Frontier UX Engineer San Jose

Hark; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

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.

The Embedded Software team seeks a Frontier UX Engineer to turn design ideas into usable experiences. This is not a traditional UI role; you’ll push across layers to close the gap between design language and the platform, owning end-to-end development with design, firmware, and

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional UI software development experience.
• Experience working inside or closely with a design team.
• Experience with rapid prototyping, able to build a realistic interactive prototype in days.
• Deep runtime knowledge of at least one major UI framework (e.g. UIKit, SwiftUI, Core Animation, Jetpack Compose, Flutter, or a web-based rendering engine).
• Direct experience with or exposure to embedded system or operating system work (e.g. system daemons, IPC, HAL, drivers, firmware)
• Proficient in at least one of the languages: C, C++, Rust, Swift and the ability to trace code across language and process boundaries.
• Ability to work with incomplete information in uncharted territories, drive quality and results.

Responsibilities

• Turn design specifications, use cases, and rough ideas into shipping features, from early prototypes through production.
• Find where the design language outruns the platform, and push the software at every layer needed to close the distance.
• Advise designers on what the system is actually capable of, early enough for it to change the design.
• Shape the UI runtime and system architecture with requirements drawn from real designs rather than hypotheticals.
• Own the end-to-end development of user experiences alongside design, firmware, and hardware partners.

Skills

UI software development

Design collaboration

Rapid prototyping

UI frameworks

C/C++/Rust/Swift

Embedded systems familiarity

Uncertain problem solving

Tools

UIKit/SwiftUI/Core Animation

Jetpack Compose/Flutter/Web rendering

IPC/ Drivers / Firmware tools

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

The Embedded Software team is looking for a Frontier UX Engineer to build the software that turns design intent into something people can actually pick up and use. You'll work closely with Design, taking ideas, use cases, and specifications from early prototype to shipped feature.

This is not a traditional UI role. The design language we want and what the platform can do today are not the same thing. Your job is to find that gap and close it, which means pushing the software across several layers to their limit all at once. We care a lot about how the product feels to use, and we want someone who shares that craft mindset.

This is an individual contributor role, and much of the work has no precedent. It requires comfort with unclear requirements, work that has no precedent, and problems that cross design and several software layers. An ideal candidate is expected to own the end-to-end development of the user experiences from the first sketch to the shipped product.

Responsibilities

• Turn design specifications, use cases, and rough ideas into shipping features, from early prototypes through production.
• Find where the design language outruns the platform, and push the software at every layer needed to close the distance.
• Advise designers on what the system is actually capable of, early enough for it to change the design.
• Shape the UI runtime and system architecture with requirements drawn from real designs rather than hypotheticals.
• Own the end-to-end development of user experiences alongside design, firmware, and hardware partners.

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional UI software development experience.
• Experience working inside or closely with a design team.
• Experience with rapid prototyping, able to build a realistic interactive prototype in days.
• Deep runtime knowledge of at least one major UI framework (e.g. UIKit, SwiftUI, Core Animation, Jetpack Compose, Flutter, or a web-based rendering engine).
• Direct experience with or exposure to embedded system or operating system work (e.g. system daemons, IPC, HAL, drivers, firmware)
• Proficient in at least one of the languages: C, C++, Rust, Swift and the ability to trace code across language and process boundaries.
• Ability to work with incomplete information in uncharted territories, drive quality and results.

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience with shipping system-level UI apps on iOS or Android.
• Experience with shipping system-level UI framework or graphics stack on iOS or Android.
• Experience with contributing to open source UI libraries widely adopted by the community.
• Experience with design tools (e.g. Figma, Origami, Rive or Principle) and turning outputs into production animations.
• Experience with building UI design tools (e.g. component libraries, visual or node-graph editors, or interactive prototyping environments).
• Experience building interfaces driven by voice, vision, sensor, or ML models, including interfaces generated by an AI agent at runtime.

Compensation

The US base salary range for this full-time position is between $150,000 - $350,000 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.