Hark
Operating System Architect
San Jose · Full-time
Sponsorship not specified$120k-$300kDetected 83 days ago
AndroidLinuxAgentic AIEmbedded SystemsSystems EngineeringLeadership
About the role
- We're looking for a Principal Embedded OS Architect to own the operating system strategy and software architecture across our consumer electronics portfolio, from early architecture through mass production.
- You'll be the technical leader responsible for defining how our embedded software stacks are structured, how they scale across product lines, and how they perform.
- This role spans hands-on systems engineering up through strategic technical leadership and team build-out - you'll shape architecture decisions while staying close to the code and the hardware.
Responsibilities
- Lead cross-functional software teams through full product lifecycles - from NPI bring-up and proto builds, validation build milestones through production ramp and sustaining engineering
- Drive technical decisions across every layer of the stack (BSP, kernel, middleware, services, application frameworks) with a focus on creating an AI-first platform foundation
- Establish architectural standards, design review processes, and technical roadmaps that enable the team to ship on time without accumulating structural debt
- Hark is an artificial intelligence company building advanced, personalized intelligence.
- We're pairing that intelligence with next-generation hardware to create a universal interface between humans and machines.
Requirements
- 10+ years of experience in embedded systems software with at least 5 years in a principal or staff-level architecture role, shipping consumer electronics products at scale
- Deep expertise in embedded operating systems (e.g., embedded Linux, RTOS, or custom OS stacks) including kernel internals, memory management, scheduler tuning, driver frameworks, and boot architecture
- Demonstrated track record of leading engineering teams through complete NPI-to-production cycles, with hands-on involvement across BSP, middleware, and application layers.
Nice to have
- Experience shipping product solutions including on-board AI models leveraging hardware acceleration
- Experience defining OS platform strategy across a family of products with varying compute, connectivity, and cost profiles
- Familiarity with secure boot chains, OTA update frameworks, and production provisioning workflows for high-volume manufacturing
- Background in contributing to or integrating open-source embedded projects (Yocto/OpenEmbedded, Zephyr, Android Open Source, etc.)
- Experience with hardware/software co-design, including partnering with silicon teams on SoC selection and custom peripheral integration
- The pay offered for this position may vary based on several individual factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.
- This information will be shared if an employment offer is extended.
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.
Benefits
- One that is proactive, multimodal, and capable of interacting with the world through speech, text, vision, and persistent memory.
- Bonus Qualifications
This listing is sourced directly from Hark's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.