Android Systems Engineer - remote job

Imagine Worldwide is hiring a Android Systems Engineer. The role sits in IT and programming and is fully remote. The company places no restriction on where the candidate lives, so you can apply from anywhere.

The employer did not publish a figure; that is settled at interview. The advert sets no condition on working hours.

This vacancy passed an automated check: the list excludes any advert requiring a foreign work permit, visa sponsorship, a particular citizenship, or residence in a specific country.

About Imagine Worldwide

Millions of children globally lack the educational resources necessary to develop literacy and numeracy skills. Imagine Worldwide is committed to ensuring that every child has the opportunity to learn and grow. We leverage the onebillion application and various tools to deliver scalable, evidence-based educational solutions to some of the world's most marginalized children. Our approach is designed to significantly enhance learning outcomes, addressing the global education gap.

Imagine Worldwide collaborates with governments, non-profits, and communities to offer accessible, effective, and affordable tablet-based learning. We are a California-based nonprofit, operating in Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania through local entities. For more information, visit our website.

Role Overview The Android Systems Engineer will be a key member of the team tasked with designing, testing, and scaling solutions that promote literacy and numeracy. This role will support a mission-driven group dedicated to empowering children worldwide. You will work closely with the Head of Technology, Director of Product, software engineers, device manufacturers, and external partners to enhance the Android platform that underpins our education programs. You will report to the Head of Technology.

Our aim is to serve over 10 million children in four or more countries within the next six years, achieving literacy and numeracy outcomes three times better than national averages in Sub-Saharan Africa. Building a robust and reliable Android device platform is essential to this mission, with the goal of delivering programs for less than $5 per child annually.

This position focuses on Android firmware, bootloader, and device configuration, with a strong emphasis on maintaining long-term device maintainability. Additionally, you will contribute to application development and diagnostics tooling where necessary.

Key Responsibilities Android Systems Design

* Collaborative Requirements Gathering: Engage with engineers, product managers, operations teams, contract manufacturers, and design houses to identify and document device, program, manufacturing, and support needs.

* Platform Architecture: Develop maintainable Android device software architectures that can accommodate multiple hardware variants while ensuring a consistent user and operational experience.

* Hardware/Software Compatibility: Evaluate the impact of component changes, such as DDR memory, storage, displays, touch panels, radios, batteries, and sensors, on the Android firmware, kernel, applications, factory tools, and OTA updates.

* Technical Documentation: Create clear technical design documents that outline Android platform architecture, boot flow, device configuration, build process, flashing process, factory dependencies, and validation requirements.

* Risk Assessment & Mitigation: Identify and address technical risks in the tablet platform, supply chain, firmware dependencies, secure boot configuration, and update process.

* Security & Compliance: Implement secure Android platform practices, including secure boot, verified boot, signing, device hardening, data protection, and responsible handling of keys and credentials.

Android Firmware, BSP & Bootloader Development

* SoC Vendor Platform Engineering: Work with Android tablet platforms, including vendor BSPs, bootloaders, preloader, and early boot components, kernel configuration, device trees, and Android system images.

* Component Integration: Verify if new hardware components can be supported by existing firmware and collaborate with manufacturers or design houses to update early boot, kernel, and Android configuration as needed.

* Bootloader and Kernel Work: Modify, build, test, and document bootloader, kernel, device tree, vendor image, and related Android platform components.

* ROM Compatibility: Develop strategies to support old and new tablet hardware variants through a unified Android image, unified kernel/system image, variant detection, or clearly documented alternatives.

* Vendor Collaboration: Work with contract manufacturers, design houses, and component suppliers to obtain technical data, source drops, build instructions, signed binaries, and validation evidence needed to maintain the tablet platform.

Android Application & Tooling Development

* Application Development: Contribute to Android application development using Kotlin and/or Java, especially where apps interact closely with device settings, diagnostics, provisioning, updates, storage, or networking.

* User Experience Reliability: Improve device-level behavior that impacts the learning experience, including kiosk mode, app launch reliability, offline operation, data sync, storage management, power management, and recovery from faults.

Implementation & Delivery

* Coding: Write clear, efficient, and well-documented code that aligns with technical designs and project standards.

* ROM Build & Release: Maintain Android ROM build processes, release artifacts, signing steps, versioning, and reproducible release documentation.

* Quality Assurance: Develop and execute unit tests, integration tests, automated device tests, hardware validation tests, and appropriate levels of manual testing to ensure reliability and performance.

* Continuous Integration: Regularly integrate code into shared repositories to ensure compatibility and stability through automated build and deployment pipelines.

* Debugging & Optimisation: Identify, diagnose, and resolve bugs and performance issues across Android applications, system services, kernel, bootloader, and device configuration; optimize for reliability, speed, storage, battery life, and resource efficiency.

Manufacturing, Deployment & Maintenance

* Factory Readiness: Define and document production flashing, device provisioning, hardware variant detection, factory testing, and quality control processes for Android tablets.

* OTA Safety: Ensure safe over-the-air update processes for devices already deployed in the field and future hardware variants, including rollback and recovery planning.

* Validation: Create validation plans and reports covering boot reliability, memory stability, thermal behavior, storage, battery, networking, application reliability, and field-support scenarios.

* Bug Resolution: Monitor device and application performance, promptly diagnose issues, and implement effective fixes to maintain system stability.

* Security Patching: Apply security patches, update dependencies, and address vulnerabilities to safeguard the platform.

* On-call Support: When assigned, diagnose and fix urgent issues outside of regular working hours.

Requirements A Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field is beneficial. A minimum of five years of experience in Android systems, embedded Linux, firmware, or related software engineering roles is required.