What You'll Actually Do
- Upstream & Community Participation: Contribute to and collaborate withWirePlumber, PipeWire, and ALSA upstream communities
- Real-World Impact: Design, integrate, and shipembedded Linux audio systemsthat work reliably in real-world products
- Deep Technical Work: Implement and debugPipeWire + WirePlumberstacks, including ALSA, DSPs, and system-level interactions
- Customer Collaboration: Work directly with customer teams totranslate requirements into robust audio architectures and solutions
- Breadth When Needed: Support adjacent areas likeBluetooth audio and Linux audio toolingwhen 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 theLinux audio stack(PipeWire, WirePlumber, ALSA)
Strong proficiency inCand 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 withALSA kernel driver development
Familiarity withRust
Exposure toBluetooth audio(A2DP, HFP, LE Audio)
Basic understanding ofDSP concepts, such as signal flow, filtering, and common processing blocks (e.g. echo cancellation, noise suppression, beamforming)
Contributions to relevantopen-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 Collaborans. Our core benefits include:
Competitive salarybased 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
- Collaborative- 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:
- Application Review(within 2 weeks) - we look at your code and contributions
- Initial Chat(30 min) - casual conversation about your experience and our work
- Technical Interview(2 - 3h) Technical Deep-Dive- discuss kernel architecture, past debugging challenges and how you approach problem-solving (no whiteboard coding)Code Review Session- review real patches together, discuss trade-offsClient 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")
- Technical Deep-Dive- discuss kernel architecture, past debugging challenges and how you approach problem-solving (no whiteboard coding)
- Code Review Session- review real patches together, discuss trade-offs
- 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")
- Chief Operating Officer(60 min) - meet the Chief Operating Officer, ask about day-to-day work and how Collabora works, discuss compensation and benefits.
- 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'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.
