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As of February 2025, we’re still hiring for this role!

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At Sanctuary Computer — we’re building a different type of technology shop. Based in NYC’s Chinatown (and remote), the way we approach building things is more like a restaurant than a traditional agency, with an emphasis in providing our clients with an outspoken sense of comfort and hospitality.

We work in design, branding and engineering roles, with clients like Nike, General Electric, The Nobel Prize, Herman Miller, Adobe, Dig Inn and many others. That same thoughtfulness is applied inward, too. We understand that technologists & engineers have a strong sense of art and integrity, and are happier being a part of a team that promotes those values.

<aside> 👯 **We care deeply about building great products for a diverse set of users, and to do that well, we need people who think through a wide lens of different experiences.

At the current time, we are holding space for individuals who are underrepresented in our industry. If you feel that's you, please reach out!**

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Garden3D (our collective umbrella studio) currently consists of:

• 65.52% White, 34.48% BIPOC
• 51.7% Male, 23% Female, 17.2% Transgender, Gender-Fluid, Nonbinary, and Gender-Nonconforming

→ We track these statistics closely, talk about them openly, and work to improve them year over year. 2024 DEI Report.

The 2024 garden3d retreat to Yosemite!

🔮 Who we’re looking for:

Right now, we’re looking for an Internet of Things Technical Lead with experience leading projects and collaborating closely with product owners.

In this role, you’ll be joining our team as a senior developer eager to find cost-effective, high-quality, pragmatic solutions to our clients' complex problems. You would be tasked to lead technical direction for connected hardware products — consumer devices, bespoke operating systems (like the Light Phone OS), and the digital ecosystems of phone apps and web interfaces that talk to them. You might identify as a Technical Lead, a Technical Architect, or a Technical Program Manager, and — as you might expect with “technical” in the title — you would be the person on the project team most responsible for delivering the most appropriate and cost-effective technical solution for the client’s needs.

Responsibilities will include:

• Crafting technical architecture plans through interfacing with clients to understand product requirements
• Planning development work with your team through scoping and estimation
• Developing and optimizing technical solutions while keeping in mind performance, scalability, maintainability, and cost-effectiveness
• Participating in code reviews, providing constructive feedback to teammates and ensuring adherence to best practices
• Contributing to project success by keeping a close eye on team velocity, project scope, budget, and timeline
• Negotiating with clients to align project scope with budget and timeline, if needed

The person we’re looking for is happy, relaxed and easy to get along with. They’re flexible on anything except conceits that will lower their usually outstanding work quality. They work “smart”, by carefully managing their workflow and staggering features that have dependencies intelligently — they prefer deep work but are OK coming up to the surface now and then for top level / strategic conversations.

We believe people with backgrounds or interests in design, art, music, food or fashion tend to have a well rounded sense of design & quality — so a variety of hobbies or side projects is a big nice to have!

🔑 Must Have Competencies:

• 8 – 10+ years experience as a software engineer and/or team lead on internet of things (IoT) projects, as well as native mobile and/or web projects.
• Experience working on IoT products from concept to mass production.
• Extensive experience with Android Studio, adb, gerrit, emulators like Cuttlefish, and hardware devices.
• A deep understanding of firmware versions, device fleet management, remote debugging, FOTA, device shadows, time series databases, and all standard IoT primitives.
• Experience with backend frameworks like Ruby on Rails, Elixir Phoenix, or Node.js.
• Fluency in SQL & database operations, and experience with one of PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL or SQLite.
• Fluency in HTTP, Status Codes, Security Standards and other Web protocols & patterns.
• Extensive experience with API Design and knowledge of REST and GraphQL, as well as authentication strategies with JWTs and OAuth 2.0.
• Experience with AWS, GCP, or Azure and a core understanding of best practices such as Kubernetes, Infrastructure as Code, IAM & credential management.
• Production experience with PaaS providers such as Heroku, Render, Cloud66, Vercel, or Gigalixir.

💪 Nice to Have Competencies:

We’re always pitching for new and exciting technology niches. Some of the areas below are relevant to us!

• Experience building custom Android Operating System Project ROMs from source (AOSP).
• Experience using React Native / Expo.
• Experience in hardware and firmware for IoT devices, working with tools and platforms like Balena, AWS IoT Core, PlatformIO, and RTOS (real-time operating systems).
• Experience with low-level languages (C, C++, Rust, Zig, LLVM/Clang).
• Experience in developing for telecom devices with multiple sensors.
• Experience with JavaScript frameworks (React + Next.js, Vue, or Svelte) and a love of type safety.
• Product management experience, including defining product roadmaps and working closely with stakeholders.
• Hands-on experience with Zenhub, Trello, Jira or similar.
• Client-facing experience, working directly with customers to gather requirements and provide technical solutions.
• Experience with unit and integration testing.
• History of open source contributions.
• Engineering management experience, including leading teams, setting technical direction, and mentoring developers.

🎤 How we interview:

Our interview process starts with a call where you get to meet a few members of our team. From there we’ll ask appropriate candidates to take part in a technical exercise which helps illustrate skill level and comfort.

→ It’s also a great way to see what it’s like to work with us and help support folks who may not have the ‘right title’ but have the experience and technical know-how for the role.