Mechanical Engineer at Specter | San Francisco

Company Overview:Specter is revolutionizing how businesses perceive their physical environments by developing a software-defined control plane. Our mission is to enhance the security of American enterprises by providing them with comprehensive visibility over their physical assets.We are pioneering a connected hardware-software ecosystem that leverages multi-modal wireless mesh sensing technology, reducing the deployment costs and time for sensors by a factor of ten. Our platform aims to be the perception engine for a company’s physical presence, facilitating real-time visibility of perimeters and enabling autonomous operational management.Founded by passionate innovators from Anduril, Tesla, Uber, and the U.S. Special Forces, our co-founders, Xerxes and Philip, are dedicated to empowering our partners in the rapidly evolving landscape of physical AI and robotics.

Company Overview:At Specter, we're revolutionizing the way businesses interact with their physical environments. Our mission is to empower American enterprises by providing comprehensive visibility into their physical assets through advanced software-defined solutions.We are developing an innovative hardware-software ecosystem that leverages cutting-edge multi-modal wireless mesh sensing technology, significantly reducing both deployment costs and timeframes for sensor installations. Our platform aims to be the definitive perception engine for companies, ensuring real-time visibility of their perimeters and facilitating autonomous operations management.Founded by industry veterans from Anduril, Tesla, Uber, and the U.S. Special Forces, our team is passionate about leading the charge in the realms of physical AI and robotics. Join us as we expand rapidly and redefine the future of business.Position Overview:We are searching for a skilled Electrical Engineer who will play a crucial role in designing and developing resilient sensor and computing systems, optimizing manufacturing processes, and supporting production programs.

Embedded Software Engineer - Embedded Systems & FirmwareCompany Overview:At Specter, we are pioneering a software-centric control plane for tangible assets, focusing initially on safeguarding American enterprises by providing comprehensive oversight of their physical resources.We are developing an integrated hardware-software ecosystem leveraging cutting-edge multi-modal wireless mesh sensing technology, which dramatically reduces the cost and timeline for sensor deployment by 10-fold. Our platform aspires to be the perception engine for a company’s physical presence, facilitating real-time visibility of perimeters, autonomous management of operations, and the creation of digital twins for physical processes.Led by our passionate co-founders Xerxes and Philip, our small but dynamic team hails from notable organizations such as Anduril, Tesla, Uber, and the U.S. Special Forces, committed to empowering partners in the rapidly evolving fields of physical AI and robotics.Role Overview:We are on the lookout for an Embedded Software Engineer who will take charge of the complete on-device software stack for our distributed wireless mesh sensor nodes, including the integration of RF modules, cameras, and multi-modal sensors.Key Responsibilities:Design, implement, and maintain high-performance, reliable firmware and software for Specter’s existing and future edge devices, encompassing a variety of embedded platforms (embedded Linux on SoCs, RTOS, bare-metal on microcontrollers).Lead the integration of RF modules, cameras, and multi-modal sensors (e.g., environmental, motion, acoustic) within the embedded software stack, which includes driver development, data pipelines, and hardware enablement.Conduct board bring-up, interpret datasheets/schematics, and troubleshoot complex hardware/software interactions utilizing oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG/SWD, and other diagnostic tools.Work closely with Hardware Engineering (EE, RF, ME), Product Engineering, and backend software teams to collaboratively design interfaces, support new hardware platforms, and facilitate rapid prototyping and iteration from concept to production deployment.Build and maintain documentation related to the embedded software development lifecycle.

