Staff Camera Software Engineer

Ford-Motor-Company; Palo Alto (CA); Hybrid; USD 150,200 - 283,500; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

Parental leave

Vehicle discount program

Tuition assistance

Employee resource groups

Paid time off for community service

Paid holidays

Job summary

Ford Motor Company seeks a Staff Camera Software Engineer to own a Linux camera/ISP stack, spanning V4L2, Media Controller, and vb2, with sensor bring-up and low-latency DMA workflows.

You will lead architectural direction, mentor engineers, and coordinate cross-team alignment on the camera roadmap, delivering robust, production-grade solutions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 10+ years of embedded systems experience, with a minimum of 5 years dedicated to Linux kernel driver development.
• Expert-level C programming in kernel space, including memory management, locking primitives, workqueues, and interrupt handling.
• Production-level experience with the Linux media stack (V4L2 ioctls, Media Controller entities, and videobuf2).
• Hands-on experience with MIPI CSI-2 sensor and ISP bring-up.
• Strong knowledge of DMA-BUF, scatter-gather mapping, cache coherency, and kernel debugging tools (GDB, ftrace, lockdep).
• Solid understanding of Linux power management (runtime PM and suspend/resume).

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain Linux kernel camera and ISP drivers utilizing V4L2, the Media Controller framework, and videobuf2 (vb2).
• Integrate and debug MIPI CSI-2 sensors and image pipelines to ensure optimal routing for preview, video, and Zero Shutter Lag paths.
• Implement and maintain robust firmware interfaces, managing command/response queues, interrupt processing, and work-thread synchronization.
• Manage the buffer lifecycle using MMAP, DMA-BUF import/export, zero-copy mechanisms, and fence signaling to minimize latency.
• Drive power management initiatives, including suspend/resume, runtime PM, and clock/power sequencing robustness for camera hardware subsystems.
• Diagnose and resolve complex kernel-space issues such as race conditions, memory leaks, deadlocks, and frame pipeline regressions.
• Build debug and observability tooling using debugfs, sysfs, ftrace tracepoints, custom counters, and system health metrics.
• Maintain high code quality through rigorous code reviews and technical documentation while collaborating closely with chipset vendors/silicon partners, camera sensor manufacturers, and user-space camera framework teams.

Skills

C programming

Kernel driver

Linux kernel

MIPI CSI-2

DMA-BUF

GDB

ftrace

lockdep

Power management

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

GDB

ftrace

lockdep

Job description

We made history and now we work to transform the future - for our customers, our communities and our families. You'll see your work on the road every day, helping people move freely and pursue their dreams. At Ford, you can build more than vehicles. Come build what matters.

Ford’s Electric Vehicles, Digital and Design (EVDD) team is charged with delivering the company’s vision of a fully electric transportation future. EVDD is customer-obsessed, entrepreneurial, and data-driven and is dedicated to delivering industry-leading customer experience for electric vehicle buyers and owners. You’ll join an agile team of doers pioneering our EV future by working collaboratively, staying focused on only what matters, and delivering excellence day in and day out. Join us to make positive change by helping build a better world where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams.

In this position...
As a Staff Camera Software Engineer, you will take ownership of a Linux camera/ISP stack centered on the chipset vendor's ISP architecture. Your work will span V4L2 media pipeline implementation, firmware command/response integration, DMA-BUF and GPU-shared memory handling, sensor/CSI bring-up, and production-grade reliability fixes. This is a hands-on development role requiring deep kernel-space debugging, concurrency management, and hardware-software co-design. As a staff-level engineer, you will also serve as a technical leader setting architectural direction, mentoring engineers, and driving cross-team alignment on the camera/ISP roadmap.

What you’ll do...

• Develop and maintain Linux kernel camera and ISP drivers utilizing V4L2, the Media Controller framework, and videobuf2 (vb2).
• Integrate and debug MIPI CSI-2 sensors and image pipelines to ensure optimal routing for preview, video, and Zero Shutter Lag (ZSL) paths.
• Implement and maintain robust firmware interfaces, managing command/response queues, interrupt processing, and work-thread synchronization.
• Manage the buffer lifecycle using MMAP, DMA-BUF import/export, zero-copy mechanisms, and fence signaling to minimize latency.
• Drive power management initiatives, including suspend/resume, runtime PM, and clock/power sequencing robustness for camera hardware subsystems.
• Diagnose and resolve complex kernel-space issues such as race conditions, memory leaks, deadlocks, and frame pipeline regressions.
• Build debug and observability tooling using debugfs, sysfs, ftrace tracepoints, custom counters, and system health metrics.
• Maintain high code quality through rigorous code reviews and technical documentation while collaborating closely with chipset vendors/silicon partners, camera sensor manufacturers, and user-space camera framework teams.

You’ll have...

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or equivalent combination of relevant education and experience.
• 10+ years of embedded systems experience, with a minimum of 5 years dedicated to Linux kernel driver development.
• Expert-level C programming in kernel space, including memory management, locking primitives (mutexes, spinlocks, RCU), workqueues, and interrupt handling.
• Production-level experience with the Linux media stack (V4L2 ioctls, Media Controller entities, and videobuf2).
• Hands-on experience with MIPI CSI-2 sensor and ISP bring-up.
• Strong knowledge of DMA-BUF, scatter-gather mapping, cache coherency, and kernel debugging tools (GDB, ftrace, lockdep).
• Solid understanding of Linux power management (runtime PM and suspend/resume).

Even better, you may have...

• Familiarity with vendor-specific GPU driver stacks, TTM memory models, and firmware mailbox protocols.
• Experience with automotive-grade reliability standards (such as ISO 26262).
• A track record of active contributions to the upstream Linux kernel.
• Demonstrated ability to set technical direction and long-term architecture strategy for a complex subsystem, balancing near-term delivery with future scalability.
• A track record of mentoring and elevating engineers, fostering strong engineering practices, and acting as a trusted technical voice across teams and with external partners.

We offer a work life that works for you, including:

• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases
• Tuition assistance
• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.

This position is a leadership level 6 and ranges from $150,200-$283,500. Final determination of salary grade will be based on candidate's skills and experience, and base salary will be set within the applicable range according to job scope, responsibility and competitive market value.

For more information on salary and benefits, click here: https://fordcareers.co/LL6

Visa sponsorship is available for this position.

Candidates for positions with Ford Motor Company must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, age, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status or protected veteran status. In the United States, if you need a reasonable accommodation for the online application process due to a disability, please call 1-888-336-0660.

This position is hybrid. Candidates who are in commuting distance to a Ford hub location may be required to be onsite four or more days per week. #LI-Hybrid #LI-JD2 #UEV