Senior Manager, Embedded Linux Media Software

BrightSign is the global market leader in digital signage media players and we are seeking a Senior Manager to join our rapidly growing team. This role is in person, in the office in Cambridge UK.

Our media players are used worldwide, by many different vertical markets. They are very flexible devices, providing the ability to play audio and video media in many different formats, to render HTML, and to run applications developed by the end user. They are highly reliable: our customers depend on them 24x7. We design and manufacture our own hardware. Our Embedded Software Engineering team builds from the bootloader up through embedded Linux, device drivers, our custom media application, the BrightScript interpreter, Chromium and Electron. The team is mostly based in Cambridge, UK with a few developers working remotely across the UK and US eastern time zones. The range of technologies we use is quite wide, from low level hardware to 8K resolution HDMI, including interfaces like USB/USB-C and GPIO. We are essentially IoT devices that support wired and WiFi networks using IPv4 and IPv6. Separate teams develop desktop software that provides a low-code/no-code media authoring environment and a cloud-based SaaS offering that provides a free way to manage players remotely and a paid offering for media management and distribution.

This candidate must be highly technical with significant Linux, video, and embedded system credibility. We are requiring this position to be able to be in the Cambridge UK office at least 4 days per week, and ideally full time. The team is highly technical with several Principle Engineers. Many of our team have been building on Linux since there was a Linux, and some have been building media players since the first ones came to market. The ideal candidate does not need to be expert in any of these technologies but must have some technical credibility. Actually having shipped multiple embedded products is a must. Our focus for this role is not only technical: we seek someone with extremely strong management skills. The ability to inspire and lead a team, juggle priorities, and project management software development tasks is critical. We are an agile shop on the usual journey to find the balance between planning ahead too much or too little. We seek someone who has been in this kind of balancing act before and has some perspectives on what works

Position Overview

The Senior Software Engineer will be a key member of our engineering team, responsible for developing and maintaining software solutions for custom hardware platforms and embedded systems running Microsoft Windows. This individual will leverage their expertise in both software development and low-level PC hardware to design and implement high-performance, reliable, and scalable software solutions that meet the needs of our customers and partners. This role requires strong experience with Microsoft Windows software development and implementation on new hardware.

Responsibilities:

• Manage a team of developers who develop and maintain embedded system software that delivers rich media experiences.
  • This includes very high definition video and complex audio
  • Manage up to 15 developers Working in C and C++ across the full stack, but especially in the audio/video and execution environments like Chromium and Electron
  • Collaborating with a range of stakeholders in an agile environment
  • Adapting to the realities of dealing with hardware and manufacturing schedules
  • Proven able to effectively collaborate with the SaaS teams, product software interface teams, DevOps and automated QA teams

Requirements:

• 5+ years experience managing teams building and shipping embedded software in a commercial environment
• 7+ years experience as a developer on a development team shipping embedded software in a commercial environment
• Strong understanding of agile/scrum methodologies, experience leading teams that work in an agile fashion
• 5+ years experience with Linux – master of the Linux command line environment
• Working knowledge of Electron and Chromium • Experience with using git and GitHub for source code management - we use gerrit so experience there is great
• Demonstrated ability to review and demand good-quality, robust and testable code
• BA/BS in a relevant discipline, and/or 5+ years of industry experience
• Strong attention to detail, excellent communication skills
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment and adapting rapidly to changing priorities