Company BackgroundAt Specter, we are pioneering a software-defined control plane that enhances the safety and visibility of physical assets for American businesses. Our innovative approach leverages a robust hardware-software ecosystem built on advanced multi-modal wireless mesh sensing technology, drastically reducing the costs and time associated with sensor deployment.Our platform is set to revolutionize the way companies perceive their physical environments, enabling real-time visibility and management of operations. With a passionate team hailing from prestigious organizations such as Anduril, Tesla, Uber, and the U.S. Special Forces, we are committed to leading the charge in the rapidly evolving realm of physical AI and robotics.Role + ResponsibilitiesWe are on the lookout for a Backend Software Engineer to join our engineering team. In this role, you will be instrumental in designing, deploying, and scaling distributed systems that power our mother node base stations and cloud services. Your contributions will ensure the reliability, scalability, and performance of Specter’s sensing and perception platform across both edge devices and cloud infrastructure.Key responsibilities include:Architecting and operating distributed, Linux-based systems across edge and cloud environments.Designing scalable pipelines for streaming, storing, and processing vast amounts of video and sensor data.Building containerized services (Docker/Kubernetes) for the deployment of perception and inference workloads at scale.Developing observability systems for monitoring, logging, and alerting across our fleet of edge nodes and cloud infrastructure.Optimizing queue-based video ingestion, transcoding, and upload pipelines for reliability in bandwidth-constrained environments.Implementing highly available infrastructure for real-time alerting, APIs, and customer-facing event systems.Collaborating cross-functionally with hardware, perception, and application teams to ensure infrastructure supports rapid iteration and scalability.

About braintrustBraintrust is at the forefront of AI observability. By merging evaluation and observability into a singular workflow, we empower developers with the insights needed to comprehend AI behavior in production environments, along with the tools to enhance it.Leading teams at Notion, Stripe, Zapier, Vercel, and Ramp utilize Braintrust to compare models, test prompts, and monitor regressions — transforming production data into superior AI with each new release.About the roleWe are in search of a passionate software engineer dedicated to crafting high-performance data processing systems. Our clientele consists of large enterprises handling complex, semi-structured data, which they require for real-time processing and analysis. Our distinct architecture enables these organizations to keep data on-premises while creating intricate visualizations that load without delay. Explore our Brainstore blog post.If you have experience with database systems, compilers, networks, or storage systems and aspire to pivot your expertise into the AI sector, this role could be your ideal fit. You will significantly influence foundational system architecture, technology selection, and implementation. Our founding team possesses extensive knowledge in database and ML systems, and you will have the autonomy to collaborate closely with them while exploring your innovative ideas.Your ResponsibilitiesAs a systems engineer at Braintrust, you’ll contribute to the core systems that empower Braintrust’s capability to process and query vast amounts of unstructured data at an enterprise scale. Key areas of responsibility include:Enhancing the storage, indexing, and query execution performance of Brainstore.Developing Braintrust's btql query language.Optimizing query patterns to boost performance across our platform.QualificationsDeep understanding of systems programming (C++ or Rust, concurrency, databases, operating systems).Experience in founding or working at startups is advantageous.Familiarity with writing prompts or experimenting with GPT models and applications.BenefitsComprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance.Daily lunch, snacks, and beverages provided.Flexible time off policy.Competitive salary with equity options.

Midstream is an innovative, AI-driven financial operating system tailored for healthcare systems. Founded by a team of seasoned entrepreneurs and supported by prestigious investors, we empower finance, supply chain, and managed care teams with real-time insights into margin risks, enabling them to act swiftly to protect their margins.Designed specifically for the complexities of healthcare, Midstream converts structured, unstructured, and external data into immediate, contract-aware insights that enhance decision-making. Our AI-driven agents integrate spending and revenue operations across the entire back-office, continuously learning and adapting to ensure a level of intelligence that surpasses any standalone solution.We are revolutionizing the pace of healthcare finance, compressing lengthy processes into minutes and transforming retrospective insights into proactive foresight. Midstream is at the forefront of this change.The OpportunityJoin Midstream at a pivotal moment in our growth and contribute to establishing the technical backbone of our platform. In this role, you will operate at the intersection of product development, systems architecture, and cloud infrastructure, crafting and building distributed systems that enable our agile team to operate efficiently as we expand.You will collaborate closely with engineers and leadership to identify current infrastructural pain points and anticipate potential challenges before they arise. From multi-tenant architectures to security protocols, you will transform uncertainty into robust systems that minimize operational burdens and enhance engineering productivity.We are seeking a software engineer with a systems-oriented mindset who is passionate about long-term maintainability and developer experience, while also enjoying the process of creating backend services and delivering tangible software solutions. The ideal candidate will be adept at reasoning about distributed systems, making practical compromises, and developing infrastructure that seamlessly integrates into the background, allowing the team to focus on delivering impactful product value.What You’ll DoDevelop shared platform patterns and tools that enable engineers to launch new backend services and workflows efficiently, securely, and reliably.Enhance the reliability of our production systems by improving observability, debugging capabilities, and resilience as we scale.Architect infrastructure that is clean, reviewable, and repeatable, minimizing unique configurations and facilitating rapid iteration.Establish clear, scalable multi-tenant boundaries across data, compute, and identity to support...

