Senior Camera Systems Architect - Real-Time Vision & AI

ByteDance; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 162,400 - 330,000; Full time

Job summary

ByteDance in San Jose seeks a Camera System Architect for the Pico Lab VST to own end-to-end camera system architecture, spanning optics, sensors, compute, mechanics, and software. You will drive HW-SW co-design, optimize performance, power, and cost, and lead imaging/perception evaluation across hardware and AI processing.

The role requires advanced degree in optical/engineering fields and hands-on experience with camera systems, plus strong cross-functional collaboration and a track record of

Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in Optical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Computational Imaging, or related fields.
• 3+ years of experience in camera or imaging system development, spanning both hardware and software.
• Proven full-cycle product development experience, including prototype builds, EVT, DVT, and mass production, in a hardware-product environment.
• Leverage AI-assisted engineering tools (LLMs, VLMs) to accelerate design iteration, analysis, debugging, and technical decision-making.
• Strong system-level thinking, first-principles reasoning, and ability to make and defend complex technical trade-offs.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively across cross-functional engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the system architecture of end-to-end camera solutions, spanning optics, image sensors, compute platforms, mechanics, algorithms, and software.
• Drive hardware–software co‑design to optimize system-level performance, power, cost, and scalability.
• Lead system-level imaging and perception performance definition, evaluation, and optimization across hardware and AI‑based processing.
• Design and integrate computer vision and AI algorithms into production camera systems.
• Evaluate and integrate emerging imaging and AI technologies to maintain product competitiveness.

Skills

System-level thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Hardware–software co-design

AI/ML integration in vision

Technical trade-off analysis

Education

Master’s/PhD in Optical/EE/CS/Computational Imaging

Tools

SoC/ISP/NPU architectures

Job description

ByteDance in San Jose seeks a Camera System Architect for the Pico Lab VST to own end-to-end camera system architecture, spanning optics, sensors, compute, mechanics, and software. You will drive HW-SW co-design, optimize performance, power, and cost, and lead imaging/perception evaluation across hardware and AI processing.

The role requires advanced degree in optical/engineering fields and hands-on experience with camera systems, plus strong cross-functional collaboration and a track record of