Omi

Founding Engineer at Omi (San Francisco, CA)

Omi· San Francisco, CA· $300k·

Role details

Salary
$300k
Employment
Full-Time

Job description

👋 Hi, I’m Nik. I’m looking for a world-class founding engineer to build Omi with me.

  • Omi is AI for your real life.
  • Think: wearable memory, voice-first interface, the reverse iPhone.
  • In the past 10 months, we’ve:
  • Grown to 300K software users
  • Hit 100M+ organic video views
  • Built 3 working hardware devices

Now I’m ready to go deeper — and I need you.

About Me

  • 25 y.o.
  • 🇷🇺 Born on an island in the Pacific (Russia), now in SF
  • 🧠 Thiel Fellow
  • 💰 Sold 2 startups — scaled the last to $4M ARR, $3M raised, acquired by Toptal
  • 💻 Built the first Omi prototypes (hardware, mobile)
  • 💸 Raised $5M+ total
  • 🧲 Managed teams across 3 continents
  • 📈 Drove 100M+ organic impressions for Omi

Check me out at nikshevchenko.com

What You’ll Do

As the first engineer, you’ll:

  • Own the full stack (Flutter/React Native, Python, firmware, BLE, backend, etc — depending on what you’re best at)
  • Architect the next version of Omi SDK / platform / hardware control
  • Build prototypes that feel like magic and scale into products
  • Help shape product direction, technical stack, and even culture
  • Work directly with me every day — we’ll build and launch together

This is not a “here’s what to do” job — this is “what should we do next?”

What I’m Looking For Someone who’s built and shipped something impressive. For example:

  • Built a product used by 1M+ people or 10K+ devices shipped
  • Or built something with >$1M revenue
  • Or raised >$1M as a founder / solo builder
  • Or deeply technical + insanely fast — even if early in your journey

You don’t need to check every box — but one really strong signal is enough.

Tech Stack (so far)

  • Flutter (might move to React soon)
  • Python / Flask
  • Firmware: C
  • BLE
  • Omi DevKit (custom hardware)

Why This Might Be the One

  • You’ll get lots of equity and full ownership over technical direction
  • Work on actual AI hardware, not just apps
  • Build something that people already love — and want more of
  • Help people think and live better with ambient, embodied AI

Let’s make humans 1000x smarter with AI by 2026. Let’s make robots help in every apartment by 2028. Let's create the metaverse

II personally check every candidate! If I didn’t respond, something was off. 🥲

Why work at Omi

  • Culture: “We build, ship, break things (then fix them), and push boundaries” – a fast-moving, founder-led startup in San Francisco. Team is small (~14 people) and highly selective.
  • Hiring Philosophy: The fastest way to join is to contribute to the GitHub repo (submit meaningful pull requests). Every current engineer joined this way.
  • Perks & Compensation: Roles listed with $200k–$300k salary + 1%–20% equity; in-person in San Francisco; roles include Co-Founder, Founding Engineer, Head of Taste, and Community Lead.
  • Mission-Driven: Work on technology that “changes how humans interact with AI forever” – focusing on memory enhancement and brain-computer interfaces.
  • Remote / Hybrid: Most full-time roles are in-person in San Francisco; an Ambassador role is remote/part-time.
  • Engineering Focus: Emphasis on open-source, hackathons, and bounties; the team uses Flutter, Next.js, Swift, Rust, Python, and firmware (nRF, Zephyr, C).

Application questions