--- title: 'Founding Engineer at Omi' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/founding-engineer-omi-san-francisco-81j5f5adywce' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-11' --- # Founding Engineer at Omi - **Company:** Omi - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Compensation:** $300k - **Employment:** full-time - **Posted:** 2025-03-28 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/omi/25696a88-36a3-4b42-9ffb-8b1f5f95974c ## Job description 👋 Hi, I’m Nik. I’m looking for a world-class founding engineer to build Omi with me. - [Omi](https://omi.me) 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](http://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. 🥲 ## About Omi ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Omi (Based Hardware Inc.) builds an open-source AI-powered wearable that captures conversations and screen activity to create a structured, searchable memory and productivity assistant. - **Entity Type**: Private (Pre-Seed stage; $2.7M total funding raised) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States - **Founded**: 2024 - **Founders**: Nik Shevchenko (CEO) – [omi.me/careers](https://www.omi.me/pages/careers) ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: AI wearable hardware / note-taking software / brain-computer interface (BCI) development. - **Target customers**: B2C (professionals, knowledge workers) and B2B (teams and enterprises); currently trusted by teams at Tony Robbins, Salesforce, SoftBank. - **Mission / purpose**: “Enabling humans with smart consumer hardware unlocks our highest potential. By bringing humans and machines closer together we hope to remove communication barrier between the brain and machine, and raise everyone’s quality of life.” – [omi.me/careers](https://www.omi.me/pages/careers) ## Products & Services - **Omi Wearable**: A hardware device designed for 24/7 continuous capture of conversations and ambient audio, paired with a mobile app. Open-source firmware and hardware specs available on GitHub. – [github.com/basedhardware/omi](https://github.com/basedhardware/omi) - **Omi macOS App**: A desktop application (Swift/SwiftUI with Rust backend) that records screen and speech, generates transcripts, summaries, and action items, and provides an AI chat with full memory of everything seen and heard. – [github.com/basedhardware/omi](https://github.com/basedhardware/omi) - **Omi Mobile App (iOS/Android)**: Flutter-based app that pairs with the wearable or runs standalone, offering voice-to-notes transcription, tasks, reminders, and AI chat. – [omi.me](https://www.omi.me/) - **SDKs & APIs**: Open-source SDKs for React Native, Swift, Python, and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, allowing developers to build custom apps and integrations. – [github.com/basedhardware/omi](https://github.com/basedhardware/omi) - **Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Developer Kit**: Announced for Q1 2025, enabling developers to build mind-controlled AI applications. – [omi.me/blogs/news/omi-raises-2m](https://www.omi.me/blogs/news/omi-raises-2m-from-tim-draper) ## Market Standing - **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private company). - **Key Metrics**: - **Total Funding**: $2.7M (two Pre-Seed rounds: $700k led by 5Y Capital in Aug 2024; $2M led by Tim Draper in Mar 2025). – [linkedin.com/company/omidotme](https://www.linkedin.com/company/omidotme) - **User Base**: 300,000+ professionals. – [github.com/basedhardware/omi](https://github.com/basedhardware/omi) - **Monthly Website Visits**: 336,768 (growth +94.9% month-over-month). – [linkedin.com/company/omidotme](https://www.linkedin.com/company/omidotme) - **Headcount**: 14 employees (+633.3% YoY). – [linkedin.com/company/omidotme](https://www.linkedin.com/company/omidotme) - **Notable Investors / Partners**: Tim Draper, Dropbox co-founder (unnamed in article), 468 Capital, Embedding VC, 5Y Capital, and angels. – [omi.me/blogs/news/omi-raises-2m](https://www.omi.me/blogs/news/omi-raises-2m-from-tim-draper) - **Growth Signals**: - Raised $2M from high-profile investors in early 2025. - 633% headcount growth year-over-year. - Open-source community with 3,900+ members on Discord. - Operating in 7 countries (US, India, Portugal, Kenya, China, Nepal, Israel). ## Competitive Advantages - **Open-Source Ecosystem**: Full stack (firmware, mobile app, macOS app, backend, and SDKs) is open source – builds trust, allows customization, and attracts developer contributors. - **Hardware + Software + BCI**: Only company combining an AI wearable, a full productivity app, and a brain-computer interface developer kit in one open platform. - **Hiring Through Contributions**: Every hire so far has come via open-source pull requests – ensures a highly motivated, capable engineering team. - **Founders’ Track Record**: The team consists of “cracked engineers” who previously built startups with millions of users or significant funding. – [omi.me/careers](https://www.omi.me/pages/careers) ## Strategic Focus - Shipping a next-generation AI wearable in 2025. - Launching the BCI developer kit to enable mind-controlled applications. - Expanding the open-source developer ecosystem through hackathons, bounties, and contests. - Aggressively hiring world-class engineers, designers, and builders across Flutter, Next.js, firmware, and generalist roles. - Targeting both individual professionals and enterprise deployments. ## Why Work Here - **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). ## Sources 1. [omi.me/careers](https://www.omi.me/pages/careers) 2. [omi.me](https://www.omi.me/) 3. [linkedin.com/company/omidotme](https://www.linkedin.com/company/omidotme) 4. [omi.me/blogs/news/omi-raises-2m](https://www.omi.me/blogs/news/omi-raises-2m-from-tim-draper) 5. [github.com/basedhardware/omi](https://github.com/basedhardware/omi) ## Other roles at Omi - [PCB Design Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/pcb-design-engineer-omi-shenzhen-g9hh4skbk5y2) — Shenzhen, China - [Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-omi-shenzhen-3jkkhram7zdv) — Shenzhen, China - [Head of Taste](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-taste-omi-san-francisco-pmbhhmevnkv0) — San Francisco, CA - [Community Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/community-lead-omi-san-francisco-tjabgq9jfr6x) — San Francisco, CA - [Founding Firmware Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-firmware-engineer-omi-san-francisco-j9zb95k4a3y2) — San Francisco, CA - [CMO](https://feeny.ai/job/cmo-omi-san-francisco-tx9eewhtvqjk) — San Francisco, CA - [General Application](https://feeny.ai/job/general-application-omi-san-francisco-nav84b0w06y3) — San Francisco, CA - [Founding Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-engineer-almedia-berlin-y3yjr148grcs) — Berlin, Germany - [Founding Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-engineer-tightrope-san-francisco-qvmc2rbwg528) — San Francisco, CA - [Founding Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-engineer-workstream-lehi-4x9m4p0be2ac) — Lehi