About Tacit
We are an early-stage, deep tech startup based in San Francisco, developing innovative hardware that rethinks human-computer interaction. We are backed by General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, and Greylock Partners, with a founding team from Stanford, BrainGate, Oculus, and Tesla. While we can’t reveal too much just yet, our team is tackling cutting-edge engineering challenges to bring revolutionary products to life.
About The Role
We’re looking for a Senior Firmware Engineer to help architect, develop, and ship next-generation neurotech and audio hardware products. As a key member of our growing firmware team, you will own major portions of the embedded software stack from early architecture through production and play a critical role in bringing complex consumer electronics to life.
You’ll work closely with electrical, mechanical, software, ML, and product teams to transition systems from prototype to robust, production-ready products while helping establish strong firmware engineering practices across the company.
What You'll Do
Embedded Firmware Architecture & Product Development
- Contribute to firmware architecture and embedded software development for battery-powered wearable consumer devices from concept through production.
- Own critical portions of the firmware stack including realtime data acquisition, connectivity, power management, bootloaders, and production infrastructure.
- Develop robust embedded systems using C/C++ and RTOS-based architectures including FreeRTOS or similar environments.
- Design and implement reliable firmware abstractions across sensors, audio systems, wireless subsystems, and power domains.
- Collaborate closely with electrical, mechanical, ML, mobile, and cloud teams to optimize system performance, latency, power consumption, and reliability.
- Operate effectively in a startup environment where engineers own large portions of the hardware and firmware stack.
Realtime Embedded Systems & Sensor Processing
- Design and optimize low-latency realtime firmware pipelines for sensor acquisition, timestamping, synchronization, and data movement.
- Develop DMA-driven acquisition systems for high-throughput sensor and audio streams.
- Implement deterministic scheduling and time alignment across multiple sensors and wireless subsystems.
- Optimize firmware for low-power operation, including sleep states, subsystem power gating, and dynamic power management.
- Debug complex concurrency, timing, and memory-related issues in deeply embedded systems.
Wireless Connectivity & Audio Systems
- Develop and integrate Bluetooth LE and Classic Bluetooth audio functionality on Qualcomm Snapdragon platforms or similar wireless SoCs.
- Work on wireless coexistence challenges involving Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and proprietary RF systems.
- Implement and optimize OTA firmware update systems, bootloaders, and device recovery mechanisms.
- Develop and optimize embedded audio pipelines including low-latency streaming, microphone processing, and synchronization.
- Collaborate with ML and algorithm teams on audio features including ANC, beamforming, filtering, and related realtime audio systems.
Bring-Up, Debug & Validation
- Lead firmware bring-up and debugging across embedded compute, sensors, wireless, and audio systems.
- Use advanced debugging tools including JTAG/SWD debuggers, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, and lab instrumentation.
- Develop automated validation, manufacturing, and regression test infrastructure.
- Perform root-cause analysis and resolve complex issues discovered during development, validation, manufacturing, or field deployment.
Production Firmware & Reliability
- Support EVT, DVT, and PVT builds and help ramp products to mass production.
- Design firmware with strong reliability, manufacturability, and serviceability principles.
- Develop factory programming, calibration, provisioning, and manufacturing test systems.
- Develop and maintain automated test infrastructure including Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) systems, regression testing frameworks, and CI pipelines for embedded firmware validation.
- Improve firmware robustness through telemetry, logging, automated validation systems, CI infrastructure, and field diagnostics.
- Help define engineering standards, development workflows, and firmware best practices across the organization.
Requirements
- 5+ years of experience in embedded firmware or software engineering.
- Strong proficiency in C/C++ for embedded systems.
- Strong experience with RTOS-based systems including FreeRTOS or similar platforms.
- Experience shipping at least one consumer electronics product, preferably wearable or audio-related devices.
- Experience developing firmware for battery-powered embedded systems with strong emphasis on power optimization.
- Experience with bootloaders, OTA update systems, and production firmware reliability.
- Experience with realtime embedded systems involving DMA, interrupts, concurrency, and low-latency data pipelines.
- Experience with Bluetooth LE and Classic Bluetooth audio systems.
- Strong hands-on debugging and bring-up experience across embedded hardware and firmware systems.
- Experience working closely with cross-functional hardware and software teams in fast-paced product development environments.
- Familiarity with Qualcomm Snapdragon platforms or similar wireless/audio SoCs.
Strong candidates may have
- Deep expertise in one or more of the following areas:
- realtime sensor acquisition and synchronization
- Bluetooth/Wi-Fi connectivity systems
- embedded audio and ANC systems
- Experience with Qualcomm Snapdragon S-series platforms.
- Familiarity with STM32-based embedded systems.
- Experience with embedded audio interfaces such as I2S, PDM, TDM, or related protocols.
- Experience with wireless coexistence optimization across Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and proprietary RF systems.
- Experience building ANC, beamforming, or low-latency audio systems.
- Experience with embedded Linux systems.
- Experience developing manufacturing firmware, calibration systems, or automated test infrastructure.
- Experience with CI systems, automated testing, and firmware deployment pipelines.
- Experience with Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing systems.
- Experience with Python for tooling, automation, or instrumentation control.
- Familiarity with secure boot, firmware signing, and device security.
- Strong understanding of low-power embedded architecture and system-level power optimization.
- Experience using lab instrumentation including oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, RF tools, and protocol analyzers.
Compensation Range
$150,000 - $200,000/year
Benefits
- Competitive equity package
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Company size: 25-30 people
- Unlimited PTO
- Visa sponsorship
- 4% 401k matching
Compensation Range: $160K - $210K