Senior Embedded Engineer

Job Description Job Description About Butlr

Butlr is the leading spatial intelligence platform for workplace, senior care, and data centers. Our patented approach pairs low-resolution thermal sensing with AI to deliver spatial intelligence without cameras and without personally identifiable information — privacy is enforced at the hardware level, not bolted on in software. Our brand promise: Sense Everyone. See No One.

Founded in 2019 as a spinout from MIT Media Lab, Butlr has raised ~$78.5M from investors including Foundry, Qualcomm Ventures, and Ricoh, and has deployed 30,000+ privacy-preserving sensors across 22 countries. Our customers span enterprise workplaces, senior living and healthcare, commercial real estate, higher education, and retail.

About the Role

We're seeking a Senior Embedded Engineer to work across our MCU-based edge sensors and embedded Linux–based platform. This is a hands-on role at the cutting edge of IoT and edge computing, within a company experiencing rapid growth. You'll own significant pieces of the embedded stack end to end — firmware, OS builds, connectivity, and OTA — and your work on remote access, updates, and cloud connectivity will be pivotal to our product reliability.

Responsibilities

Architecture & Collaboration

Own the design and implementation of significant components of the embedded software stack for our IoT gateway and edge devices

Participate in design and code reviews, and help uphold engineering standards across the embedded team

Work closely with hardware, firmware, QA, and cloud teams to integrate and debug across boundaries

Evaluate and recommend tools, frameworks, and technologies to support the roadmap

Platform & Connectivity

Design and develop firmware for our MCU-based edge sensors, including RTOS tasks, drivers, sensor integration, wireless stacks, and low-power design

Build and maintain embedded Linux OS images (Yocto or Debian-based), BSPs, kernel modules, and device drivers

Implement and maintain connectivity across Ethernet, Wi-Fi, LTE/4G, Wi-Fi HaLow, and PoE, including failover and recovery behavior

Integrate edge ML inference and cloud middleware (AWS IoT Core, MQTT, REST APIs)

Security, OTA & Reliability

Implement security features including secure boot, signed firmware, certificate management, and access control

Develop and maintain OTA firmware update flows, including rollback protection and staged rollout

Implement system health telemetry, watchdog, auto-recovery, and remote diagnostics

Testing, Performance & Integration

Develop and execute embedded test plans; contribute to CI/CD pipelines for firmware builds and validation

Perform peripheral bring-up, SoC driver integration, and RF/sensor validation

Profile and optimize performance across CPU, memory, I/O, storage, and network

Requirements

5+ years of hands-on embedded software development

BS in Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or a related field; embedded systems specialization preferred

Deep expertise in C/C++ across RTOS and embedded Linux environments

Hands-on experience with embedded Linux builds (Yocto or Debian-based), BSPs, and kernel or driver development

Experience with networking stacks and multi-interface connectivity, including failover and recovery behavior

Experience with OTA firmware update systems and cloud-IoT integration (AWS IoT Core, Azure, or equivalent)

Experience with low-power design for battery-operated devices

Strong communicator — able to translate technical decisions for non-technical stakeholders

Nice to Have

Python and Rust

Qualcomm SoC bring-up and driver integration

Secure boot, signed firmware, and certificate management at production scale

RF and wireless experience (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi HaLow, LTE)

Edge ML inference on constrained devices

Test harness, fixture, and automation design

Experience working with distributed or overseas engineering teams

Why Butlr

You'll join a mission-driven team building technology that proves spatial intelligence and privacy aren't mutually exclusive. You'll work on embedded systems deployed at global scale — and your firmware, connectivity, and update architecture will directly determine whether our products stay reliable in the field.

Butlr is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Disclaimers

Butlr provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.