Senior Device Software Engineer
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Summary
Senior Device Software Engineer at Sauron, a home security startup, builds and maintains embedded Linux platforms for security devices — owning the on-device video pipeline (RTSP ingest, local recording, low-latency WebRTC streaming) with C/C++, Yocto/AOSP, and GStreamer/FFmpeg, plus fleet diagnostics and reliability.
Who We Are
Sauron is the home security company of the future. Homeowners today lack compelling options when it comes to peace of mind against vulnerabilities, and total command and control of their home; there is no definitive, protective brand in the space. Leveraging cutting-edge AI, sensor technology, and nonlethal deterrence, Sauron brings next-generation technology to homeowners to protect their families and property. Incubated by the serial entrepreneur Kevin Hartz and Atomic, Sauron has raised an $18M seed round from leading venture capital firms and angel investors, including 8VC and Flock Safety CEO Garret Langley, to build the new perception system for the home.
The Role | Senior Device Software Engineer
The device platform is where Sauron meets the physical world. Every camera frame, every sensor reading, every alert a homeowner sees starts on hardware we built, running software we wrote, in a home we don't control. If the device isn't up, isn't streaming, or isn't telling the truth about its own state, nothing downstream matters. We are hiring someone to help own that foundation.
Our devices live on real home networks, next to third-party cameras, through power cuts, firmware updates, and years of operation without anyone looking at them. They have to keep video flowing to on-device perception, to local recording, and to a homeowner's phone in real time, and recover on their own when any piece fails. You would help decide how the platform is built: what runs where, how components are isolated from each other's failures, how we update and observe a fleet we can't touch, and what "reliable" means in measured uptime, latency, and recovery time rather than hope.
What You Will Do
- Develop from scratch and maintain embedded Linux platforms, from BSP to application level.
- Work with electrical, mechanical, perception/ML, backend, and mobile teams to define architectures for new on-device software.
- Drive features end-to-end through the full software lifecycle: design, implementation, validation, and production rollout.
- Root-cause and resolve issues using remote fleet diagnostics, telemetry, and local hardware test platforms; define logging and observability standards.
- Own the on-device video pipeline, from RTSP camera ingest to delivery for on-device perception, local recording, and low-latency WebRTC live viewing in our apps, and make it hold up on real cameras and home networks (reconnects, late-joiner keyframes, timestamp drift, and consumer isolation).
Who You Are
- 4+ years of professional experience developing device software for hardware products.
- Experience with Linux on embedded/constrained systems, such as Yocto, or AOSP.
- Experience writing C/C++ for Linux systems
- Demonstrated ability to write multi-threaded, highly reliable code.
- Hands-on experience building real-time video pipelines on Linux with GStreamer or FFmpeg/libav, and a working knowledge of RTSP/RTP and H.264/H.265 (GOPs, IDR frames, SPS/PPS).
- Strong grasp of software lifecycle best practices: code reviews, version control, unit/integration testing, CI, and on-hardware validation.
Nice to Have
- Experience building custom embedded Linux distributions with Yocto
- Experience with ARM Trustzone, and OP-TEE
- Experience with WebRTC (ICE, SFUs such as LiveKit) and HLS delivery
- Experience with hardware-accelerated video encode/decode on embedded SoCs (e.g. V4L2, Jetson, VA-API)
- Familiarity with gRPC/protobuf service APIs and OpenTelemetry-based observability
- Background contributing to or growing high-performance software teams.
Compensation: $200-225k + equity + benefits