Embedded Systems Engineering Lead — Agentic AI Platform

We're building the operating system for the next generation of computing — one where AI agents replace apps, menus disappear, and your technology finally works for you instead of the other way around.

We're a stealth-mode startup with a world‑class founding team with deep roots in consumer AI, extended reality, and wearable technology — including founders of some of the most recognizable hardware and software platforms of the last decade. We're backed by strategic partnerships with leaders in silicon and manufacturing, and we're hiring our first Firmware Engineering Lead to own hands‑on firmware development in the US while providing technical leadership to our engineering team in Shenzhen.

This is a rare opportunity to build the firmware foundation of a platform that doesn't exist yet — on real development hardware, from day one, as part of a genuinely novel around‑the‑clock engineering operation.

Additional product details shared under NDA.

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience — range shared in first conversation
• Meaningful early‑stage equity
• Full medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Remote US with approximately 25 to 30 percent travel to Shenzhen and Taiwan

Awear is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

This is a deeply hands‑on firmware engineering role with a leadership dimension — not the other way around. It will involve designing firmware architectures, leading device bring‑up sprints, as well as kernel level and user level device drivers authoring and integration.

You will work directly with development hardware in the US, owning active firmware bring‑up and development as part of a continuous engineering operation that runs across time zones. Your counterpart firmware engineers in Shenzhen work their shift. You work yours. Together you design and operate a handoff protocol that keeps development moving around the clock — and you are the person who designs that protocol.

At the same time you are the technical authority for the Shenzhen firmware team — setting direction, reviewing work, unblocking engineers, and bridging the gap between hardware engineering execution and the US product and software leadership. You will also interface directly with our ODM and silicon partners in Taiwan and China, managing the technical relationships that keep hardware delivery on schedule.

You will report directly to the CEO and travel to China and Taiwan regularly — approximately 25 to 30 percent of your time.

We actively use AI‑assisted development tools across our engineering team — Cursor, Claude, Copilot — and expect engineers who use them seriously as a core part of their workflow.

• Hands‑on firmware development on development hardware in the US — active bring‑up, driver development, debugging, and validation as a working engineer, not a reviewer
• An around‑the‑clock engineering operation — design and implement the handoff protocol between the US and Shenzhen firmware teams that keeps development moving continuously across time zones
• Firmware architecture across the full stack — boot loader, BSP, kernel configuration, device tree, HAL layer, sensor integration, and power architecture across both AOSP and RTOS platforms
• AOSP bring‑up and BSP development — Qualcomm platform primary, owning the stack from XBL and ABL through kernel, device tree, and HAL
• RTOS development — as the platform transitions from AOSP to RTOS, you own that transition technically and ensure continuity of the firmware foundation
• Technical leadership for the Shenzhen firmware team — setting engineering standards, reviewing architecture decisions, mentoring IC engineers across…