Software Engineer - Embedded Systems at Specter in San Francisco, CA

Company BackgroundSpecter's mission is to help automate the physical world.

Today, we build video sensors with state-of-the-art AI agents that answer any question, anywhere in their environments. Our systems can automatically detect and reason about any physical activity captured on camera, from security incidents (e.g. perimeter intrusion, theft, LPR), to safety monitoring (e.g. PPE detection, injured people), to operational efficiency (e.g. material tracking, congestion monitoring). We offer both long range wireless (1km range) and wired sensor variants to suit any deployment.

Our co-founders Xerxes and Philip are passionate about empowering our partners in the fast approaching world of physical AI and robotics. We are a small, fast growing team who hail from Anduril, Tesla, Uber, and the U.S. Special Forces.

**The Role**Specter is hiring an Embedded Software Engineer to own the full on-device software stack for our distributed wireless mesh sensor nodes, including integration with RF modules, cameras, and multi-modal sensors.

Responsibilities:

• Designing, implementing, and maintaining performant, reliable firmware and software for Specter’s current and future edge devices across a wide range of embedded platforms (embedded Linux on SoCs, RTOS, bare-metal on microcontrollers).
• Owning the integration of RF modules, cameras, and multi-modal sensors (e.g., environmental, motion, acoustic) into the embedded software stack, including driver development, data pipelines, and hardware enablement.
• Performing board bring-up, reading datasheets/schematics, and debugging complex hardware/software interactions using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG/SWD, and other diagnostic tools.
• Collaborating closely with Hardware Engineering (EE, RF, ME), Product Engineering, and backend software teams to co-design interfaces, support new hardware platforms, and enable rapid prototyping and iteration from concept to production deployment.
• Building and maintaining reusable build, test, and deployment infrastructure for embedded targets—including CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and over-the-air (OTA) update mechanisms—to accelerate development of new products and features.
• Debugging and optimizing system performance in real-world deployments, focusing on power consumption, memory footprint, reliability, and edge-case fault tolerance.
• Contributing to foundational platform components such as bootloaders, secure boot implementation, and modular driver frameworks to support fast development of next-generation devices.

Qualifications:

• Proficiency in writing software for embedded targets using C, C++, Rust, or similar languages.
• Experience with embedded Linux on System-on-Chips (SoCs), real-time operating systems (RTOS), or bare-metal programming for microcontrollers.
• Hands-on experience with kernel driver development (Linux) and/or low-level peripheral drivers on microcontrollers, integrating both on-chip and external hardware peripherals.
• Familiarity with a variety of communication protocols and interfaces, including low-level serial buses (e.g., SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, RS485), networking standards (e.g., Ethernet—including 10BASE-T1S, 802.11), and high-speed peripheral interfaces (e.g., MIPI CSI-2, SDIO, PCIe).
• Comfortable debugging hardware using basic lab equipment including logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, etc

Nice to Have

• Embedded Security (e.g., OTA update infrastructure, secure boot mechanisms, hardware security modules like TPM or secure elements).
• Power Electronics (e.g., software control of motors, DC-DC converters, or battery management systems in embedded environments).
• Connectivity (e.g., Bluetooth, Cellular, Wi-Fi, CAN, Ethernet; including integrations like OpenWRT for wireless routing, 10Base-T1S for single-pair Ethernet, or cellular modem drivers).
• Camera Integration (e.g., integrating image sensors or MIPI CSI-2 devices into embedded systems, including FPGA/DSP-based processing for video pipelines or computer vision applications).
• Operating Systems & Build Infrastructure (e.g., Nix/NixOS–based systems, reproducible builds, declarative system configuration, cross-compilation, and deployment pipelines for embedded Linux).