System Software Engineering Lead (Firmware/OS)

Rivet Industries, Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited PTO

Equity grants

Competitive benefits package

Job summary

A technology company focused on industrial solutions is seeking a Lead Systems Software Engineer in San Jose or Washington D.C. This role involves designing and maintaining system-level platform code across Android and Linux, integrating custom hardware, and leading a team to develop scalable and secure systems. The ideal candidate has 5+ years of experience in system-level code and strong networking fundamentals. The position offers a competitive compensation package, including unlimited PTO and potential equity grants.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building and maintaining Android and/or Linux system-level code.
• Experience integrating custom hardware into Android and Linux environments.
• A security-first mindset with practical experience hardening systems.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain system-level platform code across Android and Linux.
• Lead a team to execute on scalable, extensible, secure, and robust system designs.
• Develop Linux-based services for inter-device communications and observability.

Skills

Experience with Android and Linux system-level code

Strong software architecture fundamentals

Networking fundamentals and low-latency communication protocols

Integration of custom hardware and peripherals

Building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines

Automated testing strategies experience

Experience with OTA update infrastructure

Familiarity with secure boot and integrity verification

Experience on resource-constrained systems

Effective communication across engineering disciplines

Job description

Rivet is an American company building integrated task systems — fusing hardened hardware with software, sensors, AI, and networking — for industrial workforces and defense personnel. We create capabilities that multiply the effectiveness of every individual and withstand the world’s toughest environments.

We serve the people who build, operate, maintain, and defend our way of life. From technicians and engineers to first responders and service members, they embody the hard work, ingenuity, and meritocratic values that drive Western prosperity. Yet too often they are forced to rely on outdated tools that fail under modern pressures. Rivet exists to reset that priority.

At Rivet, you’ll join a mission-driven team that fuses disciplines to deliver decisive outcomes where they matter most. Whether shaping our technology, strengthening our partnerships, or building our culture, every role here contributes to equipping the front lines with the modern systems they deserve.

EOE

Work Authorization Requirement: Due to the nature of our business and compliance with federal regulations, all candidates must be a "U.S. Person". Upon hire, you will be required to provide documentation verifying your status as a U.S. Citizen, a lawful permanent resident, or a protected individual under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).

Role: Lead Systems Software Engineer

Location: San Jose or Washington D.C.

Role Requirements:

• 5+ years of experience building and maintaining Android and/or Linux system-level code and framework extensions (AOSP, custom ROMs, HALs, device drivers, kernel configuration) in an enterprise environment.
• Strong software architecture fundamentals with the ability to design systems that are secure, scalable, extensible, and robust.
• Experience with networking fundamentals and low-latency communication protocols, both IPC and RPC (e.g., gRPC, protobuf, AIDL, libzmq).
• Experience integrating custom hardware and peripherals into Android and Linux environments.
• Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines for system image generation, AOSP builds, and firmware packaging.
• Familiarity with automated testing strategies for embedded and system-level software, including hardware-in-the-loop and integration testing.
• Experience with OTA update infrastructure, including image delivery, staged rollouts, and rollback mechanisms.
• Familiarity with secure boot, TPM, certificate chains, system integrity verification, and other low-level security primitives.
• A security-first mindset with practical experience hardening real-world systems.
• Experience working on devices and systems with resource constraints (thermal, power, compute).
• Effective communication and collaboration across engineering disciplines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with defense-related security frameworks and protocols (ITAR, security classifications, STIG, encryption).
• Distributed systems experience, including service discovery, health monitoring, fault tolerance, and graceful degradation across multi-node systems.

Role Description: As a Lead Systems Software Engineer, y ou'll work with a team of committed engineers to build the foundation of our device platform - from the OS layer to secure containers and lightweight services. You will own the core pieces of Android and Linux systems that scale across resource-constrained, multi-node environments.

Role Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain system-level platform code across Android and Linux, including AOSP customizations, system services, init processes, and kernel modules.
• Architect scalable, extensible, secure, and robust systems. Lead a team to execute on those designs as requirements evolve.
• Develop and maintain Linux-based services for inter-device communications, message queuing, and observability pipelines.
• Interface with hardware teams to maintain drivers and integrate custom hardware and peripherals.
• Build and manage immutable system images, secure and reproducible environments, including certificate signing, sandboxing, and runtime hardening.
• Define, implement, and enforce system policy, network configurations, authentication, and enterprise integrations for Android and Linux-based devices.
• Align coding and deployment practices with regulatory and high-assurance frameworks.
• Collaborate across engineering disciplines (software, electrical, mechanical) to inform constraints and requirements.
• Ship pragmatic, secure, and well-documented systems that scale.

*Total compensation may vary within this range and is determined by years and level of relevant experience, job-related skills, education, and other factors. In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for equity grants and other forms of compensation. Eligible employees also receive a competitive benefits package, including unlimited PTO.