About UsAt LatchBio, we are at the forefront of transforming biological discovery through the fusion of laboratory automation, high-throughput assays, and machine learning. Our innovative platform is designed to store, visualize, and analyze the next wave of scientific discoveries. Trusted by teams across pharmaceutical, biotech, and solution provider sectors, our technology plays a crucial role in enhancing, informing, and delivering groundbreaking products.Our dedicated team of engineers has spent over four years developing and marketing cutting-edge technology in a challenging market that is often hesitant to embrace newcomers. We cater to a diverse clientele with varying product expectations, necessitating close collaboration and nuanced communication with both technical and non-technical users. Our systems routinely handle computational tasks involving multiple terabytes of data.Our commitment and perseverance have resulted in significant market validation, with revenue more than tripling over the past year. Looking ahead, we aim to achieve a sustainable growth trajectory, targeting a repeatable sales process and reaching $50 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) within the next three years.Explore our core product offerings:Distributed file system with metadata on Postgres and blobs on S3, featuring a web UI and a FUSE driver.Workflow orchestrator built on Kubernetes.On-demand interactive compute instances based on Kubernetes containers.Statically-typed tabular data storage engine.Reactive Python-based web application framework for data analysis and visualization.Upcoming: A cluster orchestrator and workflow engine designed to accept compute nodes from anywhere on the internet.While various startups focus on niche solutions, our comprehensive approach sets us apart in this tech-heavy industry.

Join Our Innovative Team at SazabiAs we approach the year 2026, the tech world faces a looming "infinite software crisis." How do we effectively support, maintain, and manage the vast surge in application development?Our solution is Sazabi: the AI-native observability platform designed specifically for dynamic engineering teams.Sazabi empowers teams to inquire about their production systems in straightforward language, visualize operations automatically, and identify root causes up to 10 times faster. Forget about tedious instrumentation, complex dashboard setups, and alert configurations—just get the answers you need.We are proud to be supported by innovators from industry-leading AI companies, including Vercel, Graphite, Daytona, Browserbase, LangChain, and Replit.

The Bot CompanyAt The Bot Company, we are revolutionizing the home experience by creating an intelligent robot that serves as a helpful companion in every household.Our dynamic team, comprised of talented engineers, designers, and operators, is based in the heart of San Francisco. We boast a rich background with team members previously at industry giants such as Tesla, Cruise, OpenAI, Google, and Pixar. Collectively, we have a proven track record of delivering groundbreaking products to millions of users, understanding deeply what it takes to craft exceptional experiences.We pride ourselves on a streamlined team structure that fosters quick decision-making and eliminates unnecessary bureaucracy. Each team member is empowered to take ownership of their work and has the autonomy to drive their projects forward. Our culture encourages rapid iteration and agile execution across all levels of development.

Baseten supports companies like Cursor, Notion, and Writer in running AI inference at scale. The team blends AI research, adaptive infrastructure, and developer tools to help organizations deploy advanced AI models efficiently. Backed by investors such as BOND, IVP, and Greylock, Baseten recently raised a $300M Series E. The company aims to be the trusted platform for engineers launching AI products. Role overview The Software Engineer - Realtime Systems (Voice AI) role focuses on building and deploying production-ready Voice AI systems. Baseten’s Voice AI team works with open-source models to power applications in productivity, customer support, clinical conversations, creative tools, and education. Engineers in this group influence how people use voice to interact with technology, shaping products that impact multiple industries. This position involves leading Voice AI projects, setting both product direction and technical strategy. Collaboration is a key part of the work: expect to partner with Forward Deployed Engineers, Model Performance Engineers, and other teams to advance Baseten’s Voice AI capabilities. Sample projects The world's fastest Whisper, with streaming and diarization Orpheus TTS inference partnership with Canopy Labs Collaborate with the Core Product team to build a multi-model voice agent using Baseten’s orchestration framework Work alongside the Training Platform team to support ongoing training of voice models Design APIs and SDKs that make Baseten Voice AI products accessible for developers Location This role is based in San Francisco.

