Camera Firmware Engineer, Consumer Products

Details

The Consumer Products team at OpenAI builds end-to-end hardware and software systems that bring AI into the physical world. The team works 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 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 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 and follows a hybrid work model (four days per week in the office). Relocation assistance is offered to new employees.

Responsibilities

• 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.
• Implement camera control and repeatability features (basic 3A loop exposure, manual overrides and locks, 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.

Requirements

• 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.

Location & Work Model

• Role is based in San Francisco, CA (United States).
• Hybrid work model: four days per week in the office.
• Relocation assistance is offered to eligible new employees.

Benefits & Company

• Base pay listed at $325K (total compensation includes equity and potential bonuses).
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts; pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses; 401(k) with employer match.
• Paid parental leave, paid medical and caregiver leave, flexible PTO for exempt employees (and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt), 13+ paid company holidays, and additional paid closures.
• Mental health and wellness support, employer-paid basic life and disability coverage, annual learning stipend, daily meals in offices and meal delivery credits, relocation support for eligible employees, and other fringe benefits.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. The company emphasizes safety, diverse perspectives, and compliance with applicable employment fairness laws. Background checks and accommodation processes are described in the posting.