Senior Software Engineer, Platform & HW Adaptation

We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer to bring Distance's XR runtime to the hardware our products actually ship on. Our displays cover the full range of see-through XR, from headset-free autostereoscopic systems built into vehicles to rugged head-mounted displays used in the field, and they run on an equally wide range of embedded targets. You own the layer where our runtime meets that hardware: the display path, the sensors, the power envelope, and the toolchain that makes it all buildable.

WHY DISTANCE?

At Distance Technologies, the problem we're solving is simple to state and hard to solve: the amount of data in the world is endless, but human capacity is not. We are building a fundamentally new perception layer between humans and machines, transforming transparent surfaces into interfaces unlike the world has ever seen. Think of the windscreen of a car, the visor of a helmet, or a sight device, each becoming a new front-end for AI. The way we turn bits and atoms into expanded human perception is protected by over 50 granted patents internationally. We build it for two demanding worlds: defense and automotive. And we build it from a single foundation fusing software, hardware and computational optics.

There are over 50 of us today, with decade-long experience building world's best products, optics, and open-source operating systems. We partner and build with globally leading companies like KIA https://distance.tech/news/distance-announces-collaboration-with-kia-integrating-new-panoramic-lightfield-hud-into-the-kia-vision-meta-turismo-concept-car, FORVIA HELLA https://distance.tech/news/forvia-hella-invests-in-distance-technologies-and-enters-strategic-development-partnership-to-accelerate-industry-leading-mirrorless-3d-ar-hud-development, Supacat https://distance.tech/news/supacat-and-distance-technologies-sign-framework-agreement-to-enable-aerospace-grade-hud-capability-across-the-entire-supacat-hmt-ground-vehicle-platform, and Galvion https://distance.tech/news/galvion-and-distance-collaborate-on-advanced-helmet-systems-with-distances-computational-optics-and-acuity-os, and we were Google Ventures' first investment in Finland. What we're building is hard, and will fundamentally change how we operate and see the world, and that's exactly why we seek exceptional people who enjoy building things never seen before.

THE ROLE & THE TEAM

You'll be part of a core technology team building a unified runtime stack for mixed reality applications that run on many different kinds of hardware and form factors. Your focus is the platform layer the runtime sits on.

The work spans very different environments. On embedded Linux we own the stack down to the kernel and the display path, with direct control of scanout, power and thermals. Every new form factor, whether autostereoscopic or head-mounted, built into a vehicle or worn, comes with its own display, its own sensor set and its own constraints.

Your core responsibilities include:

Platform bring-up & porting: Own the runtime across embedded targets. On embedded Linux that means Yocto/BitBake layers, kernel configuration and patching, DRM/KMS scanout and low-level device plumbing. On Android, NDK/JNI/Gradle. You decide how a new platform gets supported, and you make the runtime work there end to end.

Sensor adaptation & integration: This is as big a part of the job as the display path, and in automotive it's the bigger one. You'll bring new cameras, IMUs, LiDAR and radar into our sensor and tracking stack: transport and driver integration (V4L2, UVC/libusb, GigE Vision, CAN, automotive Ethernet/PTP), timestamp and clock-domain correctness across different sensors, hardware sync and triggering, calibration hooks, and record/replay for offline development. ADAS sensor sets and in-vehicle integration are explicitly in scope.

Embedded developer experience & delivery: Make embedded targets first-class for the whole engineering team. Together with the team you own the platform SDK: Yocto eSDK, reproducible cross-builds and sysroot management, one-command deploy to a target, on-device debugging and profiling, and hardware targets wired into CI. The goal is that developing against real devices feels as normal as developing on a desktop.

You'll also work closely with our HW, design and customer teams. We're looking for a senior colleague who takes ownership of their work and is comfortable working independently.

WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU?

• Work right where software meets hardware, on technology that doesn't exist anywhere else yet
• Help build mixed reality products ranging from headset-free autostereoscopic systems to rugged head-mounted displays made for real outdoor use
• Real ownership of platform strategy: which targets we support, how we support them, and what working on embedded looks like for the rest of the team
• Work with top computer vision engineers and scientists on vision systems that combine many sensor inputs into one perception stack

OUR EXPECTATIONS

• Startup speed and agility make you more excited than anxious
• Senior-level experience in embedded systems software, with a track record of porting non-trivial software to embedded Linux
• Strong modern C++, and comfort reading and patching C at kernel and driver level
• Yocto/OpenEmbedded in production: layers, recipes, image and SDK builds, kernel configuration
• Proven ownership of cross-compilation and developer tooling: toolchains, sysroots, reproducible builds, on-device debugging and CI for hardware targets
• Understanding of the Linux graphics and media stack: DRM/KMS, GBM, DMA-BUF, V4L2
• Ability and willingness to lead both technical and people topics (the role doesn't include people manager responsibilities)
• Clear written and spoken communication, including design docs, ADRs and constructive technical leadership in reviews
• You want a say in how AI is used in software development, today and going forward

Nice to have, not required:

• Automotive experience (ADAS sensor stacks, CAN/automotive Ethernet, in-vehicle sensor sync and calibration)
• Sensor integration experience across transports and clock domains (cameras, IMUs, LiDAR, radar), including timestamp correctness, synchronisation and calibration
• Working command of the Android system stack: NDK, SurfaceFlinger/Choreographer, Camera2, sensors and thermal APIs, with enough AOSP background to follow us onto custom devices
• Experience offloading compute to NPU, DSP or FPGA
• Graphics programming experience: Vulkan, OpenGL

DID WE GET YOU INTERESTED?

Apply via the application form! Our recruitment process includes 2-3 discussions with the team. If you want to learn more about the position, reach out to our recruiter, Joel Kinnunen, at joel@distance.tech. Kindly note that, for data privacy reasons, we are not able to process applications sent via email.