Senior Systems Engineer
afero · Los Altos, CA · hybrid
USD 150,000 to 220,000 · period not stated
Key Responsibilities:
- Define, review and correct device-level protocols (UART, BLE, SPI) between supplier MCUs and the Hubspace Module.
- Map device capabilities to Afero's attribute and data models, and keep specs accurate as products evolve.
- Lead bring-up and debug of new devices with manufacturers, from first prototype through production.
- Assess supplier-proposed designs and changes on technical merit, and flag scope impacts to product owners early.
- Trace and resolve issues that span firmware, the Hubspace mobile app and cloud services.
- Contribute to architecture for multi-protocol products such as gateways and bridges (BLE, proprietary RF, Matter).
- Work with platform engineers on GCP-hosted services, data flows and cost/performance trade-offs (e.g., BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Cloud SQL).
- Improve factory and provisioning workflows so new devices onboard reliably at production scale.
- Serve as technical liaison to manufacturers, retail and platform partners, and voice-assistant ecosystems.
- Write clear technical documents: protocol specs, integration guides, design reviews and decision memos.
- Translate deep technical detail into concise recommendations for product and executive stakeholders.
- Support Partner Enablement tickets and mentor other engineers on systems thinking and debugging.
Required Qualifications:
- 7+ years in systems, embedded or IoT engineering, with real products shipped at volume.
- Clear, precise technical writing, and the ability to explain trade-offs to non-engineers.
- Experience working directly with contract manufacturers or external hardware partners.
- Hands-on experience with serial and wireless protocols (UART, SPI, I2C, BLE) and reading/writing protocol specs.
- Understanding of IoT cloud patterns: MQTT, REST APIs, device provisioning and OTA updates.
- Ability to debug across layers—device, mobile app and cloud—and isolate root cause quickly.
- BS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science or equivalent experience.
Nice to Have:
- Working knowledge of embedded C on common MCUs (e.g., Nordic nRF52, ESP32, STM32) and comfort with logic analyzers, sniffers and debuggers.
- Matter, Thread or Zigbee experience, including bridges or border routers.
- Familiarity with smart home ecosystems and voice-assistant integrations.
- Experience with GCP (BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Cloud SQL) or similar cloud data platforms.
- Background in consumer electronics certification or retail product launches.
- Experience with HVAC, lighting, locks or other connected home device categories.
- Scripting in Python or similar for test tools, log analysis and automation.