Founding Firmware 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 firmware 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
- 26 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 $7M+ 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 firmware engineer, you’ll:
- Own firmware for omi devices
- Hack other devices to integrate them with omi ecosystem (i.e. apple watch, meta glasses, etc...)
- 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:
- Wrote firmware for 1k+ devices
- Or Built a product used by 1M+ people
- 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, Nordic chips
- BLE
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).