Cambridge Terahertz Founding Lead, Systems Software Engineer Santa Clara, CA · Full time Company website

Apply for Founding Lead, Systems Software Engineer

Cambridge Terahertz is one of the world’s only companies pushing the boundaries of Terahertz technology, a true “white space” technology at the intersection of wireless, advanced sensing, and custom silicon. Based on a decade of research at MIT, we’re now based in Santa Clara, CA and backed by top-tier investors including Felicis and Amazon, with over $15M raised and five active government contracts. With a THz silicon design team and multiple generations of imaging prototypes, we’re among the few with an FCC license to operate at THz, and have been featured in CNBC, MIT News and Techcrunch. Our passionate, world-class team thrives on hard problems, rapid learning, and applying cutting-edge technology towards products that have real impact. Our core mission is to drive societal change through next-generation physical security and weapons detection. By shrinking airport-grade security scanners into scalable devices that work unobtrusively in everyday settings, we’re tackling the urgent, unsolved challenge of proactive weapons screening - making schools, venues, and public spaces safer without compromising privacy or convenience. The work we do at Cambridge Terahertz doesn’t just break technical barriers; it saves lives and improves communities. If you want to invent in an environment where breakthroughs are expected, the bleeding edge is comfortable, and frontier tech is your day job, join us and help build the future of security, sensing, and real-world impact.

No recruiter solicitations

This role is an opportunity to become the first dedicated software hire and help define the software backbone of the company’s real-time imaging platform. It is not a narrow embedded maintenance role. The scope of this role is huge; this person will lead software architecture and implementation across embedded Linux systems, hardware-facing control software, real-time data and imaging pipelines, AI/ML integration, developer tooling, and the interfaces that connect the full system into a reliable product. The role will initially be a mix of individual contributor contributions plus management of external vendors, with the opportunity to expand leadership as the software team grows.

The right candidate is excited by working at the boundary of hardware, firmware, imaging, and platform software. The first in a growing software team, this person should be comfortable writing code directly on the critical path, making architecture decisions with incomplete information, and helping establish the engineering patterns that a future software team will build on.

What this role owns

• Own the software architecture for Cambridge Terahertz’s embedded and real-time imaging platform.

• Build production-grade software in Python and C/C++ across embedded Linux and hardware-integrated environments.

• Integrate imaging pipelines, AI/ML inference or processing components, system control layers, hardware APIs, cloud services, and user-facing software interfaces into one cohesive system.

• Develop software and tooling for PetaLinux and Xilinx RFSoC / MPSoC / Kria-based systems.

• Drive system bring-up, debugging, observability, automation, and performance optimization across hardware and software boundaries.

• Partner closely with hardware, FPGA, RF, imaging, and algorithms engineers to turn prototypes into robust product behavior.

• Establish software engineering standards, workflows, and architectural patterns that can scale with the company.

• Over time, help shape hiring strategy and mentor future software engineers as the team grows.

What makes this role different

• First software hire with unusually broad scope and autonomy, as part of what will ultimately be a large software team.

• Huge scope, with the opportunity to shape core architecture, engineering culture, and future team design.

• Deep technical work at the intersection of embedded systems, real-time imaging, AI/ML, and advanced sensing hardware.

• Mission-driven product with direct real-world safety impact.

• Meaningful early-stage equity participation with the chance to create outsized value as the company scales.

Must-have qualifications

• Strong experience building software for embedded Linux or other hardware-integrated systems.

• High fluency in Python and C/C++ for systems, real-time, or performance-sensitive applications.

• Demonstrated ability to own ambiguous, cross-functional technical problems from architecture through implementation.

• Experience integrating software across hardware, firmware, drivers, APIs, and higher-level application layers.

• Strong systems intuition: ability to reason across the full stack and debug issues that span software and hardware.

• Experience with real-time data systems, imaging systems, robotics, sensing platforms, industrial systems, or other complex hardware-software products.

• Interest in joining an in-person, fast-moving startup environment in Silicon Valley.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Strong plus factors (nice to have)

• Experience with PetaLinux and Xilinx RFSoC / MPSoC / Kria platforms.

• Experience with AI/ML pipelines, model deployment, or embedded inference.

• Experience with image processing, sensing systems, or data pipeline design.

• Familiarity with FPGA-adjacent workflows or close collaboration with RTL / firmware teams.

• Prior experience as a founding engineer, tech lead, or first software hire in a startup.

Compensation and upside

• Competitive salary, commensurate with experience.

• Meaningful early-stage equity designed to reflect the scope and strategic importance of the role.

• Benefits include healthcare support, 401(k) matching, subsidized meals, and the opportunity to work shoulder-to-shoulder with a high-caliber technical team on frontier sensing technology with unique challenges.

Location

Santa Clara, California. This is an in-person role because of the close integration required across hardware, embedded systems, and bring-up workflows.

Cambridge Terahertz is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, veteran status, disability status, or genetic information.