Senior Embedded Linux OS Engineer (America)

Nabu Casa

42d•$120,000 - $155,000•Remote

About The Position

As a Senior Embedded Linux OS Engineer at Nabu Casa, you will be the primary embedded Linux engineer within the Hardware Team. Your responsibilities will include enabling, maintaining, and improving Home Assistant OS support across Nabu Casa hardware products. You will work at the intersection of hardware and software, ensuring Home Assistant OS runs reliably on Nabu Casa hardware platforms. This role involves close collaboration with the Hardware Team, Home Assistant OS contributors, and the Open Home Foundation to support existing devices, enhance platform reliability, and enable new hardware platforms. You will be the main technical owner for embedded Linux enablement within the Hardware Team, focusing on Buildroot-based platform development, board support packages, bootloader configuration, hardware bring-up, platform debugging, and long-term maintainability. This is a senior, hands-on engineering role that requires deep embedded Linux expertise and the ability to independently drive complex technical work with minimal supervision. This is not a Linux kernel development role, but rather an embedded Linux platform engineering role focused on Buildroot-based systems, hardware enablement, operating-system integration, platform reliability, and hardware support.

Requirements

Strong embedded Linux experience, including Buildroot, Yocto, or similar embedded operating system environments
Deep understanding of Linux operating systems, system services, hardware bring-up, and platform reliability
Experience with bootloaders, partition layouts, OTA update systems, and embedded device lifecycle management
Comfort working across hardware and software boundaries, including reading hardware schematics and datasheets
Experience with cross-compilation toolchains and low-level debugging tools such as serial consoles, GDB, strace, JTAG, oscilloscopes, or logic analysers
Ability to read and write C/C++ for lower-level or driver-related work
Strong Python skills for automation, tooling, and platform scripting
Familiarity with security hardening practices for embedded operating systems
Hardware-native mindset — comfortable working directly with physical devices and embedded systems
High autonomy and ownership — able to independently own complex platform areas end-to-end
Strong debugging and troubleshooting mindset — able to methodically investigate unfamiliar systems and isolate problems using evidence rather than assumptions
Comfortable learning unfamiliar systems quickly and moving across multiple technical layers including OS, hardware, drivers, automation, and platform tooling
Community-minded and collaborative — comfortable contributing in public open-source environments with asynchronous communication and code review workflows
Clear written communication skills and ability to work effectively in distributed remote teams

Nice To Haves

Experience working with Home Assistant OS or similar embedded Linux platforms is a strong plus
Experience contributing to large open-source projects
Familiarity with Home Assistant OS and the Home Assistant ecosystem
Experience with Elixir or Nerves OS
ARM or Raspberry Pi ecosystem experience
Experience building embedded platforms for smart home or IoT products
Experience maintaining systems deployed at large scale across distributed hardware environments

Responsibilities

Maintain and improve Home Assistant OS support for Nabu Casa hardware platforms, contributing where appropriate within the wider Home Assistant OS ecosystem.
Work closely with Home Assistant OS contributors and Open Home Foundation developers to improve platform support, resolve issues, and enable new hardware platforms.
Support board bring-up activities for new hardware products, including Buildroot configuration, board support packages (BSPs), bootloader configuration, partition layouts, and system services.
Optimise operating-system performance, hardware utilisation, stability, and reliability across supported devices.
Maintain and improve the Buildroot-based build infrastructure, ensuring builds remain reproducible, maintainable, and efficient.
Investigate and resolve platform-level issues including boot regressions, driver failures, hardware compatibility problems, update issues, kernel panics, and power-management defects.
Collaborate closely with the Hardware Team during development and validation of new boards. The Hardware Team owns hardware design and production; you ensure reliable operating-system support and compatibility.
Upstream patches as required to Linux, U-Boot, Buildroot, or other related open-source projects.
Work with silicon vendors, hardware partners, and open-source maintainers when required to improve platform support and resolve lower-level issues.
Contribute to operating-system security hardening and platform reliability improvements.
Help maintain healthy CI pipelines for operating-system builds and platform validation.
Document platform architecture, board support status, debugging procedures, known limitations, and key technical decisions.

Benefits

Five weeks (twenty-five days) of paid time off.
Fourteen days of paid sick leave if your country/laws treat them as unpaid.
Six weeks of paid and six weeks of unpaid parental leave to be used in the first year after birth.
A budget for your work hardware once you start. After three years, you may keep this equipment for personal use.
An annual smart home budget to ensure you keep up-to-date with the latest smart homes offer.
An annual education budget to help you grow and stay on top of your game.
A yearly performance bonus based on company performance.
A 50% contribution to your internet connection fee at your home workspace.
One day every two weeks to work on your personal projects.
If you are currently working on Home Assistant-related side projects, you can spend work time maintaining them.