Principal Software Architect

Title: Principal AI SoC Runtime Software Architect

Duration: Full Time/Direct Hire

Location: Onsite at 3200 Coronado Drive, Santa Clara, CA 95054

Comp range: Up to base $300K + Competitive Equity + Benefits

Work Authorization: Open to Visa transfer

Openings: 1

Interview Process: 2 rounds!

Why you should join

1. Builds ultra-low-power AI SoCs for edge and physical AI. Its chips run robots and other smart machines out in the real world.
2. You'll work with seasoned founders and leaders who've shipped big products across mobile and cloud. They've also shipped semiconductor and AI platforms. You'll get very competitive equity and help build core tech while the industry shifts.
3. This is a Principal Runtime Architect role that owns the sensor-to-inference-to-app pipeline. It pays $200k–$300k base plus equity, and it's on-site in the South Bay.

Hiring manager notes:

Must Have:

1. Technical lead on a runtime, driver, or multimedia project with multiple engineers (people management not required, but is a plus)
2. Deep computer architecture and data movement knowledge: DMA, caching, heterogeneous processors (ISP, DSP, NPU, CPU)

Required:

1. 8+ years of experience as a runtime software engineer or architect
2. Has shipped a runtime on an embedded SoC (on-device, not data center or rack-to-rack)
3. Camera or imaging pipeline experience (image processing, ISP, V4L2, GStreamer, or similar)

Nice to Have:

1. Experience designing and building production runtime systems, embedded middleware, multimedia frameworks, or performance-critical systems software
2. BS in EECS or Computer Engineering (not required with equivalent work experience)
3. Experience developing AI inference runtimes, execution providers, or ML compiler integration (ONNX Runtime, TensorRT, OpenVINO, TFLite, QNN, TVM, NPUs)

Red Flag:

• Runtime experience only in data center or rack-to-rack systems, never on an embedded chip
• Serial big-company hopper (roughly 2-year stints across many large companies)

What we're looking for:

We are looking for a Principal AI SoC Runtime Software Architect with 10+ years of experience to own the runtime at the center of the client's ultra-low-power AI SoC for robotics and physical AI. You'll be a hands-on, senior technical leader with deep embedded or on-chip runtime experience, ideally from imaging, multimedia, or AI inference pipelines on silicon. This is a key early hire: you'll define the architecture, then build and lead a team of engineers around it.

What will you be doing?

• Architect and build the embedded runtime that moves data from sensors (camera, audio, IMU) through image processing, preprocessing, NPU inference, and post-processing, then up to robotics applications.
• Coordinate execution across heterogeneous engines (CPUs, ISPs, DSPs, and the NPU), getting the most out of DMA, caching, shared buffers, and synchronization for predictable, low-latency pipelines.
• Define the interfaces between the runtime, Linux kernel drivers, firmware, the compiler, and the client SDK, including stable APIs, observability, and fault recovery.
• Debug and tune end-to-end performance problems that cross software and hardware layers, measuring latency, throughput, bandwidth, and power.
• Lead the work across runtime, kernel, driver, multimedia, and SDK engineers, and help hire the team that grows around this role.

Tech stack

C, C++, Embedded Linux, Linux Kernel Drivers, DMA, IOMMU/SMMU, Cache Coherency, Heterogeneous Compute (CPU/NPU/DSP/ISP), V4L2, GStreamer, OpenCL, ISP / Camera Pipelines, ONNX Runtime, TensorRT, OpenVINO, TensorFlow Lite, Qualcomm QNN/SNPE, TVM, ROS 2