Hardware Platform Engineer (Mid-Senior)

Revel; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) plan

Equity

Life insurance

Parental leave

Catered lunch

Unlimited PTO

Job summary

Revel is seeking a Hardware Platform Engineer to own hardware platforms end-to-end, evaluating computing hardware, writing system-level tooling, and tuning a real-time Linux environment for safety-critical workloads. You will ensure reliability, performance, and security before deployment to fielded systems.

The role involves bringing up Linux on new hardware, building a hardware compatibility matrix, and developing diagnostics for a growing fleet.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years of direct hardware experience in platform engineering, systems programming, or embedded systems.
• Deep, first-principles understanding of computing hardware and firmware.
• Strong understanding of the Linux kernel, boot process, and real-time tuning.
• Experience writing system-level tooling and diagnostics in Rust or C/C++.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate x86 and ARM computing platforms and components for deployment in demanding environments.
• Bring up Linux on new hardware platforms, configure kernel, device tree, and drivers; optimize for real-time performance.
• Develop tooling to monitor hardware health and diagnos tics; integrate with observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana).
• Implement and maintain platform security including Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, disk encryption, and image signing.
• Design and execute hardware qualification campaigns with tests and go/no-go decisions.

Skills

Hardware engineering

Linux kernel tuning

C/C++ programming

Rust familiarity

System tooling

Diagnostics tooling

Tools

Nix / NixOS

Grafana

Prometheus

GitLab CI

Job description

About Revel

At Revel, we are revolutionizing the way the world's most critical hardware is controlled across the aerospace, automotive, energy, and manufacturing sectors. Our next-generation software stack combines an intuitive command-and-control interface, a specialized programming language tailored for hardware control, and a high-performance runtime environment. We empower engineers to build, test, and deploy critical systems rapidly, reliably, and safely. As a Hardware Platform Engineer, you will select, qualify, and maintain the hardware platforms our software runs on, ensuring every system deployed to the field is reliable, performant, and purpose-built for safety-critical operation.

Role Overview

You will own the hardware platform end-to-end, including evaluating and selecting computing and networking hardware, writing system-level tooling for performance monitoring and diagnostics, and ensuring our Linux environment is tuned for real-time, safety-critical workloads. You'll define what hardware Revel runs on and prove that it meets our reliability standards before it reaches the field.

Responsibilities

Hardware Selection & Qualification

Evaluate x86 and ARM computing platforms, networking equipment, and individual components (CPUs, SSDs, RAM, NICs) for deployment across demanding environments including test cells, benchtop setups, and remote field installations. Establish hardware qualification criteria including thermal behavior, firmware stability, I/O throughput, vibration tolerance, ECC support, and component lifecycle. Build and maintain an approved hardware compatibility matrix and manage vendor and supplier relationships.

Platform Bring-up & OS Integration

Bring up Linux on new hardware platforms, including kernel configuration, device tree setup, and driver validation. Tune the OS for real-time performance with CPU isolation, IRQ affinity, and latency profiling. Contribute to the OS image build and deployment pipeline.

Fleet Health & Diagnostics

Build tooling to monitor hardware health across a growing fleet of deployed systems — tracking disk wear, thermal behavior, memory errors, firmware versions, and component lifecycle status. Instrument these tools to feed into observability infrastructure (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana) for fleet-wide visibility. Develop diagnostic utilities for performance characterization and failure triage, both in-house and in the field.

Platform Security

Implement and maintain platform-level security including Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, disk encryption, and image signing. Design these controls for systems that operate in air-gapped environments with no connectivity to external services.

Hardware Validation Campaigns

Design and execute qualification campaigns for new hardware platforms. Define test plans, acceptance criteria, and pass/fail thresholds including thermal stress testing, burn-in cycles, latency profiling, I/O reliability testing, and long-duration stability runs. Document results and make go/no-go recommendations for production deployment. Re-validate when vendors ship component revisions or substitutions.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years of professional experience working directly with hardware in Platform Engineering, Systems Programming, or Embedded Systems, with hands-on experience evaluating, qualifying, or bringing up computing hardware.
• Deep, first-principles understanding of computing hardware — you read datasheets, catch firmware quirks, flag EOL risk, and know why one SSD is reliable under sustained load and another isn't.
• Strong understanding of the Linux kernel, boot process, and system configuration, with experience tuning Linux for performance-sensitive or real-time workloads.
• Comfortable writing system-level tooling — hardware diagnostic utilities, performance benchmarks, and monitoring tools. Our stack is primarily in Rust; strong C/C++ experience with willingness to work in Rust is welcome.
• Experience bringing up Linux on new hardware platforms including BIOS/UEFI configuration, driver validation, and diagnosing boot and compatibility issues.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Nix / NixOS for reproducible, declarative system configurations.
• Familiarity with hardware monitoring via Grafana or Prometheus.
• Experience with GitLab CI for automating platform builds and validation.
• Background in high-reliability computing — aerospace, defense, critical infrastructure, networking hardware, or hyperscale compute.

Why Revel

You will join a high-velocity team where your work is the literal foundation of our technology. We offer the chance to work on "big iron" hardware problems while utilizing a modern, sophisticated software stack. If you are a hardware enthusiast who loves the low-level details of kernels and controllers and wants to see your work deployed on the world's most critical systems, Revel is where you belong.

Join us to redefine what's possible in software for hardware.

Benefits

• Health insurance — We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage to support you and your family.
• 401(k) — Save for your future with our 401(k) plan.
• Equity — All full-time employees receive equity, ensuring that you share in Revel's success and growth.
• Life insurance — Company-paid life insurance gives you and your family peace of mind.
• Parental leave — We offer paid maternity and paternity leave to support new parents.
• Catered lunch — We provide catered lunch five days a week, so you can stay fueled and focused.
• Unlimited PTO — We trust you to take the time you need. Unlimited PTO for all full-time employees.

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.