About CartesiaAt Cartesia, we are on a mission to revolutionize artificial intelligence by creating interactive intelligence that is accessible and effective in any environment. We have identified a gap in current AI capabilities; existing models struggle to continuously process extensive streams of audio, video, and text data. Our vision is to bridge this gap by developing pioneering model architectures.Founded by PhD experts from the Stanford AI Lab, we are the creators of State Space Models (SSMs), a groundbreaking approach to training efficient, large-scale foundation models. Our team merges profound expertise in model innovation with systems engineering and product design to deliver advanced models and user experiences.Backed by leading investors such as Index Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, along with an array of esteemed advisors, we are well-positioned to push the boundaries of AI.About the RoleWe are seeking a talented Software Engineer specializing in database systems to architect and scale Cartesia’s data infrastructure. You will play a crucial role in implementing robust data governance and developing user-friendly, secure database tools that empower both engineers and non-engineers.Your ImpactDesign and enhance database platforms to ensure scalability to over 100 times current capacity while maintaining uptime, latency, and accuracy.Construct data storage architectures that function seamlessly across various environments including AWS, GCP, on-premises systems, and third-party deployments.Facilitate accelerated development across the organization by providing high-quality database tools and resources to both technical and non-technical users.Implement secure access control mechanisms to ensure sensitive data is restricted to authorized personnel only.Develop scalable data governance systems focused on permissions, auditing, and compliance, utilizing IAM policies, ACLs, and security controls across a large user base.What You BringExpertise with cloud services such as AWS, GCP, or Azure, along with experience using infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform.A proven history of managing database systems during periods of rapid growth in dynamic environments.

At Magic, we are dedicated to creating safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) that propels humanity forward in tackling the most pressing global challenges. We believe that the most effective route to achieving safe AGI involves automating the research and code generation processes to enhance models and resolve alignment issues more reliably than humans can achieve independently. Our methodology incorporates cutting-edge pre-training at scale, domain-specific reinforcement learning (RL), ultra-long context capabilities, and optimized inference-time computations.Role OverviewIn your role as a Software Engineer on the Pre-training Systems team, you will be responsible for designing and managing the distributed infrastructure necessary for training Magic’s long-context models at scale.This position emphasizes large-scale model training utilizing extensive GPU clusters. You will operate at the intersection of deep learning and distributed systems, ensuring that training processes are efficient, reliable, and reproducible under extreme conditions.Magic’s long-context models present complex systems challenges, such as sustained memory usage, communication overhead across thousands of devices, long-duration jobs requiring fault tolerance, and efficient sequence packing within hardware limitations. You will take ownership of the systems that ensure large-scale pre-training is both stable and rapid.Your ContributionsScale distributed training across large GPU clusters, implementing data, tensor, and pipeline parallelism.Optimize communication strategies and gradient synchronization.Enhance checkpointing, fault tolerance, and job recovery mechanisms.Profile and resolve performance bottlenecks across computing, networking, and storage.Advance experiment reproducibility and orchestration workflows.Boost hardware utilization and overall training throughput.Collaborate with Kernel and Research teams to align model architecture with system capabilities.Qualifications We SeekSolid foundation in software engineering and distributed systems.Experience with training large models in multi-node GPU environments.In-depth understanding of parallelism techniques and performance trade-offs.Experience in debugging cross-layer issues within production ML systems.Demonstrated ownership mentality and capability to manage critical infrastructure.Proven track record in enhancing the performance or reliability of large-scale systems.

