Head of Engineering

Job Description

• This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Head of Engineering based in the United States. This is a pivotal engineering leadership opportunity at an early-stage wearable sensing and robotics startup. You’ll own the complete technical execution of a body-worn sensing platform, from system architecture through production and deployment. The role combines hands-on engineering with leadership across hardware, firmware, embedded systems, power, sensing, and mechanical design. You’ll lead a distributed team of specialists across India and the US while maintaining high engineering standards across time zones. Your decisions will directly influence product reliability, usability, performance, and the capabilities of the underlying sensing and modeling systems. The environment is highly hands-on, fast-moving, and suited to an experienced technical builder who enjoys solving complex multidisciplinary problems. This role requires on-site work in India with regular travel to San Francisco, approximately one week per month.
• Accountabilities Own the technical execution of a body-worn sensing platform, taking systems from architecture and prototyping through production shipping and real-world deployment. Define and maintain the overall hardware system architecture, ensuring mechanical, electrical, sensing, power, and firmware subsystems integrate into a reliable wearable product. Lead and coordinate a distributed engineering team across India and the US, establishing clear priorities, technical standards, ownership, and execution expectations. Make critical design and integration decisions across power systems, sensor synchronization, firmware, embedded Linux, mechanical structures, and related hardware domains. Translate product requirements into precise engineering briefs and actionable technical plans for distributed engineering teams. Review and challenge mechanical designs with a focus on structural integrity, durability, ergonomics, wearability, and real-world operating conditions. Diagnose and resolve complex firmware and system-level issues using schematics, logic analyzers, serial logs, and other appropriate debugging tools. Address sensor synchronization challenges involving mismatched sampling rates, variable bus latency, timestamping, and real-world dataset alignment. Shape hiring strategies, technical evaluation criteria, and interview processes as the engineering organization grows. Maintain hands-on ownership of critical systems and continuously assess how engineering decisions affect product performance and model capabilities. Support supply chain, vendor management, regulatory considerations, manufacturing handoff, and production scale-up as the product matures. Requirements US citizenship or a valid US visa is required; visa sponsorship is not available. 6–10+ years of hardware engineering experience developing wearable devices, robotics, motion-capture systems, or other field-deployed hardware. Proven hands-on expertise in power-system design, including multi-rail battery-powered architectures, protection circuits, regulator selection, inrush and brownout analysis, and schematic review. At least one successfully shipped hardware product with end-to-end ownership spanning initial prototype development through deployment with real users. Deep experience with sensor synchronization across mismatched sample rates and variable bus latencies, including firmware-level timestamping and diagnosis of dataset misalignment. Strong firmware and embedded Linux experience, including SoM/SBC bring-up and debugging timing, interrupt, buffering, and system-level issues. Strong mechanical engineering judgment, including load paths, tolerance stack-ups, strain relief, durability, and wearable ergonomics. Experience leading distributed engineering teams across multiple time zones while maintaining technical quality without requiring daily in-person oversight. Prior experience operating as a Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer, Founding Engineer, or similar senior technical builder; this role is not intended for someone whose background is solely engineering management. Strong written communication skills and the ability to translate product requirements into clear, precise engineering briefs. Willingness to work on-site in India and travel regularly to San Francisco, approximately one week per month. Nice-to-have experience includes hardware supply chain and vendor management, UL/IEC regulatory compliance for wearable products, and mass-production handoff or manufacturing scale-up. Benefits Competitive salary: $140,000–$210,000 USD annually. Significant ownership: Opportunity to take substantial technical ownership during a critical stage of product and company growth. Engineering leadership: Shape the technical direction, architecture, hiring strategy, and engineering culture of an emerging wearable robotics organization. High-impact work: Direct influence over product quality, system capabilities, and the underlying sensing and modeling technology. Multidisciplinary environment: Work across hardware, firmware, embedded systems, mechanical engineering, sensing, and robotics. International collaboration: Lead and collaborate with engineering specialists across India and the United States. Travel opportunity: Regular travel to San Francisco, approximately one week per month, as part of the distributed operating model.
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