Audio Consultant Engineer - Linux Audio Stack

### What You'll Actually Do * **Upstream & Community Participation**: Contribute to and collaborate with **WirePlumber, PipeWire, and ALSA upstream communities** * **Real-World Impact**: Design, integrate, and ship **embedded Linux audio systems** that work reliably in real-world products * **Deep Technical Work**: Implement and debug **PipeWire + WirePlumber** stacks, including ALSA, DSPs, and system-level interactions * **Customer [Collabora](https://himalayas.app/companies/collabora)tion**: Work directly with customer teams to **translate requirements into robust audio architectures and solutions** * **Breadth When Needed**: Support adjacent areas like **Bluetooth audio and Linux audio tooling** when required (**pw-cli, pw-top, alsa-utils, tracing frameworks**) to diagnose and resolve issues efficiently * **Be a Technical Advisor:** Explain complex audio architecture decisions to product teams, provide honest assessments of what is and isn't possible and build trust through transparent communication ### What We're Looking For ### Required: * Strong hands-on experience with the **Linux audio stack** (PipeWire, WirePlumber, ALSA) * Strong proficiency in **C** and systems-level programming * Solid understanding of core audio concepts (latency, formats, synchronization, buffering, resampling) * Proven ability to debug complex issues across multiple layers of a Linux system * Comfortable working directly with customers in a consulting or support capacity * Strong communication skills, both written and verbal ### Nice to Have: * Experience with **ALSA kernel driver development** * Familiarity with **Rust** * Exposure to **Bluetooth audio** (A2DP, HFP, LE Audio) * Basic understanding of **DSP concepts**, such as signal flow, filtering, and common processing blocks (e.g. echo cancellation, noise suppression, beamforming) * Contributions to relevant **open-source projects** * Experience with embedded or real-time Linux systems ### What We Offer #### Compensation & Benefits We offer a competitive benefits package tailored to each country in which we have employees, plus a core global benefit offering accessible to all [Collabora](https://himalayas.app/companies/collabora)ns. Our core benefits include: * **Competitive salary** based on experience and location * ### Office setup budget * **Sabbatical/Retention of Services** - after five years of continuous service * **Co-working policy** - support for working outside home * **Wellness assessments** - biannual wellbeing assessments with a trained mental health specialist * **Conference attendance** -we cover expenses and encourage speaking opportunities * **Open source time** - contribute to projects you care about ### Work Environment * **Fully remote** - work where you’re most productive * **Global team** - engineers across Europe, Americas and Asia * **No on-call rotations** - this isn't support work * **Sustainable pace** - we're here for the long term * **Flexible hours** - manage your own schedule ### Growth & Impact * **Upstream contributions** - your work shapes Linux, not just client products * **Technical leadership track** - path to principal engineer, subsystem expertise or technical architecture roles * **Consulting track** - develop deeper client relationships, lead customer engagements or shape service offerings * **Mentorship opportunities** - both receiving and providing guidance * **Conference speaking** - we support presentation submissions and provide coaching * **Recognition** - your contributions are public, building your professional reputation ### Culture & Values * **Upstream first** - we believe the best solutions benefit everyone * **Transparency** - open discussion about technical decisions, business constraints and project challenges * **Pragmatism** - perfect is the enemy of good; we ship quality code that solves real problems * **Respect for expertise** - we trust engineers to make technical decisions * **[Collabora](https://himalayas.app/companies/collabora)tive** - we succeed by working together, internally and with the community * **Sustainable pace** - we're here for the marathon, not the sprint ### Our Interview Process We respect your time and provide a clear, structured process: 1. **Application Review** (within 2 weeks) - we look at your code and contributions 2. **Initial Chat** (30 min) - casual conversation about your experience and our work 3. **Technical Interview** (2 - 3h) 1. **Technical Deep-Dive** - discuss kernel architecture, past debugging challenges and how you approach problem-solving (no whiteboard coding) 2. **Code Review Session** - review real patches together, discuss trade-offs 3. **Client Scenario Discussion** - talk through a realistic customer situation: balancing technical debt, timeline pressure and upstream goals (we want to see your thought process, not a "right answer") 4. **Chief Operating Officer** (60 min) - meet the Chief Operating Officer, ask about day-to-day work and how [Collabora](https://himalayas.app/companies/collabora) works, discuss compensation and benefits. 5. **Offer** (within 1 week of final interview) **Total timeline:** 3-4 weeks from application to offer We provide feedback at every stage, and you'll always know where you stand. ### [Collabora](https://himalayas.app/companies/collabora)'s Commitment We're committed to building a diverse team and inclusive environment. We encourage applications from people underrepresented in tech. We evaluate candidates based on skills and contributions, not pedigree. If you're unsure whether you qualify, **apply anyway -** imposter syndrome is real and you might be exactly who we're looking for. Originally posted on [Himalayas](https://himalayas.app)