Role OverviewJoin our innovative team as a Distributed Systems Engineer at Archil, where you will play a pivotal role in developing cutting-edge storage solutions. You will work across the entire technology stack, tackling challenges as they arise and significantly shaping our product's technical and strategic direction.Your responsibilities will include:Being on-call for our production systems to assist customers promptly in case of issues.Innovating and implementing unprecedented features in our storage services.Designing interactions within distributed systems to ensure atomicity and idempotency.Deploying and standardizing infrastructure across various cloud environments.Navigating evolving customer requirements amidst ambiguity.

At Sift, we are revolutionizing the way sophisticated machines are constructed, tested, and managed. Our innovative platform provides engineers with instantaneous visibility over high-frequency telemetry, effectively removing bottlenecks and fostering swifter, more dependable development.Originating from our extensive experience at SpaceX on projects such as Dragon, Falcon, Starlink, and Starship, Sift was created to address the challenges of scaling telemetry, debugging flight systems, and ensuring mission reliability, which necessitated the development of groundbreaking infrastructure. Established by a talented team from SpaceX, Google, and Palantir, Sift is tailored for mission-critical systems where accuracy and scalability are imperative.As a key early engineer concentrating on our data infrastructure, your role will extend beyond mere coding—you will shape foundational architecture and assist in scaling a real-time telemetry platform from its inception. You will engage with intricate backend systems designed to process, store, and deliver millions of high-frequency data points each second, facilitating rapid iteration cycles for some of the world's leading engineering teams.

Join Condor Software as a Full-Stack Platform EngineerAt Condor, we are revolutionizing the financial infrastructure that supports clinical development. With billions invested annually in discovering and developing new therapies, we strive to connect clinical operations and finance into a cohesive system. By integrating real-time financial intelligence, we empower R&D and finance leaders with the tools they need to make informed, high-stakes decisions.We are an AI-driven, pharma-native infrastructure provider, scaling industry standards in collaboration with top-tier partners. Our platform facilitates prediction, control, and execution in the most complex R&D environments worldwide.The Importance of Your RoleHaving established ourselves as a trusted partner for enterprise teams, we are now focused on the challenging task of scaling our platform to meet increasing demands. As a rapidly growing company, backed by prominent investors like Felicis and 645 Ventures, this is a unique opportunity to contribute to the foundational infrastructure that will redefine how therapies reach patients.Your ResponsibilitiesAs a Full-Stack Platform Engineer, you will be pivotal in building and scaling the core platform that supports the financial intelligence infrastructure relied upon by leading biopharma companies. This role encompasses critical engineering tasks at the intersection of backend systems, cloud infrastructure, and intelligent automation, with a strong emphasis on reliability and scalability.Your primary focus will be on backend architecture, where you'll design and implement services that drive complex financial and operational workflows. You'll be instrumental in shaping data flow, workflow orchestration, and enabling emerging AI-driven capabilities. This role goes beyond simple integration; you'll be crafting robust primitives that support other teams as our product and customer base expand.Working as a core member of a cross-functional product team, you will closely collaborate with product managers, designers, quality engineers, and data specialists to transition features from concept to production. While backend expertise is crucial, you will also engage across the stack to ensure the platform's capabilities are effectively leveraged.

Join linqapp as a Systems Engineer and be a pivotal part of our innovative team in the heart of San Francisco. In this role, you will design, implement, and maintain systems that enhance our product offerings and drive efficiency. We are looking for a passionate engineer who thrives in a collaborative environment and is dedicated to delivering high-quality solutions.

