Head of Engineering✦ anywhere

About the Role

We are an early-stage wearable sensing startup building a body-worn sensing platform at the frontier of hardware engineering. This is a pivotal moment for the company, and we're looking for a technically deep, hands-on Head of Engineering to own technical execution from architecture through shipping — while leading a distributed team across India and San Francisco.

You'll be based full-time in India and travel to San Francisco approximately one week per month . This role is for someone who thrives at the intersection of systems thinking, embedded hardware, and team leadership — and who has a proven track record of shipping real products into real users' hands.

Note: This role is open to US citizens and US visa holders only. Visa sponsorship is not available.
What You'll Do

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Own end-to-end technical execution of a body-worn sensing platform — from system architecture through production shipment.

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Lead and coordinate a distributed team of hardware, firmware, and mechanical specialists across India and San Francisco.

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Make weekly design and integration decisions across power systems, sensor synchronization, firmware/embedded Linux, and mechanical structure.

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Define and maintain the complete hardware system architecture, ensuring all subsystems integrate coherently into a wearable product.

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Translate product requirements into clear, precise engineering briefs for the distributed team to execute against.

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Review and critique mechanical designs with engineering justification, focusing on wearability, durability, and real-world deployment constraints.

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Debug firmware and system-level issues using schematics, logic analyzers, and serial logs.

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Shape hiring criteria and interview processes to grow overall team capability.

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Own meaningful systems from day one and measure direct impact on product quality and model capabilities.

What We're Looking For
Dealbreakers (all required):

- US citizen or US visa holder.

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6+ years of hardware engineering experience focused on wearable hardware, robotics, motion capture, or field-deployed devices.

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Hands-on experience designing multi-rail battery-powered hardware, including power protection circuits, regulator topology selection, and ability to analyze inrush/brownout behavior on first power-on; must be comfortable reading schematics.

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At least one hardware product shipped from first prototype to real users.

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Willing to live in India and travel to San Francisco approximately one week per month.

Required:

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Experience operating as a staff, principal, or founding engineer — not solely as an engineering manager.

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Proven ability to lead distributed teams across time zones and maintain engineering quality without daily in-person presence.

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Deep expertise in sensor synchronization across mismatched sample rates and variable bus latencies, including firmware-level timestamping and diagnosing real misalignment in datasets.

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Firmware and embedded Linux experience: bringing up SoM/SBC platforms, debugging timing, interrupt, and buffer issues.

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Strong mechanical judgment: able to critique load paths, tolerance stack-up, strain relief, and wearable-specific requirements.

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Strong communication skills with a demonstrated ability to translate product needs into precise engineering briefs and influence hiring decisions.

Nice to Have:

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Experience with supply chain and vendor management for hardware components.

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Experience with regulatory compliance (UL/IEC) for wearable devices.

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Experience shipping hardware at scale, including mass production and manufacturing handoff.

Compensation & Benefits

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Salary: $140,000 – $210,000 USD annually

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Competitive equity in an early-stage company at a pivotal growth stage

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Regular travel to San Francisco (approximately one week per month) covered by the company

Location

This is a full-time, on-site role based in India . You will travel to San Francisco, CA, USA approximately o