Senior Embedded Platform Engineer

Position Summary:

WAC Group is seeking a Senior Embedded Platform Engineer to own the on-premises appliance platform for the commercial smart lighting product line. This is a hands-on engineering role: you will design, build, and ship the appliance stack, zero-touch provisioning infrastructure, and OTA update systems that run-in customer facilities ranging from open to air gapped solutions. The ideal candidate combines deep Linux and edge systems expertise with working knowledge of AWS cloud services used to provision, manage, and connect deployed appliances at scale.


Key Responsibilities:

• Design, build and maintain an embedded Linux platform including boot loaders, kernel, drivers and user space.
• Board Bring-up: Collaborating with hardware engineers to bring up new hardware, debugging boot issues, configuring the device tree and testing performance.
• System Building & Imaging: Creating and managing production-ready Linux images using build systems such as Yocto, Buildroot or custom spins of standard distributions such as Debian.
• Platform Security: Implementing system hardening, secure boot, and managing vulnerability patches.
• OTA Updates: Developing robust, secure over-the-air update mechanisms. Experience creating robust platforms that are hardened against power loss and failed OTA updates.
• Performance Optimization: Tuning system boot time, memory usage, and power consumption.
• Design and maintain the appliance stack - Docker Compose deployment, systemd services, containerized MQTT broker, local Postgres, OIDC auth sidecar, and WireGuard/Relay integration for zero-friction site deployment.
• Build and maintain VM appliance images (OVA, QCOW2, VHDX) for Tier 1 site distribution.
• Architect and implement zero-touch provisioning - device identity (serial + certificate), provisioning service integration, and automatic vpn setup. Controllers must boot-to-claimed with zero manual configuration.
• Design and own the OTA update pipeline - signed manifest validation, atomic container updates, health-check-gated rollback strategies, and offline update paths via signed USB bundle for air-gapped deployments.
• Partner with firmware, mobile, and cloud teams to define the appliance API surface, deployment contracts, and integration patterns between the on-premises console and Cloud Portal.
• Evaluate and standardize the AWS cloud services used in the provisioning, relay, and management plane - including Fargate, Aurora, Cognito, and ECR - to meet performance, reliability, and cost targets.
• Implement best practices for CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, and release management to ensure reliable and repeatable appliance and cloud deployments.
• Design and maintain monitoring and alerting for site health - heartbeat telemetry, update status reporting, and local diagnostics accessible to non-technical installers and customer IT staff.
• Triage and resolve production issues related to device provisioning, updates, local connectivity, VPN tunnels, and on-premises infrastructure - prioritizing based on customer impact and SLA commitments.

Critical Success Factors:

• Customer-Centered Execution
  Communicates complex technical concepts clearly, builds trust with customers and partners, and delivers solutions that meet real-world performance.
• Technical Excellence & Rigor - Sets and enforces high standards for scalability, observability, security, and operational discipline. "Good enough" is not sufficient.
• Systems Thinking & Intellectual Curiosity - Understands the full IoT ecosystem and anticipates downstream impacts. Continuously evaluates emerging technologies and architectural trade-offs.
• End-to-End Ownership - Takes full accountability for the appliance platform's architecture, reliability, security, and performance - proactively identifying risks and driving resolution across both on-premises and cloud tiers.
• Cross-Functional Leadership - Aligns firmware, application, cloud, and product teams around cohesive architectural decisions that serve both technical and business objectives.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent practical experience. 7+ years of software engineering experience, including 4+ years building and operating edge/appliance systems or production Linux infrastructure.
• Expert-level Linux systems administration - Debian/Ubuntu, systems, apt/dpkg packaging, firewall configuration (UFW/iptables), and automated OS provisioning (preseed, cloud-init).
• Languages: Strong Proficiency in C, C++, and scripting languages (Python, Bash).
• Linux Internals: Deep understanding of the kernel, device tree, file systems and user-space libraries.
• Build Systems: Expertise in Yocto/OpenEmbedded, Buildroot and rpi-image-gen.
• Debugging: Experience with JTAG, GDB, and oscilloscopes for hardware/software debugging.
• Proven experience with Docker and Docker Compose - service dependency management, container image optimization, health checks, and fleet-wide update strategies.
• Hands-on experience with networking fundamentals - WireGuard, mDNS, NTP, DHCP, MQTT (EMQX or Mosquitto), and NAT traversal.
• Working knowledge of AWS services relevant to IoT and edge deployments - Cognito, Fargate (ECS), Aurora/RDS, S3, Route 53, ECR, and IoT Core (or equivalent device provisioning infrastructure).
• Experience with VM image creation (Packer, cloud-init) and multi-format appliance distribution (OVA, QCOW2, VHDX).
• Familiarity with PKI and device certificate infrastructure - TLS client certificates, certificate authorities (step-ca or AWS Private CA), and key rotation strategies.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code (Terraform or CloudFormation), CI/CD pipeline design, and automated deployment strategies.
• Hands-on experience with observability tooling (CloudWatch, Prometheus, Grafana, or equivalent).
• Strong understanding of security best practices - identity and access management, encryption at rest and in transit, and vulnerability mitigation for edge-deployed systems.
• Mandarin language proficiency is a plus.
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally as required.

We recognize people as our most valuable asset. Our competitive salary and benefits package include paid time off; medical & dental coverage (including family coverage), vision, life, 401(k); tuition assistance; and continuous training and development. For immediate consideration, please submit your resume as directed. Due to the high volume of applications, only candidates who meet the qualifications will be contacted.

WAC is an equal opportunity employer and provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetics, or any other protected characteristic. In addition to federal law requirements, WAC complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in all its locations. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

Please note, all responsibilities outlined in the above job description are subject to change as needed. All efforts will be made to ensure proper notice is given for changes in responsibilities.