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 own the entire audio system of our wearable — from the microphone array, through DSP and wake-word, to spatial speaker output. The first device carries a multi-microphone array distributed around the head and near the ears, dedicated audio DSPs and ASICs, on-device beamforming, direction-of-arrival estimation, AEC, noise suppression, wake-word detection, and open-ear speakers driven through Class-D amplifiers. The product feels alive when audio works; it dies when it doesn’t.
You will report to the Head of Hardware, with regular exposure to Sabi’s CEO and CTO, and partner closely with the EE, FW, product design, and reliability leads. You will also work extensively with external engineering teams at our contract manufacturers and audio component vendors — the work is outsourced; the accountability is yours.
What You’ll Do
Own the audio system end-to-end — microphone selection and placement, audio acquisition architecture, DSP pipeline, wake-word, beamforming, AEC, noise suppression, spatial speaker output.
Drive part selection and benchmarking across the audio chain — microphones, audio DSPs and AFEs, Class-D amplifiers, speakers — with second-source planning.
Specify the electrical and acoustic interfaces audio needs from the rest of the system, and partner with the EE lead on layout and the FW lead on runtime hosting.
Drive the on-device DSP that runs in real time alongside the rest of the platform — algorithm design, latency and CPU budgets, training data, metric tuning.
Validate the spatial mic array for direction-of-arrival accuracy, speech enhancement in noise, and wind robustness across realistic wear scenarios.
Define the wake-word strategy — keyword choice, training data, on-device engine, false-accept and missed-trigger budgets — and own the experience users hit when they say it.
Partner with the product design lead on acoustic detailing — microphone ports, mesh, wind shielding, speaker housings, leakage.
Partner with the reliability lead on component-level reliability for the audio chain — transducer durability, sweat and humidity resistance, AFE and amplifier qualification.
Ship the product by the end of year, and help build the audio team and our cloud-side voice processing capability.
What We’re Looking For
Must-Haves
10+ years of audio engineering, with at least one shipped consumer product
where you owned a multi-microphone voice system end-to-end.
Deep expertise in voice DSP — beamforming, AEC, noise suppression, direction-of-arrival on multi-microphone arrays.
Proven track record shipping wake-word or always-on voice activation at consumer scale, including data collection and metric tuning.
Experience designing real-time DSP pipelines on constrained MCUs — not just plugin-based desktop work.
Strong acoustic engineering instincts — microphone selection, port design, housing acoustics, wind, occlusion, body coupling.
Direct experience driving audio component selection and benchmarking with second-source planning.
Nice-to-Haves
Deploying audio DSP, wake-word, or speech models on dedicated low-power AI accelerators.
Experience with leading on-device wake-word engines.
Multi-channel audio DSPs and Class-D amplifier design.
Spatial audio rendering — HRTF, panning, head-tracked binaural.
Cloud STT pipelines and end-to-end voice UX latency budgets.
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
Funding
Total raised
$66M
Last stage
Series B
Investors
Founders
What happens next.
No applications, no recruiter spam. Just the intro.
Confirm the fit
A few questions to make sure this role is the right shape for you. Two minutes.
I pitch you to the company
I write the intro, send it to the founder, and handle the back-and-forth.
A meeting lands on your calendar
If they’re a yes, I book the chat. You show up — that’s the whole job-hunt.
