Contract Acoustic + RF Engineer
Auto ImportThis is a contract engagement, remote-friendly, supporting a Berkeley-based hardware program. MAIA is building a small body-worn AI device that listens and speaks. Industrial design freezes in March 2027, and acoustics and RF are the two disciplines that cannot be retrofitted into a finished enclosure — so this engagement exists to get the decisions right before the geometry locks.
Scope is a focused design review rather than ongoing engineering: microphone selection and array geometry for a body-worn position, acoustic port design (diameter, depth, mesh, resistance), wind noise and clothing-rub isolation, and the sealing-versus-acoustics tradeoff. On the RF side: antenna topology for a very small enclosure, keep-out zones, ground plane and battery interaction, body loading and detuning, and a regulatory pre-scan plan so FCC doesn't surprise us at EVT.
Deliverables: a written review of the current ID direction, placement recommendations with rationale, keep-out zones marked on our CAD, a component shortlist, and a ranked risk list for EVT.
There is a longer-term role behind this engagement, but this one stands on its own.
Qualifications
- Shipped at least one consumer product containing a microphone and a Bluetooth radio — hearables, wearables, body-worn sensors, smart speakers, action cameras
- Practical acoustic design for small enclosures: transducer selection, port geometry, sealing tradeoffs, wind and handling noise
- Antenna design and tuning in constrained enclosures, including body-loading effects on worn devices
- Hands-on with network and spectrum analyzers; comfortable in an anechoic or acoustic test setup
- Has been through FCC/CE certification at least once and has opinions about what made it painful
- Able to give an industrial designer a clear, early answer about where things can and cannot go
- BS/MS in EE or equivalent practical experience