Senior R&D Engineer, Embedded Hardware

Location: Hong Kong / Remote
Type: Full Time
Reports to: VP of Platform

As a Senior R&D Engineer, you’ll be a core member of a growing team expanding the capabilities of Nex Playground. You’ll research, design, prototype, and validate new and existing hardware technologies—pushing the boundaries of SoC platforms, sensors, I/O devices, and other critical subsystems. You’ll build proof‑of‑concepts, design experiments to map performance ceilings, and contribute to specifications across the product lifecycle. Your work will inform technical direction and accelerate the path from exploration to product.

You’re insatiably curious and hands‑on. You love exploring new technologies, building things end‑to‑end, and explaining how they work. You think creatively, critique rigorously, and test methodically. You care about purpose and want your skills to improve people’s lives.

• Scout, evaluate, and document emerging hardware technologies to build team knowledge and capability.
• Source, set up, and assess developer kits; engage with vendors to unlock technical depth.
• Design and run experiments for reliability, performance, thermals, power, and latency; analyze and present results.
• Prototype novel architectures and features to demonstrate feasibility and inform product decisions.
• Develop, adapt, and optimize low‑level drivers, HALs, and firmware.
• Contribute to accessories, motion‑tracking technologies, and the Playground OS.
• Help define requirements and architecture for next‑generation hardware.
• Provide technical guidance on hardware strategy, risks, and trade‑offs.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronic Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years building embedded systems on Android (AOSP).
• Strong experience with firmware, drivers, and HAL development.
• Proven track record delivering end‑to‑end hardware solutions to real‑world problems.
• Hands‑on experience with cameras and non‑vision sensors (e.g., IMU, ToF, environmental).
• Deep knowledge of Android/Linux internals, drivers, HALs, system debugging, and performance optimization.
• Proficiency in C and Python.
• Excellent communication in English and Mandarin Chinese.

• Domain knowledge of Arm architectures and SoC bring‑up.
• Experience deploying ML applications at the edge (e.g., quantization, acceleration, pipelines).
• Expertise in camera sensors, lens optics, and ISPs.
• Hardware prototyping across ME/EE (schematics, PCB bring‑up, rapid prototyping).
• Strong portfolio of shipped or personal hardware projects.
• Empathy, product intuition, and user‑centric thinking.
• Relevant industry relationships and vendor partnerships.