Director of Software Engineering - CONFIDENTIAL
12 days ago
Austin
Job DescriptionDirector of Software Engineering (permanent position) – Austin, TX vicinity Our client is seeking a talented Director to provide end-to-end execution and infrastructure of an adaptive VR training system and platform. The Director of Software Engineering will lead the architecture, execution, integration, and release of our VR headset software platform. This role owns the end-to-end software stack spanning Android/XR runtime, device software, firmware interfaces, real-time biosignal pipelines, adaptive training applications, and supporting cloud/web services.. This is a permanent, equity-based position in Austin, TX and offers a competitive base salary and great benefits. No visa sponsorship or subcontracting arrangements are available. Role SummaryThis role is not a pure SaaS or web platform role. The ideal candidate has shipped software on integrated hardware products, particularly VR/XR or embedded systems, and understands real-world constraints, including latency, sensor integration, thermal/power limits, and production reliability. Success in this role means delivering a stable, production-ready headset platform with disciplined execution across hardware and software boundaries, rigorous validation, and reliable customer-facing releases. Success in this role means predictable delivery, stable runtime performance, resilient real-time pipelines, disciplined release management, and a software organization operating with clarity, accountability, and technical rigor. Key Responsibilities1. End-to-End Software Execution & Delivery • Own execution of product requirements across VR runtime, web application, firmware integration, real-time pipelines, backend services, and deployment environments., • Lead and manage software engineering and QA teams across runtime, backend, and web layers, • Translate detailed product and training requirements into structured engineering plans with defined sequencing, technical breakdowns, and measurable acceptance criteria, • Own architectural decision-making across runtime, backend, and device-integration layers, balancing short-term delivery needs with long-term system integrity, • Drive disciplined sprint planning, roadmap alignment, and milestone tracking across multidisciplinary teams, • Establish and enforce release management standards, including CI/CD pipelines, automated testing coverage, version control discipline, and structured environment management, • Support and sequence the migration from Spaces to an Android-based runtime environment, ensuring portability of real-time pipelines and device-integration layers2. VR Runtime & Adaptive Scene Infrastructure, • Own the architecture, performance, and stability of client’s custom VR runtime and real-time signal processing pipeline, • Lead execution of adaptive training scenes driven by bio signal ingestion, preprocessing, scoring, thresholds, and feedback loops, • Oversee the signal processing engineering function, ensuring real-time pipelines are low-latency, robust, and correctly integrated into runtime orchestration systems, • Ensure clear integration contracts between firmware, signal processing layers, runtime systems, and backend services, • Drive performance optimization, memory management, latency reduction, and fault tolerance across both runtime and signal-processing layers., • Partner closely with Product, Design, and Research teams to ensure training logic and adaptive behaviors are implemented accurately and perform reliably under real-world constraints.3. Firmware & Device Integration, • Own software-side integration with headset firmware and device communication layers, • Ensure reliable real-time streaming of bio signals into runtime systems within defined latency budgets, • Reduce fragility across device-to-runtime handoffs and eliminate recurring integration failures, • Partner closely with hardware and firmware teams to address system-level constraints and performance tradeoffs4. Backend Systems, Data Integrity & Privacy, • Oversee backend services supporting runtime orchestration, session storage, and reporting, • Implement validation layers to protect against corrupted or incomplete session data, • Define and enforce data integrity standards across ingestion, processing, and storage layers, • Support privacy, security, and enterprise-readiness requirements across device and cloud systems, • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Engineering, • 12–15+ years of software engineering experience, including senior leadership responsibility for shipping integrated hardware-software products., • Proven experience leading software development for production VR, XR, wearable, robotics, or other embedded real-time systems where software is tightly coupled to device hardware., • Experience shipping software on Android-based devices or comparable embedded platforms, ideally including XR runtime or device-platform responsibilities., • Deep experience with real-time, low-latency, event-driven systems and on-device performance optimization., • Strong track record integrating firmware, device communication layers, and high-rate sensor streams with application/runtime software., • Experience debugging and resolving cross-functional issues spanning hardware, firmware, native/device software, runtime/application layers, and cloud services., • Experience establishing release management, CI/CD, automated test infrastructure, and system-level validation practices for integrated products., • Experience partnering closely with hardware, firmware, systems, product, and QA teams in a product development environment., • Demonstrated ability to lead teams through platform migrations, device bring-up, product ionization, and sustained release support., • Strong engineering judgment with a bias toward robust, production-ready systems rather than fragile demos. Strongly Preferred, • Experience shipping VR headsets or other head-worn computing products., • Experience with Android XR, custom Android device software, or performance-sensitive native/mobile runtimes., • Experience with bio signal, wearable, eye tracking, EEG, PPG, IMU, or other high-frequency sensor systems., • Experience integrating adaptive, ML-driven, or closed-loop control systems into real-time user-facing products., • Experience building system validation, telemetry, and QA processes in complex hardware-software products.