Lead Audio Engineer
Sabi · San Francisco
About the Company
We're a small team solving one of the hardest problems in human-computer interaction: a noninvasive wearable that turns thought into text, no surgery required.
By pairing ultra-high-density neural sensing with our Brain Foundation Model, we decode neural signals with a fidelity once reserved for implants. Our mission is to give a billion people a direct link between mind and machine - expanding how humans think, communicate, and create.
We are building a next-generation AI companion wearable powered by EEG/BCI technology. Our device reads and responds to neural signals in real time, creating a deeply personal experience that adapts to each user. This is not another productivity tool or a gadget — it is a new category of technology built around human potential.
We are backed by strong investors, moving fast, and assembling a world-class team to bring this to market. If you thrive at the frontier of what’s possible and want to build something that genuinely changes how people interact with their own minds, we want to talk to you.
About the Role
You will own the entire audio system of our wearable — from the microphone array, through DSP and wake-word, to spatial speaker output. The first device carries a multi-microphone array distributed around the head and near the ears, dedicated audio DSPs and ASICs, on-device beamforming, direction-of-arrival estimation, AEC, noise suppression, wake-word detection, and open-ear speakers driven through Class-D amplifiers. The product feels alive when audio works; it dies when it doesn’t.
You will report to the Head of Hardware, with regular exposure to Sabi’s CEO and CTO, and partner closely with the EE, FW, product design, and reliability leads. You will also work extensively with external engineering teams at our contract manufacturers and audio component vendors — the work is outsourced; the accountability is yours.
What You’ll Do
Own the audio system end-to-end — microphone selection and placement, audio acquisition architecture, DSP pipeline, wake-word, beamforming, AEC, noise suppression, spatial speaker output.
Drive part selection and benchmarking across the audio chain — microphones, audio DSPs and AFEs, Class-D amplifiers, speakers — with second-source planning.
Specify the electrical and acoustic interfaces audio needs from the rest of the system, and partner with the EE lead on layout and the FW lead on runtime hosting.
Drive the on-device DSP that runs in real time alongside the rest of the platform — algorithm design, latency and CPU budgets, training data, metric tuning.
Validate the spatial mic array for direction-of-arrival accuracy, speech enhancement in noise, and wind robustness across realistic wear scenarios.
Define the wake-word strategy — keyword choice, training data, on-device engine, false-accept and missed-trigger budgets — and own the experience users hit when they say it.
Partner with the product design lead on acoustic detailing — microphone ports, mesh, wind shielding, speaker housings, leakage.
Partner with the reliability lead on component-level reliability for the audio chain — transducer durability, sweat and humidity resistance, AFE and amplifier qualification.
Ship the product by the end of year, and help build the audio team and our cloud-side voice processing capability.
What We’re Looking For
Must-Haves
10+ years of audio engineering, with at least one shipped consumer product
where you owned a multi-microphone voice system end-to-end.
Deep expertise in voice DSP — beamforming, AEC, noise suppression, direction-of-arrival on multi-microphone arrays.
Proven track record shipping wake-word or always-on voice activation at consumer scale, including data collection and metric tuning.
Experience designing real-time DSP pipelines on constrained MCUs — not just plugin-based desktop work.
Strong acoustic engineering instincts — microphone selection, port design, housing acoustics, wind, occlusion, body coupling.
Direct experience driving audio component selection and benchmarking with second-source planning.
Nice-to-Haves
Deploying audio DSP, wake-word, or speech models on dedicated low-power AI accelerators.
Experience with leading on-device wake-word engines.
Multi-channel audio DSPs and Class-D amplifier design.
Spatial audio rendering — HRTF, panning, head-tracked binaural.
Cloud STT pipelines and end-to-end voice UX latency budgets.
If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every qualification, please apply. As we build, we’re hiring for complementary strengths to form a high-impact team.
Compensation & Benefits
Competitive base salary
Meaningful equity package
401(k) with company matching
Health insurance
Flexible PTO
Our Hiring Timeline
Evaluation completed within 14 days of first interview
Offer letter dispatched same day as go decision, valid for 10 days
Start date within 4 weeks of offer acceptance
All candidate queries responded to within 3 hours during business hours
Sabi is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome people of all backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
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