About Our TeamJoin our dynamic Infrastructure organization at OpenAI, where we are actively seeking talented software engineers to bolster our efforts across several high-impact teams. With a variety of focus areas available—including Core Distributed Systems, Databases, Observability, and Cloud Infrastructure—you'll have the opportunity to work on projects that fascinate you. Our teams operate with a high level of autonomy and foster a deeply collaborative environment, all dedicated to enhancing safety, reliability, and operational velocity across the organization.About the RoleAs a Software Engineer focused on Infrastructure Reliability, you will play a pivotal role in scaling and fortifying the infrastructure that supports some of the world’s most widely utilized AI systems. Your work will ensure that our systems maintain high reliability, observability, performance, and security—enabling researchers to iterate rapidly and allowing products like ChatGPT and the OpenAI API to effectively serve millions of users.This hands-on, impactful role is perfect for engineers who enjoy ownership, excel at solving complex technical challenges across the entire stack, and wish to contribute to systems that facilitate cutting-edge research deployed on a global scale. You will significantly influence technical direction, enhance system resilience, and collaborate closely with infrastructure, product, and research teams to transform intricate infrastructure into dependable platforms.Key ResponsibilitiesDesign, construct, and maintain reliable, high-performance systems utilized across engineering.Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks and inefficiencies, ensuring our infrastructure scales appropriately.Investigate and troubleshoot complex issues thoroughly.Enhance automation to minimize manual tasks and improve internal developer tools.Participate in incident response, postmortem analysis, and the development of best practices surrounding system reliability and scalability.Ideal Candidate ProfilePossess a deep understanding of distributed systems principles, with a proven track record in developing and managing scalable, reliable systems.Demonstrate a strong focus on performance and optimization, with the ability to maximize efficiency in complex, globally distributed systems.Have experience managing orchestration systems such as Kubernetes at scale and creating abstractions over cloud platforms.Be comfortable working within Linux environments and possess strong problem-solving skills.

About the TeamThe Applied team is dedicated to responsibly introducing OpenAI's groundbreaking technology to the global community. We have launched revolutionary products like ChatGPT, Plugins, DALL·E, and APIs for GPT-5, embeddings, and fine-tuning. Additionally, we manage extensive inference infrastructure to support our rapidly advancing initiatives.Our clients leverage our APIs to create dynamic businesses with innovative product features previously thought impossible. For instance, ChatGPT exemplifies the capabilities our technology currently offers. We prioritize the responsible use of our powerful tools, ensuring that safety remains paramount over unrestricted growth.The Fraud Engineering team operates within the Applied Engineering organization, focusing on identifying and mitigating fraudulent activities on our platform. We are seeking a software engineer with expertise in anti-fraud and abuse systems to help us design and implement next-generation solutions.About the RoleThe Scaled Abuse team safeguards OpenAI’s products and users by detecting, preventing, and addressing fraudulent and abusive activities on a large scale. We develop and maintain backend and data systems that facilitate real-time detection, investigative workflows, and enforcement, ensuring a balance between robust protection and an excellent user experience as our platform evolves.Our work lies at the convergence of engineering and abuse prevention expertise. We collaborate closely with Trust & Safety, Security, and Product teams to identify emerging attack trends, translate complex signals into actionable system behavior, and continuously enhance our defenses. We value engineers who can navigate unfamiliar codebases swiftly, develop a deep understanding of system functionality, and suggest practical improvements to enhance overall resilience.In This Role, You Will:Design and develop systems for fraud detection and remediation, balancing fraud loss, implementation costs, and customer experience.Collaborate with finance, security, product, research, and trust & safety teams to effectively combat fraudulent and abusive behaviors on our platform.Stay updated with the latest techniques and tools to remain ahead of determined adversaries.Utilize GPT-5 and future models to enhance our fraud and abuse mitigation efforts.You May Thrive in This Role If You:Possess at least 5 years of software engineering experience, particularly in backend and data systems.

About UnifyUnify is revolutionizing the way revenue teams operate by developing the first AI-powered system of action. Our mission is to transform outbound strategies into a robust growth engine, ensuring that go-to-market execution is observable, repeatable, and scalable. Established in 2023 by industry leaders from Ramp and Scale AI, our talented team boasts backgrounds from renowned companies like Airbnb, Meta, Waymo, and Perplexity.In 2024, Unify achieved an impressive 8x revenue growth and serves a diverse clientele including Perplexity, Cursor, SoFi, and Justworks. We are a dynamic team fueled by high energy and intensity, having secured $58M in funding from leading investors such as Thrive, Emergence, and OpenAI. Join us in shaping the future of GTM!About the Role:As a Senior Software Engineer specializing in AI at Unify, you will be at the forefront of innovation, developing new AI products and enhancing our AI platform. Your work will encompass agents, retrieval systems, classification, fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, and LLM inference infrastructure. If you are passionate about creating production-ready AI systems and wish to contribute to cutting-edge applications used by premier GTM teams, this role is for you.