Cairns Health · 13 hours ago
Senior Firmware Engineer
Sunnyvale, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Senior LevelCairns Health is building an AI-powered care companion that seniors interact with entirely through voice. They are seeking a highly skilled engineer to own and evolve the real-time audio and speech processing pipeline for natural and responsive conversations on embedded hardware.
Family & CareConsumer GoodsHealthcareConsumer ElectronicsElder CareHealth CareHome Health Care
Responsibilities
Design and implement real-time streaming of speech audio to and from the OpenAI Realtime API
Build and tune audio buffering, latency management, and synchronization for conversational speech
Implement speech interruption detection (barge-in) to support natural, turn-based dialogue
Develop dynamic noise floor detection and related signal conditioning for in-home environments
Apply practical audio signal processing and ML techniques to improve speech quality and robustness
Evaluate and potentially re-architect our Linux audio stack (e.g., PulseAudio → PipeWire)
Optimize performance, memory usage, and reliability on constrained embedded devices
Collaborate closely with firmware, ML, and hardware teams to ship production-quality systems
Qualification
Required
Strong proficiency in C++ with experience building production, real-time systems
Hands-on experience with audio signal processing for speech, such as:
Audio buffering and streaming
Noise estimation / suppression
Voice activity detection or interruption handling
Experience developing on embedded Linux (Yocto preferred)
Solid understanding of multi-threaded, low-latency systems
Comfortable working close to the OS and audio stack
Preferred
Experience integrating with speech or conversational AI systems
Familiarity with ML tools or models used in audio/speech processing
Experience with PipeWire, PulseAudio, ALSA, or similar Linux audio frameworks
Background in embedded firmware, device bring-up, or kernel-adjacent development
Experience with NXP i.MX8 or similar SoCs
Benefits
Medical
Dental
Vision
Paid vacation/sick days
401(k) plans
Company
Cairns Health
Cairns Health is a digital care companion for senior living and home care, integrating ambient sensing, AI, and LLMs to empower patients.
Founded in 2016
11-50 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Early StageTotal Funding
$5.32MKey Investors
Lightspeed Venture PartnersY Combinator
2017-10-06Seed· $5.2M
2017-08-21Pre Seed· $0.12M
Leadership Team
Andrew Ritter
Chief Executive Officer
Saurabh Gupta
Chief Executive Officer
Recent News
Los Angeles Business Journal
2025-11-11
Company data provided by crunchbase