Staff Embedded Systems Engineer (SoC)

About Inspiren 

Inspiren offers the most complete and connected ecosystem in senior living. Founded by Michael Wang, a former Green Beret turned cardiothoracic nurse, Inspiren proves that compassionate care and technology can coexist - bringing peace of mind to residents, families, and staff.

Our integrated solutions seamlessly fit into existing workflows, capturing everything happening within a community. Backed by nurse specialists and powerful analytics, we provide the data operators need to make informed clinical and operational decisions - driving efficiency, profitability, and better care outcomes.

About the Role

We are seeking a high-caliber Staff Embedded Systems Engineer with a specialization in the System-on-Chip (SoC) landscape. You aren’t just a firmware developer; you are an architect of hardware-software integration who understands the nuances, pitfalls, and hidden costs of different silicon ecosystems.

As our SoC Expert, you will be the primary technical authority for evaluating and abstracting our software stack across various silicon platforms and will guide our product roadmap by leveraging your deep-seated opinions on vendor ecosystems, toolchains, and Board Support Packages (BSPs).

What You'll Own

• Lead Silicon Strategy & Selection: Lead the evaluation of application processors for next-generation products. Compare performance, power, thermals, and long-term support (LTS) across vendors like Qualcomm, TI, MediaTek, Rockchip, and Analog Devices and provide honest assessments of vendor offerings. You should be able to articulate why one vendor’s SDK is superior for our specific use case, or why another’s documentation makes them a risky choice.
• Lead Migration and Porting effort: Design, develop and maintain hardware abstraction layers (HALs) that minimize vendor lock-in, streamline future platform pivots, and enable the migration of existing applications and drivers from one vendor’s BSP to another (e.g. porting a product from a MediaTek Genio base to a Qualcomm Snapdragon platform).
• Hardware-based CI: Design and oversee CI pipelines that trigger builds and deploy images directly to both simulated and physical target hardware for automated verification.
• Performance Optimization: Dive deep into SoC-specific hardware accelerators (NPUs, DSPs, GPUs) to squeeze maximum performance out of the selected silicon.
• Lead Embedded Systems Projects: Oversee the end-to-end development and performance optimization of embedded systems, software, and firmware for new devices from concept and design through manufacturing and launch.
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Work closely with hardware engineers, software developers, product managers, key-stakeholders, and our outsourced manufacturing partners partners to define system requirements and specifications per product needs
• Innovate and Optimize: Stay current with industry trends and emerging technologies. Introduce new methodologies and technologies to enhance performance and meet design specifications. Provide deep technical expertise and support in embedded systems development, testing, and validation across the product lifecycle
• Embed Rigorous Design for Excellence (DfX) Mindset: Conduct design reviews and both design and process Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA), partnering with our design and development partners to drive rigorous Design for Cost (DfX), supply chain, reliability, quality, and manufacturing methodologies across all phases of product development
• Mentor Team Members: Provide technical guidance and mentorship, fostering a culture of excellence and innovation through a culture of continuous learning
• Ensure Quality, Reliability, and Compliance: Oversee the prototyping process, conduct testing, and validate embedded system performance and reliability against requirements, including environmental and accelerated testing. Ensure all embedded software meets regulatory standards and industry best practices. Set quality and reliability specifications
• Problem-Solve: Troubleshoot complex embedded system issues and implement effective solutions in a timely manner. Act as Tier-2 engineering support for products in the field
• Strategic Planning: Contribute to the long-term embedded systems roadmap, aligning development with the company’s product and platform roadmap

What You Bring

• Background: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related engineering fieldExperience: 10+ years in Embedded Systems, with at least 5 years specifically focused on high-level application processors (e.g. ARM Cortex-A series) 
• Multi-Vendor Mastery: Proven track record shipping products on a handful of different SoC vendor platforms (e.g., NXP, Broadcom, MediaTek, etc.) with strong, experience-based perspectives on the pros and cons of the major vendors
• Deep Linux Knowledge: Expert-level understanding of the Linux kernel, device drivers, and bootloaders as they relate to vendor-specific implementations and board bring-up
• A Porting Pedigree: Demonstrated experience taking a mature codebase and successfully re-platforming it onto a new silicon architecture (e.g. porting a product from NVIDIA Jetson to a MediaTek Genio or Qualcomm Snapdragon platform)
• Connectivity: Expertise with wireless protocols such as Bluetooth, LoRaWAN, and LTE and IoT_ajacet technologies such as AWS, IoTCore, MQTT, and Edge Computing
• Over-The-Air (OTA) Updates: Demonstrated expertise with implementing OTA updates for IoT devices, including a thorough understanding of secure boot processes, integrity checks, delta updates, and rollback strategies to guarantee system stability and reliability throughout and after updates
• CI/CD Orchestration: Expertise in GitHub Actions specifically tailored for embedded targets including use of static and dynamic analysis.  Experience using QEMU or Renode considered a plus
• Secure SLDC: A deep understanding of embedded security, including secure coding, threat modeling, and vulnerability assessment - integrated throughout the development process,  ensuring security isn't an afterthought
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills are essential for thriving in our fast-paced, remote-first, dynamic environment, where adapting to changing priorities is key.
• Programming Proficiency: Proficiency in embedded development (C/C++), coupled with robust analysis and debugging capabilities utilizing tools and methodologies such as Coverity, Valgrind, JTAG, GDB, and logic analyzers

Details

• The annual salary for this role is $200,000-$225,000 + equity + benefits (including medical, dental, and vision) 
• Flexible PTO
• Location: Remote, US or Canada. NYC preferred. 
• Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status.

Compensation & Benefits

At Inspiren, we are committed to fair, transparent, and equitable compensation. We know that every candidate brings a unique combination of experience, skills, and perspectives, and we take these factors into account when determining pay. While compensation may vary depending on your background, role, and location, we are proud to offer a competitive base salary and total benefits package, alongside eligibility for equity awards in the form of stock options.

We believe great work deserves great rewards. Our compensation and benefits are designed to recognize your contributions and reflect the standards of leading organizations in our field.

Your recruiter will be happy to walk you through the full compensation package, including what your total pay could look like, so you have a clear picture of both the immediate and long-term value of joining our team.