Verkada is hiring a Staff Embedded Software Engineer to spearhead the development of brand-new camera categories and drive the reliability of our ever-expanding global fleet. This is a high-impact technical leadership position where you will collaborate across the entire stack to bring first-generation systems to life.
What You'll Do
- Lead the end-to-end lifecycle of entirely new camera categories for untapped market segments.
- Collaborate directly with Hardware and Product teams during initial co-design to influence HW selection and feature scoping.
- Own the firmware roadmap and drive large-scale architectural changes required to support novel features.
- Engineer high-performance features across bare-metal MCU firmware, secure bootloaders, Linux kernel optimizations, and concurrent userspace services.
- Tackle complex system-level challenges, including race conditions, memory corruption, and hardware-software timing issues.
- Systematically balance priorities like hardware security hardening, peak performance, power efficiency, and deep fleet observability.
- Partner with CV, Streaming, and Storage teams to architect vertically integrated features for edge computing and real-time computer vision.
- Champion a reliability-first culture for a global fleet of 1.5 million devices, designing deployment and monitoring strategies for 24/7 uptime.
What We're Looking For
- BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
- 10+ years of professional experience in systems software development for performance and resource-constrained environments.
- 5+ years of experience building software for Linux-based platforms.
- Demonstrated experience leading large-scale, cross-functional initiatives from concept to production.
- Proven experience leading initial board bring-up and hardware-software co-design for first-generation embedded devices.
- Hands-on experience with low-level protocols (SPI, I2C, UART, USB) and the ability to debug complex hardware-software interactions.
- Experience designing, implementing, and debugging concurrent/multithreaded firmware services.
- Strong understanding of modern operating systems, computer architecture, and trade-offs between compute, memory, and storage.
- Proficient in at least one systems programming language: C++ or Golang.
- Familiarity with Bash scripting and Python for tooling and automation.
- Excellent communication and documentation skills, with the ability to collaborate across engineering and product teams.
Nice to Have
- Direct experience with Linux Kernel development, including writing or debugging drivers, managing device trees, or optimizing kernel-space performance.
- Technical depth in MCU firmware and the boot stack, with a focus on RTOS, bare-metal development, or secure boot implementation.
Technical Stack
- Languages: C++, Golang, Bash, Python
- Platform: Linux
- Protocols: SPI, I2C, UART, USB
Team & Environment
You will collaborate across the entire stack, including Hardware, Product, Backend, and Frontend teams. This role reports to the Camera Firmware Manager.
Benefits & Compensation
- Compensation: $200,000-$300,000 USD
- Healthcare programs with premiums 100% covered for the employee under at least one plan and 80% for family premiums under all plans.
- Nationwide medical, vision and dental coverage.
- Health Saving Account (HSA) with annual employer contributions and Flexible Spending Account (FSA) with tax saving options.
- Expanded mental health support.
- Paid parental leave policy & fertility benefits.
- Paid holidays, firmwide extended holidays, flexible PTO and personal sick time.
- Professional development stipend.
- Fertility Stipend.
- Wellness/fitness benefits.
- Healthy lunches provided daily.
- Commuter benefits.
Work Mode
This role is onsite in San Mateo, CA.
Verkada is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing employment opportunities to all individuals without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.
