Lead Firmware Engineer

San Francisco, CA

About the role

About the Company

We're a small team solving one of the hardest problems in human-computer interaction: a noninvasive wearable that turns thought into text, no surgery required.

By pairing ultra-high-density neural sensing with our Brain Foundation Model, we decode neural signals with a fidelity once reserved for implants. Our mission is to give a billion people a direct link between mind and machine - expanding how humans think, communicate, and create.

We are building a next-generation AI companion wearable powered by EEG/BCI technology. Our device reads and responds to neural signals in real time, creating a deeply personal experience that adapts to each user. This is not another productivity tool or a gadget — it is a new category of technology built around human potential.

We are backed by strong investors, moving fast, and assembling a world-class team to bring this to market. If you thrive at the frontier of what’s possible and want to build something that genuinely changes how people interact with their own minds, we want to talk to you.

About the Role

You will architect and own the firmware for our wearable’s distributed-compute platform: a media and connectivity MCU running camera capture, audio runtime, Wi-Fi streaming, and onboard storage; a sensor-acquisition MCU running the biopotential signal chain and BLE streaming; and an always-on MCU enforcing power management, privacy, and thermal control.

The firmware is the connective tissue of our wearable — every subsystem either lives inside it or talks to it. You will report to the Head of Hardware, with regular exposure to Sabi’s CEO and CTO, and partner closely with the EE, audio, camera, AI/ML, and reliability leads.

Each subsystem lead provides their algorithms and interface specs; you provide the runtime, drivers, and orchestration that make the whole platform work. You will also work extensively with external engineering teams at our contract manufacturers — the work is outsourced; the accountability is yours.


What You’ll Do

  • Architect firmware across the distributed-compute platform: RTOS choice, task structure, inter-processor protocols, OTA, and time sync.

  • Own the runtime that hosts every subsystem, audio DSP, camera capture pipeline, biopotential acquisition, through specified interfaces with each subsystem lead.

  • Own the media and connectivity MCU pipeline, camera capture, audio runtime, wake-word, Wi-Fi streaming, and onboard logging, concurrently within strict CPU and memory budgets.

  • Drive low-power firmware on the always-on MCU: state machines for standby, assist, and continuous modes; hardware-enforced privacy; thermal throttling.

  • Build the multi-MCU time-sync layer that lets us correlate EEG, audio, and camera data downstream.

  • Establish the firmware engineering practices that scale: build and release pipelines, on-device telemetry, automated test, OTA with safe rollback, field debug tooling.

  • Partner with the EE lead on hardware bring-up and boot path; with the reliability lead on field telemetry, error handling, and diagnostic surfaces.

  • Bring up ASICs in collaboration with the EE and silicon teams

  • Ship the product by the end of year, and build and lead the firmware team as we scale to production.

What We’re Looking For


Must-Haves

  • 10+ years of embedded firmware engineering, with at least one shipped consumer product where you owned firmware architecture end-to-end.

  • Deep expertise across embedded RTOSes and bare-metal ARM Cortex-M, with familiarity across at least two ecosystems (e.g., Zephyr, FreeRTOS, ESP-IDF, ThreadX, NuttX).

  • Hands-on experience hosting real-time DSP runtimes alongside wireless connectivity on resource-constrained MCUs — integrating algorithms owned by other teams.

  • Strong background in multi-radio coexistence (Wi-Fi + BLE), low-power state-machine design, and OTA with safe rollback.

  • Comfortable in the lab with JTAG/SWD, logic analyzers, and protocol sniffers — able to drive bring-up from first power-on through end-to-end functional demos.

Nice-to-Haves

  • Deploying neural network inference to low-power MCUs or dedicated AI accelerators — model conversion, quantization, runtime integration.

  • Familiarity with on-device inference frameworks and edge AI runtimes.

  • Custom AI accelerator silicon, neuromorphic compute, or in-memory-compute platforms.

  • On-device wake-word or always-on voice activation engines.

  • Integrating biopotential acquisition over standard sensor buses.

If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every qualification, please apply. As we build, we’re hiring for complementary strengths to form a high-impact team.

Compensation & Benefits

  • Competitive base salary

  • Meaningful equity package

  • 401(k) with company matching

  • Health insurance

  • Flexible PTO

Our Hiring Timeline

  • Evaluation completed within 14 days of first interview

  • Offer letter dispatched same day as go decision, valid for 10 days

  • Start date within 4 weeks of offer acceptance

  • All candidate queries responded to within 3 hours during business hours

Sabi is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome people of all backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

About Sabi Inc.

Sabi is building the world's first non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) for consumers — a wearable in a beanie form factor that can read neural signals through your hair using breakthrough non-contact EEG technology. No surgery, no gel electrodes, no dry contacts touching your scalp. Just put on a hat and take it off.

Sabi represents a fundamentally new computing paradigm: if you can think it, you can make it happen. The company's mission is to give a billion people a direct link between mind and machine — expanding how humans think, communicate, and create. By pairing ultra-high-density neural sensing with a proprietary Brain Foundation Model, Sabi decodes neural signals with a fidelity once reserved for surgical implants.

Culture & Values:

  • Flat organization: Everyone is a "Member of Technical Staff" regardless of seniority — from new graduates to former Google/Amazon leaders. No hierarchies that limit zones of influence.
  • Mission-driven: Singular focus on bringing this technology to market, backed by multiple tier-one VCs with substantial runway.
  • Builder mentality: Leaders are expected to be hands-on, jump into the weeds, and build from scratch. No pure managers.
  • Speed: The company grew from 50 to 90+ people in weeks, with a first product targeting market by early 2025 and a multi-generational roadmap on 8-month cadences.
  • Top-of-market compensation: Liberal compensation policy designed so team members can focus entirely on the mission without worrying about everyday life.

Sabi is not making a better phone or a slightly improved gadget — it's creating something that doesn't exist in the world, with implications spanning consumer technology, accessibility, brain science, and medicine.

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Job details

Salary

$300,000 - $400,000

Location

San Francisco, CA

Company

NameSabi Inc.
IndustryBathroom Renovation
Team Size1

Funding

Total raised

$66M

Last stage

Series B

Investors

CRE Venture Capital
Janngo Capital
CCommerzVentures
NNorrsken22
Proof VC

Founders

AA

Anu Adedoyin Adasolum

Co-Founder & CEO

LinkedIn
AA

Ademola Adesina

Co-Founder & President

LinkedIn

What happens next.

No applications, no recruiter spam. Just the intro.

01

Confirm the fit

A few questions to make sure this role is the right shape for you. Two minutes.

02

I pitch you to the company

I write the intro, send it to the founder, and handle the back-and-forth.

03

A meeting lands on your calendar

If they’re a yes, I book the chat. You show up — that’s the whole job-hunt.