Lead Hardware, Firmware & App Engineer
Lead Hardware, Firmware & App Engineer
Therabot makes a robot that massages your legs. We are looking for the person who owns how it is built — the hardware, the firmware on it, and the app that controls it.
If you have built a real piece of hardware with an app that actually works, and you have already stopped writing most of your code by hand: this is that job.
We start with your hardware. Before anything else, we want to hear about — and then see — something you have actually built, working. Commercialized is ideal. A personal project with a working app is fine too.
What the job actually is
One person, the whole product stack — to start.
You will own engineering on a consumer device — the electronics, motor control, sensors, the firmware running across them, and the phone app people use to control it. Nobody is an expert at all of that. We are hiring the person who can hold all of it in their head and get up to speed on whatever piece is in front of them this week.
Direct
Frame the problem clearly enough that an AI agent can write the change — the right context, the right constraints, the right definition of done.
Review
Read what came back for intent and risk, not syntax. Catch the change that compiles cleanly and quietly makes the product worse.
Prove
On real hardware, with real data. Nothing ships because it looks right. It ships because it was shown to work.
This is the starting point, not the forever job. As we grow, we will build out the engineering team and open new roles as they are needed. Nobody expects you to own every layer alone indefinitely — you are the first engineer, and you will help shape who comes next.
What you will own
- The hardware. Motors, sensors, power, and the electronics that tie them together — understanding it well enough to debug it on the bench, and making the calls on what to change as we scale production. You are not expected to design circuit boards; if you can, that is a real bonus.
- The firmware. Motor control, sensing, wireless links, and over-the-air updates across multiple microcontrollers talking to each other.
- The app. The phone app that connects to the device and runs it — including keeping a customer's app and unit in step.
- Root causes, not patches. When something breaks, find the mechanism that caused it and fix that. A retry, a restart, or a bigger timeout is not a fix. We care about this more than almost anything.
- The review bar. Decide what "proven" means before anything reaches a customer — and hold every change to it, especially the ones an agent wrote.
The measure of success: the product gets better every week, and what reaches customers works the first time.
Who this is for
You will love this if
- You have built hardware before — ideally something that shipped
- AI agents already write most of your code, and you are the reviewer
- You are comfortable across hardware, firmware, and apps — even if one of them is new
- You pick up unfamiliar things fast and actually enjoy it
- You would rather find the root cause than ship a workaround
- You want to own a real product end to end, not one corner of it
- You want your work in real customers' hands, not a demo
You will hate this if
- You prefer to hand-write your code line by line
- You distrust AI-written code on principle rather than reviewing it
- You want to specialize in one layer and hand the rest off
- You need a spec and a ticket queue before you start
- You have never taken hardware from idea to something that works
- You want a team to manage from day one
- You would find a small hardware company's messiness frustrating rather than fun
What we care about, and what we don't
We do not care about your degree or your job titles. ESP32 experience is a plus — it is what we build on — but it is not required. If you have shipped on other microcontrollers and learn fast, you will get there quickly. Circuit board design is also a bonus, not a requirement.
We do care about one thing above all: have you built something? A real piece of hardware, with firmware and an app, that works. Commercialized is the strongest signal. A personal project that genuinely works is a real answer too.
The deal
Compensation: negotiable. We would rather hear your number early than dance around it, and there is a question about it in the application.
What you should know going in: we are small, we are pre-launch on our first production run, and the product is real. You will not be maintaining a mature codebase with a big team around you — you will be the engineering lead on a product that is about to be in a lot of people's homes.
How hiring works
- Step 1 — tell us about your hardware. The application below opens with what you have built, before anything else. About 15 minutes. No cover letter, no résumé required.
- Step 2 — show us your hardware. A live demo of something you built, working, with its app. Walk us through what you built, what broke, and how you fixed it.
- Step 3 — a conversation with Aaron. Direct, technical, no panel.
- Step 4 — a small paid project. Real work on the real product, so we both find out what working together is like before either of us commits.
We read every application. We reply either way.
Start with the application.
About 15 minutes. It starts with the hardware you have built — have that ready before you begin. Write your own answers: we are AI-first for code, not for this. Rough and specific beats polished and vague.
Apply now →Questions before you apply? Email support@therabot.com with "Careers" in the subject line.
