Senior Firmware Engineer

About the Role

Join the core hardware team of a Y Combinator–backed consumer wearable startup as a Senior Firmware Engineer, helping build the firmware powering a next-generation wearable platform. You'll play a foundational role in defining the firmware architecture and taking a category-defining device from prototype all the way through to mass production.

This role sits at the intersection of low-power embedded design, sensor integration, and production engineering — and it matters because the reliability and battery life of the product depend on the work you'll own. You'll be working in-person in New York City alongside a small, fast-moving engineering team.

What You'll Do

• Architect and develop embedded firmware for battery-powered wearable devices.

• Own core systems for low-power wireless connectivity, sensor processing, and data pipelines.

• Design and optimize Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity for ultra-low-power operation.

• Build robust power management systems to maximize battery life.

• Develop multi-core embedded data pipelines for real-time sensor acquisition and processing.

• Integrate biometric and environmental sensors via SPI, I2C, UART, GPIO, DMA, and interrupts.

• Optimize firmware for performance, memory usage, latency, and reliability.

• Lead board bring-up, debugging, validation, and manufacturing support.

• Collaborate closely with hardware, algorithms, product, and industrial design teams across the full product lifecycle.

• Establish firmware best practices, testing frameworks, and CI workflows.

What We're Looking For

Required

• 6+ years of embedded firmware engineering experience, with a track record of shipping battery-powered consumer electronics or wearables to production.

• Deep expertise in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) systems and low-power embedded architectures.

• Strong proficiency in Embedded C/C++ and RTOS-based systems (e.g., FreeRTOS, Zephyr).

• Hands-on experience with ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers and modern debugging tools.

• Experience building multi-core embedded data pipelines for real-time sensor acquisition.

• Proven power management architecture skills for always-on, low-power embedded systems.

• Sensor integration experience using SPI, I2C, UART, GPIO, DMA, and interrupt-driven designs.

• Experience with board bring-up, debugging, validation, and manufacturing support.

Nice to Have

• Background in sensor fusion, signal processing, or biometric sensing.

• Experience with embedded platforms such as Nordic, Qualcomm, Ambiq, or STMicroelectronics.

• Familiarity with secure bootloaders, OTA firmware updates, and embedded security practices.

• Experience building wearable or health-tech devices.

• Comfort moving quickly in a fast-paced, collaborative startup environment.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: $120,000 – $200,000 per year, depending on experience.

• Equity participation typical of an early-stage startup.

• Visa sponsorship: Not available at this time.

Location

This is a full-time, on-site role based in New York City, NY. The team works in person together — remote or fully distributed arrangements are not available for this position.