Job Description
About Kos
Kos Inc. is a health-tech startup in Palo Alto building advanced wearable biometric devices that seamlessly connect patients and doctors in real time. Our flagship product, Blueberry, continuously collects physiological signals such as heart rate, temperature, and motion, transforming them into actionable insights for diagnostics, remote monitoring, and predictive health. We combine embedded hardware, advanced sensors, and intelligent software to make health data continuous, accessible, and clinically meaningful.
The Role
Kos is seeking a Firmware Engineer to develop critical embedded firmware for our next-generation medical-grade wearable device focused on real-time, non-invasive glucose monitoring using advanced optical sensors. This role will architect and implement firmware on a dual-core ARM Cortex-M platform , orchestrating precise timing control of multi-wavelength optical systems, managing high-resolution analog front-end data acquisition, and implementing adaptive motion artifact suppression using inertial sensor data.
You will optimize quantized deep learning inference pipelines (CNN, LSTM, Transformer) to meet strict real-time constraints while maintaining ultra-low system latency, and implement advanced power management strategies to enable multi-day battery life from a compact cell, including dynamic sampling and intelligent sleep transitions.
Additionally, you will secure wireless data transmission with medical-grade encryption, support fail-safe OTA firmware updates, and ensure compliance with FDA standards as part of our submission pathway.
This is a foundational role in a fast-moving team where you will collaborate closely with hardware, biomedical, and mobile engineering teams to deliver a device that is clinically reliable, energy-efficient, and seamless for users.
Key Responsibilities
* Design, implement, and test firmware for ARM Cortex-M embedded systems in a medical wearable environment.
* Develop sensor drivers for advanced optical and inertial sensors.
* Optimize and deploy edge ML pipelines on-device within strict real-time constraints.
* Collaborate with electrical and biomedical engineers to align firmware with sensor systems and circuit designs.
* Support prototype bring-up, debugging, and validation testing.
* Implement secure BLE communication, data transfer, and pairing logic.
* Ensure low-latency, high-fidelity data acquisition from sensors to mobile/cloud endpoints.
* Develop sophisticated power management strategies for multi-day battery life.
* Implement dynamic sampling and adaptive sleep state transitions.
* Ensure firmware and processes align with medical device regulatory requirements for FDA submission.
* Maintain clear documentation for architecture, interfaces, and firmware modules.
* Work closely with mobile engineers, biomedical researchers, and product designers to align firmware capabilities with clinical accuracy and user experience.
Qualifications
Education:
Experience:
Technical Skills:
Strong proficiency in embedded C/C++ for ARM Cortex-M platforms.
Deep experience with RTOS or bare-metal firmware development.
Proficiency with I2C, SPI, UART, ADCs, and sensor integration.
Understanding of real-time systems, interrupt-driven programming, and power management.
Experience with edge ML inference pipelines (TensorFlow Lite Micro or similar) is a plus.
Experience securing wireless data transmission and implementing OTA firmware updates.
Familiarity with medical device development and FDA regulatory standards.
Company Description
Founded five years ago in Palo Alto, we build everything in-house, including hardware, software, and machine learning systems.
Founded five years ago in Palo Alto, we build everything in-house, including hardware, software, and machine learning systems.