Motion Sensing Hardware Engineer – 60 GHz mmWave Radar
Location: Carlsbad, CA
Employment Type: Direct Hire / Full-Time
Work Arrangement: Hands-on hybrid position; approximately 4 days per week onsite, with flexibility based on lab and testing requirements
Compensation: Base compensation is being finalized; current market data suggests approximately $160K–$185K, with potential flexibility for the right candidate
Bonus: 20% target annual bonus, paid semi-annually
Equity: Approximately $30K–$40K/year in RSUs, vesting annually over four years
Summary
We are seeking an experienced Motion Sensing Hardware Engineer with strong 60 GHz mmWave radar expertise to help develop the next generation of intelligent motion-sensing technology for smart security products.
In this role, you will play a key part in building radar capabilities from the ground up, helping establish the testing methodologies, tools, infrastructure, and technical foundation that can ultimately support multiple products across the organization. The technology is designed to move beyond traditional PIR-based motion detection by providing richer information about an object's distance, direction, size, location, and movement , enabling devices to make smarter decisions about when activity should trigger recording.
This is an opportunity for someone who wants significant technical ownership. You will serve as a key internal radar resource while working closely with Hardware, Firmware, ODM partners, technology vendors, and other engineering teams to characterize performance, solve complex sensing challenges, optimize real-world detection, and evaluate technologies for future products.
While radar will be the primary focus, this is intentionally broader than a narrowly specialized Radar Engineer position. The ideal candidate brings strong radar expertise along with a general electrical/hardware engineering foundation and is comfortable contributing to other sensors, detectors, and hardware initiatives as needed.
What You'll Do
- Characterize and optimize 60 GHz mmWave radar and motion-sensing performance across a variety of products, environments, and real-world use cases
- Evaluate and improve detection range, field of view, angular and range accuracy, tracking performance, and true/false-positive performance
- Help build the company's radar functionality, testing infrastructure, tools, and methodologies from the ground up
- Tune radar detection and tracking parameters using real-world test data to achieve product performance targets
- Investigate challenging sensing edge cases and determine how to improve detection accuracy while balancing battery life and overall product performance
- Diagnose complex engineering issues using a scientific, data-driven approach and drive issues to definitive root cause
- Participate in defining and updating sensing-system metrics that translate technical performance into meaningful customer improvements
- Develop repeatable, reproducible, and automated measurement methods, tools, and equipment to enable comprehensive validation on aggressive development schedules
- Work across hardware and firmware to troubleshoot timing, GPIO-level, sensor, and system-performance issues
- Partner cross-functionally with Firmware, ODM partners, technology suppliers, and other engineering teams to resolve issues and improve performance
- Work directly with third-party technology vendors to optimize device configurations and algorithms for specific product use cases
- Analyze and visualize test data using Python
- Prepare clear technical reports, plots, graphs, result tables, presentations, and recommendations
- Support engineering factory builds through performance validation, yield optimization, and failure-analysis coordination
- Evaluate radar and other motion-sensing technologies for future product applications
- Collaborate with Compliance teams to ensure sensing technologies meet applicable requirements
- Contribute to broader electrical engineering and hardware initiatives when needed
What You Bring
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering (BSEE or MSEE)
- Approximately 5+ years of relevant industry experience preferred
- Strong hands-on experience with 60 GHz mmWave radar or closely related short-range/wide-angle commercial radar technology
- Working knowledge of radar fundamentals, including range, velocity and angle resolution, point-cloud outputs, and tracking
- Hands-on experience tuning detection and tracking parameters against real-world test data
- Experience optimizing performance metrics such as detection range, detection accuracy, and false-positive/false-negative rates
- Strong understanding of the hardware side of radar systems, including how signals are generated, transmitted, received, and integrated at the device level
- General electrical/hardware engineering knowledge with the ability to work with circuits, boards, sensors, and related hardware
- Ability to work across hardware and firmware, including debugging timing and GPIO-level issues
- Experience working directly with third-party technology vendors to optimize device configurations or algorithms
- Experience using Python for data analysis and visualization
- Strong testing, validation, troubleshooting, and root-cause-analysis capabilities
- Ability to independently navigate a cross-functional hardware-development organization and collaborate with multiple engineering disciplines
- Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to clearly communicate technical findings, risks, and recommendations
- Self-starter who is curious, resourceful, comfortable with ambiguity, and capable of independently overcoming technical roadblocks
- Ability to work onsite in Carlsbad approximately 4 days per week to support hands-on hardware testing and measurements
Candidates with strong radar development and validation experience may be considered even if they have not personally taken a radar-enabled product all the way through commercial production.
Bonus Points If You Have
- Experience with automotive radar, autonomous vehicles, or in-cabin sensing
- Experience with short-range, wide-angle radar applications
- Experience integrating commercial mmWave radar solutions into shipping consumer products
- Hands-on experience with third-party commercial radar SDKs, including device configuration, parameter tuning, and extracting detection or point-cloud data
- Experience with Passive Infrared (PIR) sensors
- Broader electrical engineering experience involving circuit design, board-level hardware, sensor integration, or hardware validation
- Experience with consumer electronics or other high-volume connected hardware products
- Experience supporting engineering factory builds, manufacturing validation, yield optimization, or failure analysis
TCWGlobal is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on age, ethnicity, gender, nationality, religious belief, or sexual orientation.
It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.