Camera Firmware Engineer, Consumer Devices Job at Slope in San Francisco

Location
San Francisco

Employment Type
Full time

Department
Consumer Products

Compensation

$325K • Offers Equity

The base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. If the role is non-exempt, overtime pay will be provided consistent with applicable laws. In addition to the salary range listed above, total compensation also includes generous equity, performance-related bonus(es) for eligible employees, and the following benefits.

Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts

Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)

401(k) retirement plan with employer match

Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents), plus paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks)

Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees

13+ paid company holidays, and multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge, plus paid sick or safe time (1 hour per 30 hours worked, or more, as required by applicable state or local law)

Mental health and wellness support

Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage

Annual learning and development stipend to fuel your professional growth

Daily meals in our offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible

Relocation support for eligible employees

Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends, may also be provided.

More details about our benefits are available to candidates during the hiring process.

This role is at-will and OpenAI reserves the right to modify base pay and other compensation components at any time based on individual performance, team or company results, or market conditions.

About the Team
The Consumer Products team at OpenAI builds end-to-end hardware and software systems that bring AI into the physical world. We work at the intersection of custom silicon, embedded systems, operating systems, and cloud services to deliver reliable, production-ready devices at scale.

Within Consumer Products, the camera stack is a critical sensing component. The team partners closely with electrical engineering, silicon vendors, systems, and higher-level perception and product teams to bring up new hardware, stabilize capture pipelines, and ensure camera systems are robust, debuggable, and ready for real-world deployment. This work spans early prototypes through production, with a strong emphasis on correctness, repeatability, and long-term reliability.

About the Role
As a Camera Firmware Engineer, you will own low-level camera enablement on custom hardware—from early board bring-up through stable production capture. You will develop and maintain the firmware and software that makes camera sensors reliable, controllable, and debuggable, forming the foundation for higher-level camera pipelines and product features.

This role is highly hands‑on and systems-oriented. You will work close to the hardware, diagnose real-world timing and integration issues, and build tooling that accelerates iteration across the entire camera stack.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We follow a hybrid work model with four days per week in the office and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In This Role, You Will

Bring up new camera sensors and modules on prototype and production boards, including link stability, sensor control, and correct power, reset, and clock sequencing.

Develop and maintain low-level camera software, including sensor drivers, board configuration, and camera subsystem integration across hardware revisions.

Enable and validate core capture paths for development and production, including RAW capture for debugging, still capture, and hardware-accelerated video encode and streaming with stable timestamps and long‑duration reliability.

Stand up camera control and repeatability features, including basic 3A loop exposure, manual overrides and locks, and deterministic presets to support validation and debugging.

Build and maintain camera bring‑up tooling, such as capture scripts, automated sweeps, manifests, and debugging utilities that make issues reproducible and easy to triage.

Partner closely with electrical engineering, camera pipeline owners, and systems teams to define interfaces, unblock integration, and keep the camera stack stable as the device evolves.

You might thrive in this role if you:

Deep experience shipping embedded camera systems, including sensor bring‑up, driver development, and board-level debugging.

Strong C/C++ experience with embedded or Linux-based systems; comfortable debugging across kernel and userspace boundaries.

Hands‑on understanding of common camera hardware interfaces (for example, MIPI CSI and sensor control buses) and the practical realities of bring‑up, including power, reset, clocking, and sequencing.

Proven track record of building reliable capture paths and effective debug workflows that accelerate iteration through reproducible failures and well‑scoped fixes.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with common mobile or embedded SoC camera stacks and vendor frameworks.

Experience integrating and debugging hardware acceleration blocks adjacent to camera pipelines, such as video encode and decode paths.

Familiarity building higher-level capture pipelines (for example, GStreamer) on top of low-level camera enablement.

About OpenAI
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general‑purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Aff…

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US‑based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non‑public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non‑compliant, please submit a report through this form. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.

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At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

Compensation Range: $325K

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In Summary: The Consumer Products team at OpenAI builds end-to-end hardware and software systems that bring AI into the physical world . As a Camera Firmware Engineer, you will own low-level camera enablement on custom hardware . You will develop and maintain the firmware and software that makes camera sensors reliable, controllable, and debuggable .

