Lead Sensor Engineer

Lead Sensors Engineer / Sensor Architect

You’ll own sensor architecture and sensing system development for a breakthrough stealth-stage neurotechnology and brain-computer interface (BCI) startup building an AI-powered neural interface platform. In this role, you will lead the development of the wearable sensing stack, with primary ownership of PPG (Photoplethysmography), optical sensing, heart-rate and HRV estimation, and multimodal sensor fusion. You will help bring a next-generation wearable to market by combining optical, inertial, temperature, and environmental sensing systems into a highly integrated AI companion platform.

The product is a sensor-rich textile wearable that combines EEG, physiological sensing, environmental awareness, and AI-driven personalization. This role requires deep expertise in wearable sensing systems, signal processing, sensor integration, and production-ready consumer hardware development.

What You''''ll Do

• Own the non-EEG sensing architecture across the platform, including optical, inertial, temperature, and environmental sensing systems.
• Lead PPG system development from architecture through production, including sensor selection, optical front-end design, skin interface development, and motion-robust heart-rate and HRV algorithms.
• Define and evaluate the complete sensor suite, including
  • PPG and optical sensing
  • Accelerometers and gyroscopes
  • Body temperature sensing
• Environmental sensing including humidity, light, ambient temperature, and barometric pressure
• Own sensor selection, benchmarking, BOM strategy, and second-source planning across the sensing platform.
• Develop signal conditioning, calibration, characterization, and validation methodologies across all sensing systems.
• Architect sensor-fusion strategies that combine multiple sensing streams into reliable inputs for the AI platform.
• Partner closely with Electrical Engineering, Firmware Engineering, Product Design, Reliability, and AI/ML teams to deliver an integrated sensing platform.
• Define sensor electrical, mechanical, and firmware interfaces, including synchronization and cross-sensor timestamping requirements.
• Drive technical reviews, design documentation, validation plans, and production readiness activities.
• Work directly with external engineering teams and manufacturing partners while maintaining ownership and accountability for delivered sensing solutions.
• Help build and scale the sensing organization as the company grows.

Responsibilities:

• 10+ years developing sensors or wearable hardware systems, with at least one shipped product where you owned a sensing subsystem end-to-end.
• Deep expertise in PPG (Photoplethysmography), optical sensing, and heart-rate/HRV algorithm development.
• Strong background in sensor architecture, integration, calibration, characterization, and validation.
• Experience selecting, benchmarking, and owning sensor BOM decisions, including second-source strategy.
• Experience integrating sensors into wearable or consumer hardware products.
• Hands-on laboratory experience with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and hardware debugging tools.
• Track record of partnering closely with electrical, firmware, mechanical, and manufacturing teams.
• Strong system-level ownership and ability to drive architecture, integration, validation, and production readiness.

Preferred Skills:

• Multimodal sensor fusion across optical, inertial, and temperature sensing systems.
• Activity sensing, gesture recognition, context classification, and orientation estimation.
• Additional physiological sensing technologies such as SpO?, ECG, EDA, or EMG.
• Body-temperature sensing, thermal modeling, calibration, and ambient compensation.
• Knowledge of human physiology, biomechanics, and wearable sensing applications.
• Biocompatible skin-contact sensing systems.
• Always-on, ultra-low-power sensing architectures.
• Founding engineer, lead engineer, principal engineer, or sensor architect experience within consumer hardware or wearable organizations.
• Experience building or scaling sensor teams in fast-moving startup environments.

Type: Fulltime
Location: Palo Alto, CA (Hybrid Schedule)
Salary Range: $300k - $400k/y (DOE)