Senior Partner Engineer I

Axon•Seattle, WA

4d•Onsite

About The Position

Join Axon and be a Force for Good. At Axon, we’re on a mission to Protect Life. We’re explorers, pursuing society’s most critical safety and justice issues with our ecosystem of devices and cloud software. Like our products, we work better together. We connect with candor and care, seeking out diverse perspectives from our customers, communities and each other. Life at Axon is fast-paced, challenging and meaningful. Here, you’ll take ownership and drive real change. Constantly grow as you work hard for a mission that matters at a company where you matter. Your Impact As a mission-driven company, Axon is in the exciting position of having identified an abundance of opportunities to Protect Life, and Accelerate for both our customers and the public more broadly. Therefore we are leveraging Joint Development Manufacturers (JDMs) and other Partners to scale our growth and deliver more products, faster that helps save lives. In this high-visibility, leadership/technical hybrid role, you will lead in the technical direction setting for our firmware development partners, and contribute to ensuring the partners’ success in scaling Axon’s development efforts. As a Sr. Partner Engineer I, your leadership will span across Axon and our Partners. On the Axon side, you will be responsible for ensuring the Axon requirements to Partners are technically rigorous, clear, and specific, and account for the needs of all adjacent stakeholders in Firmware (FW) success (e.g. hardware, application software). On the partner side, you will ensure that their FW deliverables integrate well into the broader Axon FW ecosystem, and meet Axon’s high bar for quality and security. From a technical contribution perspective, you’ll be responsible for getting JDM programs “across the finish line” by providing the occasional technical “glue” to meld Axon & JDM flows subsystems. As products go to production, you will work with teams to ensure device provisioning and flashing methods are secure, and that sufficient runtime logging and monitoring metrics are in place to diagnose issues in-field. This role will focus primarily on the development of 1-2 brand new IoT products focused on Axon’s goal to protect life. It is a hybridization of a (a) Firmware Engineer, (b) Technical Project Manager, (c) Product Manager. Some may see this role like a “Field Application Engineer (FAE)” or “Forward Deployed Engineer”, but in reverse - primarily helping our vendors to be successful in their contributions to Axon. This critical role sits in the Axon Platform Firmware Team and reports to the Partner Engineering Manager. The role will “connect the dots” to ensure that the Axon Platform Firmware Mechanisms and Expectations are reciprocated through the JDM vendors. Firmware development environments primarily include a combination of Embedded Linux and custom Automated Test Systems (ATS).

Requirements

Track record of taking products to production with at least 8 years of experience
Fluency on both Embedded Linux (primary) BSP and Firmware
Strong technical acumen and obsession for the firmware details that matter to build products
Experience with C, C++, Rust on Linux
Experience with some combination of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Cellular LTE or 5G, 900MHz wireless technologies
Experience with complex embedded systems development kits and environments
Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage projects to a high degree of resolution using state of art project management processes and tools
Commanding understanding of how Hardware-Software Products are managed, gated and manufactured
Ability to collaborate in APAC or European time-zone hours as-needed (this role has flexible working hours)
Strong cross-functional communication skills with the ability to get things done
Fluency in English with strong, concise, technical writing and diagramming skills
Obsession with quality

Nice To Haves

Experience with Rust is a strong bonus
Ability to read and understand Rust and Golang is a plus, but not required
Fluency in Mandarin is a plus, but is not required

Responsibilities

Manage Axon and JDM vendor relations between Firmware Engineering Teams to align short-term, long-term requirements ensuring that the JDM vendor is building the “right thing”
Treat JDM deliverables “as a product” in and of themselves, ensuring Axon requirements for that product are clear, thorough, and achievable
Oversee JDM engagements from planning, vendor selection, execution, and launch
Manage Axon and JDM vendor relations between Firmware Engineering Teams to ensure that all source code written for Board Support Package (BSP) layers are of the highest quality bar before being merged into Axon’s mainline
Write code as needed to get JDM programs “across the finish line”
Audit the needs and artifacts of adjacent teams (e.g. hardware, application software) to ensure coherency with FW plans and interfaces
Be the point of contact for internal stakeholders regarding JDM technical or program status and deliverables
Be the Axon point of contact for the JDM, not just setting direction, but also for hands-on support in ensuring they are not blocked in continuously executing and delivering high quality outputs
Design and/or implement systems, workflows, and automations (CI/CD, automated unit, integration, and end-to-end tests) where necessary to facilitate the cooperation of Axon and JDM teams
Actively seek to understand customer use-cases and perspective to drive product excellence
Keep an eye out for quality and operational excellence - ensuring code is well-instrumented, allowing for in-field metrics and dashboarding, and ensuring every feature is well tested from units test, to integration and end-to-end tests
Be an active participant in reviewing Product Requirement Documents (PRD) and writing System Requirement Documents (SRD), Firmware Requirement Documents (FRD), and Test Requirement Documents (TRD)
Write clear, concise updates for regular (weekly, monthly) business and program reviews
Be a Team Player, Mentor, Strong Communicator and be ready and willing to support the Team when needed