Founding Hardware Architect

About mā

mā is building the first operating system that understands your life as a field. We unify body, mind, and meaning into a single living signal, and use it to guide people toward coherence.

Our system senses, thinks, and guides in real time, combining LLMs, behavior modeling, and ambient hardware into one generative life interface. We’re not optimizing dashboards. We’re designing a new kind of intelligence: spiritual silicon, with real-world precision.

We’re tight team based in San Francisco, working in-person with full clarity and conviction. Backed by investors who bet on outlier ideas, we already have the product vision, GTM, and runway in place, now we’re engineering the tech that can reshape how humans live.

About the role

We’re looking for a founding hardware engineer to design, prototype, and bring to life the physical interface of mā. This isn’t a factory-to-shipping job. This is a multidisciplinary role for someone who thinks in light, sound, touch, and presence.

You’ll own the full prototype loop—from sensors to firmware to control interfaces. You’ll work closely with design and AI to build something that feels alive. Not a wearable. Not a screen. But a new form of interaction.

You’ll be our first hardware hire, working directly with the founder. You’ll shape early builds, test across edge use cases, and help vet the right partners for scale.

What you’ll do

• Build functional prototypes using Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and similar platforms

• Integrate and control sensors, audio, lighting, and haptics

• Collaborate with design on form, finish, and industrial constraints

• Create fast feedback loops between hardware and AI software agents

• Own the entire stack from firmware to communication layer

• Design for eventual scale: supply chain, manufacturability, and embedded reliability

What we’re looking for

• Obsession with tinkering, iteration, and fast physical prototyping

• Experience building consumer-facing hardware experiences, ideally multimodal

• Solid command of embedded systems, electronics, and firmware

• Ability to translate ambient human experience into hardware form

• Comfort working solo at first—but a collaborator by nature

You’ll thrive here if you

• Love making machines that feel human

• Get excited by high trust, low bureaucracy teams

• Believe in design as a force for presence, not distraction

• Care more about first principles than resume lines

(Full-time) Employee Benefits:

• 100% employer-paid health, dental, and vision

• 401(k) matching

• Real compensation: salary + meaningful equity

• No startup drama. Just clarity and conviction.

• We cover anything that expands your craft—books, tools, courses, retreats, mentors. No cap.