Embedded Software Engineer
Hark
$120,000 - $300,000 / year
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Description
About Hark
Hark is an artificial intelligence laboratory, building the most advanced, personal intelligence in the world.
We believe that artificial intelligence can be used to help offload our mental workload through thinking like us and sometimes ahead of us. Intelligence that is proactive and personalized through new models 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.
About the Role
The Embedded Software team owns the software running on Hark’s next generation of AI hardware, and we are looking for an Embedded Software Engineer to build the system software at the heart of it. You will design, implement, and debug system-level components and services that span the kernel, user space, and the microcontroller domains, and you will work across RTOS, bare metal, and Linux environments on the same product.
This is a systems software role. You will partner with the BSP, platform, UX, firmware, and hardware teams to make the device work as one product.
Responsibilities
- Design, implement, and debug system-level components and services across kernel, user space, and MCU domains
- Develop system software on RTOS and bare metal environments as well as embedded Linux
- Build and maintain interfaces across the stack to deliver end to end features
- Run performance analysis and produce memory and power profiles, then close the gaps they expose
- Partner with the BSP, platform, and UX teams so system software, drivers, and user-facing behavior land together
- Debug across layer and process boundaries, from a user space service down to the hardware
Requirements
- 5+ years of professional embedded software development experience on shipping hardware products
- Proficiency in C and C++, or Rust
- Device driver development experience
- Experience developing on RTOS and bare metal environments
- Experience with performance and power optimization
- Solid computer architecture fundamentals, including hands-on work with modern MCUs
- Familiarity with embedded toolchains and cross-compilation
- Strong communication skills for work across firmware, hardware, and product teams
Bonus Qualifications
- Development experience with DSP audio
- Development experience with camera ISP
- Development experience with NPUs, hardware accelerators, and inference runtimes
- Experience on leading commercial silicon SoCs and their vendor toolchains
- Experience with networking and connectivity, including wireless stacks
- Experience with complex, multi-core SoCs
- Android platform experience, including AOSP
Compensation
The US base salary range for this full-time position is between $120,000 - $300,000 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.
About this role
Hark is building AI hardware that goes beyond chatbots—agentic systems designed to interact naturally with people through speech, vision, text, and persistent memory. The Embedded Software Engineer role sits at the center of this effort, owning the system software that runs on the company's next-generation devices.
You'll design and implement system-level components spanning kernel, user space, and microcontroller domains across RTOS, bare metal, and embedded Linux environments simultaneously. This is deep systems work: you'll debug across layer and process boundaries, optimize for performance and power, develop device drivers, and build interfaces that let firmware, hardware, and user-facing behavior work as one product. You'll partner closely with BSP, platform, UX, and hardware teams to ship features end to end.
The role requires at least five years of embedded software development on shipped hardware products, strong C/C++ (or Rust) skills, and hands-on experience with RTOS, bare metal development, and performance optimization. You'll need solid computer architecture fundamentals and familiarity with embedded toolchains and cross-compilation. Experience with DSP audio, camera ISP, NPUs, commercial silicon SoCs, wireless stacks, or Android is valuable but not required. The position is full-time, in-office in San Jose, with a salary range of $120,000–$300,000.
This role's local market on JobMinglr
Pay for this role
$120,000 to $300,000 per year
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