Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Flock is a company dedicated to building technology that reduces crime and protects privacy. They are seeking a Senior Kernel Engineer to join their Device OS Team, responsible for developing a stable operating system for their next-generation device fleet, ensuring high performance and reliability.
Responsibilities
- Eliminate system vulnerabilities and accelerate hardware execution by driving low-level Qualcomm Android BSP bring-up, devicetree modifications, and pSIM framework implementations
- Collaborate across electrical engineering and application teams to bridge the gap between complex hardware architectures and cloud-connected software to ensure our life-saving devices never drop a frame
- Immerse in the Device OS Foundation: Learn the intricacies of Flock's architecture, hardware designs, development lifecycle, and toolchain. Set up your development workflow, build system, and gain deep familiarity with our systems
- Drive Immediate Target Impact: Work closely with electrical engineering peers to review design schematics and define/execute the low-level hardware integration work needed to bring new connectivity capabilities to our device fleet
- Connect and Collaborate: Establish your cross-functional footprint by setting up 1-on-1s with key stakeholders across our Kernel, Device OS, Next-Gen Software, and Validation teams to understand Flock's rapid deployment culture and device product goals
- Contribute to Next-Gen Chipset Bring-Up: Shift focus heavily toward bring-up efforts for our latest camera hardware platform, built on a leading edge chipset reference design. Partner closely with fellow kernel engineers to isolate, debug, and eliminate low-level system pain points
- Empower Device Validation: Team up with the Device Validation team to significantly increase automated testing capabilities. Facilitate scripting, debug hooks, and custom tooling support to optimize the hardware triage and verification workflow
- Own the Release Cycle: Grow comfortable pushing code securely through our version control and code review systems, running builds through our CI pipeline, navigating peer reviews, and deploying stable OS builds directly to physical devices
- Stabilize the Camera Fleet: Shift from learning to full ownership by contributing to the stability, debug workflow, and triage of our active camera programs running in the field
- Optimize the Software Stack: Spend time deeply integrated with application and framework developers to thoroughly understand the entire device software stack. Leverage this knowledge to identify, analyze, and optimize latency or performance bottlenecks between the low-level hardware layers and cloud-connected applications
- Scale the Fleet Engine: Become a rolling, fully autonomous contributor to the Device OS roadmap. Ensure that Flock's embedded OS architecture scales gracefully as the company rapidly expands its physical product portfolio to keep communities safe
Skills
- A Bachelors, Masters, or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field with 8+ years experience
- Proven track record of working with a large fleet of connected devices, a good understanding of different phases of their lifecycle and related challenges
- Development experience within embedded systems/firmware design at multiple stages of the product life cycle (prototyping, pre-production engineering validation, release and scaling)
- Experience with chipset bring-up within Linux or Android ecosystems
- Experience with Android system architecture (HAL, Android Linux Kernel, Android Build System, etc)
- Mastery of C and C++
- Experience in bootloader development and customization, including familiarity with XBL (eXtensible Boot Loader) and ABL (Android Boot Loader) concepts and implementation
- Proven ability to develop and debug firmware for Application Digital Signal Processors (ADSP), understanding their architecture and software development lifecycle
- Comfortable working in a Linux-based development environment, including custom tooling, containers, Gerrit/Git, etc
- Comfortable providing onsite support for new projects at the Coop once or twice a year as priorities come up
- Familiar with AI-assisted engineering practices, including the strategic, concurrent use of multiple AI agents (Claude, Copilot, Codex) to optimize development velocity
- Strong knowledge of Linux internals (memory management, power management, IRQ handling, synchronization, networking, storage, subsystem architecture)
- Experience bringing up Linux Kernel drivers for common peripheral bus technologies including SPI, I2C, UART, is a big plus
- Experience with Kotlin and Android apps development
- Experience with Qualcomm chipset devices is a plus
- Experience with customizing 'Qualcomm Proprietary' subsystems(BP) is a big plus!
- Experience with battery-powered/power constrained devices is a plus
- Experience with ARM Cortex Microcontroller (NRF5x, STM32x, etc.) is a plus
Benefits
- Flexible PTO: We offer non-accrual PTO, plus 11 company holidays.
- Fully-paid health benefits plan for employees: including Medical, Dental, and Vision and an HSA match.
- Family Leave: All employees receive 12 weeks of 100% paid parental leave. Birthing parents are eligible for an additional 6-8 weeks of physical recovery time.
- Fertility & Family Benefits: We have partnered with Maven, a complete digital health benefit for starting and raising a family. Flock will provide a $50,000-lifetime maximum benefit related to eligible adoption, surrogacy, or fertility expenses.
- Spring Health: Spring Health offers a variety of mental health benefits, including therapy, coaching, medication management, and digital tools, all tailored to each individual's needs.
- Caregiver Support: We have partnered with Cariloop to provide our employees with caregiver support
- Carta Tax Advisor: Employees receive 1:1 sessions with Equity Tax Advisors who can address individual grants, model tax scenarios, and answer general questions.
- ERGs: We want all employees to thrive and feel like they belong at Flock. We offer four ERGs today - Women of Flock, Flock Proud, LEOs and Melanin Motion. If you are interested in talking to a representative from one of these, please let your recruiter know.
- WFH Stipend: $150 per month to cover the costs of working from home.
- Productivity Stipend: $300 per year to use on Audible, Calm, Masterclass, Duolingo and so much more.
- Home Office Stipend: A one-time $750 to help you create your dream office.
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