Embedded Software Engineer

Location: New York

The Reality Labs Research Software Team is looking for an Embedded Software Engineer to help bring all-day wearable AI research platforms to life through collaboration and commitment.

Our prototype devices enable breakthrough research in contextualized AI — your firmware captures real-world sensor data, manages on-device compute pipelines, and provides the reliable hardware abstraction that makes research breakthroughs possible.

This role requires a firmware engineer comfortable working across the entire embedded systems spectrum — from low-level MCU peripheral bring-up to SoC-level system integration — rather than specializing in a single domain. You will work across a rich technology stack including Zephyr RTOS on MCUs, AOSP/Linux on Qualcomm SoCs, multi-camera systems (SLAM, RGB, eye tracking), wireless communications (WiFi, BLE, Sub-GHz), IMU-based sensor fusion, and power-optimized embedded architectures for all-day wearable use.

We are looking for someone who sees ambiguity as opportunity, nurtures a sense of ownership in themselves and others, and thrives in an honest and considerate environment. We embrace AI-native ways of working — using AI tools as force multipliers to accelerate development, testing, and iteration. We have many exciting problems to solve, and we depend on people who are comfortable with embracing a creative, thoughtful approach to short-term and long-term problem-solving to drive our innovation.

Embedded Software Engineer Responsibilities:

Own the design, development, and debugging of firmware, and embedded software, including sensing and imaging systems

Understand and implement firmware on microcontrollers and SoCs, leverage peripherals, manage power consumption, support boot loaders, and schedule real-time tasks (RTOS)
Collaborate in a team environment across multiple, research-focused, and engineering disciplines, making the architectural trade-offs required to rapidly deliver firmware solutions, communicating decisions and rationale clearly to a wide range of stakeholders

Drive firmware architecture and system bring-up across all phases of custom hardware development, including early requirement definition, firmware and embedded system design, proof-of-concept implementation, selection of MCUs and tools, and board bring-up Define and champion embedded software development practices across teams and projects, including setting expectations, defining the backlog, and tracking progress of contingent staff

Provide architectural input in design reviews, influence technical direction across the firmware stack, and serve as a technical expert for the team on complex cross-domain problems for assigned subsystems

Leverage AI tools and workflows to accelerate firmware development, code generation, testing, and documentation — applying engineering judgment to determine when AI augmentation improves quality, speed, and team efficiency

Minimum Qualifications:

B.S. degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field7+ years of software development experience in embedded systems, firmware, or a related field, or a PhD with 4+ years of experience in embedded systems, firmware, or a related field3+ years of embedded software development experience in industry settings

Experience with embedded software design and programming in C and C++Experience with building drivers for custom hardware systems

Hands-on experience with hardware debugging tools (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol decoders) and register-level system debugging

Experience designing firmware solutions from hardware data sheets, including serial protocol (synchronous/asynchronous) interface implementation

Experience with real-time operating systems (e.g., Zephyr,…