless, and production readiness.

You will own architecture, BOMs, DFM/DFT, vendor relationships, and oversee prototype builds toward EVT to production. You will collaborate with ML and sensing teams to preserve signal quality while shrinking size, power, and cost. Full-time, in-person in San Francisco.

Qualifications

• Designing custom mixed-signal, sensing, compute, power, and communications electronics.
• Integrating ADCs, DACs, FPGAs, MCUs, sensor front ends, memory, and wireless systems.
• Building portable prototypes that are reliable enough for large-scale data collection.
• Miniaturizing the system into a small wearable and eventually a pair of glasses.
• Designing for signal integrity, low noise, thermal performance, battery life, and electromagnetic compatibility.
• Writing or overseeing embedded firmware, acquisition pipelines, device control, logging, and update systems.
• Working with industrial designers and mechanical engineers on enclosure, fit, charging, and serviceability.
• Owning component selection, BOM, prototype builds, DFM, DFT, regulatory preparation, contract manufacturers, and the path from EVT through production.
• Building the hardware team and external manufacturing network around you.

Responsibilities

• Designing custom mixed-signal, sensing, compute, power, and communications electronics.
• Integrating ADCs, DACs, FPGAs, MCUs, sensor front ends, memory, and wireless systems.
• Building portable prototypes that are reliable enough for large-scale data collection.
• Miniaturizing the system into a small wearable and eventually a pair of glasses.
• Designing for signal integrity, low noise, thermal performance, battery life, and electromagnetic compatibility.
• Writing or overseeing embedded firmware, acquisition pipelines, device control, logging, and update systems.
• Working with industrial designers and mechanical engineers on enclosure, fit, charging, and serviceability.
• Owning component selection, BOM, prototype builds, DFM, DFT, regulatory preparation, contract manufacturers, and the path from EVT through production.
• Building the hardware team and external manufacturing network around you.

Job description

We are looking for someone to take Subvocal from a working research system built with laboratory equipment to a reliable wearable that someone can use in the real world.

This is a systems role. Our hardware combines sensitive physiological sensing, mixed-signal electronics, embedded and FPGA systems, high-speed data acquisition, wireless communication, batteries, firmware, mechanical constraints, and eventually custom ASICs. All of those pieces have to work together inside a device that is small, comfortable, stable, and manufacturable.

The difficult part is that this is not ordinary consumer electronics. The hardware is part of the measurement itself. Changing a cable, ground plane, enclosure, sensor position, or power system can alter the data distribution seen by the model. You will work closely with the sensing and ML leads to preserve signal quality while aggressively reducing size, power consumption, and complexity.

Some of the problems you will own include:

• Designing custom mixed-signal, sensing, compute, power, and communications electronics.
• Integrating ADCs, DACs, FPGAs, MCUs, sensor front ends, memory, and wireless systems.
• Building portable prototypes that are reliable enough for large-scale data collection.
• Miniaturizing the system into a small wearable and eventually a pair of glasses.
• Designing for signal integrity, low noise, thermal performance, battery life, and electromagnetic compatibility.
• Writing or overseeing embedded firmware, acquisition pipelines, device control, logging, and update systems.
• Working with industrial designers and mechanical engineers on enclosure, fit, charging, and serviceability.
• Owning component selection, BOM, prototype builds, DFM, DFT, regulatory preparation, contract manufacturers, and the path from EVT through production.
• Building the hardware team and external manufacturing network around you.

You might be a great fit if you have previously taken a difficult hardware product from an early prototype toward production, ideally in wearables, sensing, medical devices, robotics, AR/VR, or another tightly constrained system. You should be comfortable debugging boards at a bench, reading a schematic, working with firmware and FPGA engineers, making mechanical tradeoffs, and managing outside design or manufacturing partners without becoming dependent on them.

We care much more about whether you have repeatedly made real hardware work than whether your previous title was senior enough. The right person will be equally comfortable deciding the overall architecture and personally finding the broken clock, noisy regulator, thermal issue, or intermittent connector that is preventing the prototype from working.

You will have enormous ownership over both the Demo Day device and the architecture that eventually ships to customers.

This is a full-time, in-person role in San Francisco.