En Español:

Ubicación San Francisco Tipo de Empleo a tiempo completo Departamento Compensación por Productos del Consumidor $ 325K • Ofertas Equidad El salario base ofrecido puede variar dependiendo de múltiples factores individualizados, incluida la ubicación en el mercado, los conocimientos relacionados con el trabajo, las habilidades y la experiencia. Además del rango de salarios enumerado anteriormente, la compensación total también incluye equidad generosa, bonificaciones relacionadas con el desempeño para los empleados elegibles y los siguientes beneficios. Seguro médico, dental y de visión para usted y su familia, con contribuciones del empleador a cuentas de ahorro sanitario Cuentas de salud antes de impuestos para Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA y gastos de viajes (aparcamiento y transporte) 401k) plan de jubilación con el empleador coincide Con licencia parental pagada (hasta 24 semanas para padres nacidos y hasta 20 semanas para los padres no nacidos), además de licencia médica y cuidadora remunerada ( Hasta 8 semanas) Tiempo libre pagado: PTO flexible para empleados exentos y hasta 15 días al año para trabajadores no exentos 13 vacaciones disponibles en las empresas, y prestaciones de servicios prestadas por compañías aseguran pagos durante todo el año Los resultados del proceso de cierre se basan en el tiempo de trabajo, así como datos adicionales sobre el rendimiento físico de los equipos de atención al cliente Oficina abierta o de asistencia profesional Este equipo puede aportar más detalles adicionales que cubren los costos fisicos y otros requisitos básicos relacionados con el desarrollo de las condiciones de vida útil de nuestros sistemas de servicio público y de seguridad, así lo cual pueden ser aplicarse a nuestro sistema de pago y otras tarifas de mano de cuenta de empresa, etc. Trabajamos en la intersección de silicio personalizado, sistemas incorporados, sistemas operativos y servicios en la nube para ofrecer dispositivos fiables y listos para producción a escala. Dentro de Consumer Products, la pila de cámaras es un componente crítico de detección. El equipo se asocia estrechamente con ingeniería eléctrica, proveedores de silicón, sistemas y equipos de percepción y productos de nivel superior para traer nuevo hardware, estabilizar las tuberías de captura y garantizar que los sistemas de cámara sean robustos, depurables y listas para el despliegue del mundo real. Este trabajo abarca prototipos tempranos a través de la producción, con un fuerte énfasis en la precisión, repetibilidad y fiabilidad a largo plazo. Seguimos un modelo de trabajo híbrido con cuatro días a la semana en la oficina y ofrecemos asistencia de reubicación para nuevos empleados. En este papel, presentarás nuevos sensores y módulos de cámara en los tableros de prototipo y producción, incluida la estabilidad del vínculo, el control del sensor y la fiabilidad correcta de potencia, restablecimiento y secuenciación del reloj. Desarrollar y mantener software de cámara de bajo nivel, incluyendo controladores de sensores, configuraciones de tablero y integración del subsistema de cámara a través de revisiones de hardware. Habilitar y validar las vías de captura básicas para desarrollo y fabricación, incluyendo RAW-capture para debugging, capturada todavía, y codificación de vídeo acelerado por hardware y transmisión con sellos de tiempo estable y fiabilidad de larga duración. Empujamos los límites de las capacidades de los sistemas AI y buscamos desplegarlos con seguridad al mundo a través de nuestros productos. La IA es una herramienta extremadamente poderosa que debe ser creada con la seguridad y las necesidades humanas en su núcleo, y para lograr nuestra misión, debemos abarcar y valorar las muchas perspectivas diferentes, voces y experiencias que forman todo el espectro de la humanidad. Somos un empleador de igualdad de oportunidades, y no discriminamos por razón de raza, religión, color, origen nacional, sexo, orientación sexual, edad, estatus de veterano, discapacidad, información genética u otra característica legalmente protegida aplicable. Para obtener más información, consulte OpenAIs Aff... Las verificaciones de antecedentes para los solicitantes se administrarán de acuerdo con la ley vigente, y los candidatos calificados con registros de arresto o condenación serán considerados para empleo de conformidad con esas leyes, incluida la Ordenanza Fair Employers de San Francisco, la Ordinancia Fair Chance del Condado de Los Ángeles y la ordenanza Justa de California para Candidates de Estados Unidos. Para los trabajadores no incorporados del Condado de Los Ángeles: creemos razonablemente que el historial penal puede tener una relación directa, adversa y negativa con las siguientes tareas laborales, lo que podría resultar en la retirada de una oferta condicional de empleo: proteger el hardware informático confiado a usted contra robo, pérdida o daño; devolver todo el hardware computarizado en su posesión (incluyendo los datos contenidos en él) al finalizar el trabajo o terminar la asignación; y mantener la confidencialidad de información privada, confidencial y no pública. Además, los deberes laborables requieren acceso a sistemas tecnológicos de información seguros y protegidos y obligaciones relacionadas con la seguridad de datos.