Distance Technologies

We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer to bring Distance's XR runtime to the hardware our products actually ship on. Our displays cover the full range of see-through XR, from headset-free autostereoscopic systems built into vehicles to rugged head-mounted displays used in the field, and they run on an equally wide range of embedded targets. You own the layer where our runtime meets that hardware: the display path, the sensors, the power envelope, and the toolchain that makes it all buildable. WHY DISTANCE? At Distance Technologies, the problem we're solving is simple to state and hard to solve: the amount of data in the world is endless, but human capacity is not. We are building a fundamentally new perception layer between humans and machines, transforming transparent surfaces into interfaces unlike the world has ever seen. Think of the windscreen of a car, the visor of a helmet, or a sight device, each becoming a new front-end for AI. The way we turn bits and atoms into expanded human perception is protected by over 50 granted patents internationally. We build it for two demanding worlds: defense and automotive. And we build it from a single foundation fusing software, hardware and computational optics. There are over 50 of us today, with decade-long experience building world's best products, optics, and open-source operating systems. We partner and build with globally leading companies like KIA, FORVIA HELLA, Supacat, and Galvion, and we were Google Ventures' first investment in Finland. What we're building is hard, and will fundamentally change how we operate and see the world, and that's exactly why we seek exceptional people who enjoy building things never seen before. THE ROLE & THE TEAM You'll be part of a core technology team building a unified runtime stack for mixed reality applications that run on many different kinds of hardware and form factors. Your focus is the platform layer the runtime sits on. The work spans very different environments. On embedded Linux we own the stack down to the kernel and the display path, with direct control of scanout, power and thermals. Every new form factor, whether autostereoscopic or head-mounted, built into a vehicle or worn, comes with its own display, its own sensor set and its own constraints. Your core responsibilities include: Platform bring-up & porting: Own the runtime across embedded targets. On embedded Linux that means Yocto/BitBake layers, kernel configuration and patching, DRM/KMS scanout and low-level device plumbing. On Android, NDK/JNI/Gradle. You decide how a new platform gets supported, and you make the runtime work there end to end. Sensor adaptation & integration: This is as big a part of the job as the display path, and in automotive it's the bigger one. You'll bring new cameras, IMUs, LiDAR and radar into our sensor and tracking stack: transport and driver integration (V4L2, UVC/libusb, GigE Vision, CAN, automotive Ethernet/PTP), timestamp and clock-domain correctness across different sensors, hardware sync and triggering, calibration hooks, and record/replay for offline development. ADAS sensor sets and in-vehicle integration are explicitly in scope. Embedded developer experience & delivery: Make embedded targets first-class for the whole engineering team. Together with the team you own the platform SDK: Yocto eSDK, reproducible cross-builds and sysroot management, one-command deploy to a target, on-device debugging and profiling, and hardware targets wired into CI. The goal is that developing against real devices feels as normal as developing on a desktop. You'll also work closely with our HW, design and customer teams. We're looking for a senior colleague who takes ownership of their work and is comfortable working independently. WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU? Work right where software meets hardware, on technology that doesn't exist anywhere else yet Help build mixed reality products ranging from headset-free autostereoscopic systems to rugged head-mounted displays made for real outdoor use Real ownership of platform strategy: which targets we support, how we support them, and what working on embedded looks like for the rest of the team Work with top computer vision engineers and scientists on vision systems that combine many sensor inputs into one perception stack OUR EXPECTATIONS Startup speed and agility make you more excited than anxious Senior-level experience in embedded systems software, with a track record of porting non-trivial software to embedded Linux Strong modern C++, and comfort reading and patching C at kernel and driver level Yocto/OpenEmbedded in production: layers, recipes, image and SDK builds, kernel configuration Proven ownership of cross-compilation and developer tooling: toolchains, sysroots, reproducible builds, on-device debugging and CI for hardware targets Understanding of the Linux graphics and media stack: DRM/KMS, GBM, DMA-BUF, V4L2 Ability and willingness to lead both technical and people topics (the role doesn't include people manager responsibilities) Clear written and spoken communication, including design docs, ADRs and constructive technical leadership in reviews You want a say in how AI is used in software development, today and going forward Nice to have, not required: Automotive experience (ADAS sensor stacks, CAN/automotive Ethernet, in-vehicle sensor sync and calibration) Sensor integration experience across transports and clock domains (cameras, IMUs, LiDAR, radar), including timestamp correctness, synchronisation and calibration Working command of the Android system stack: NDK, SurfaceFlinger/Choreographer, Camera2, sensors and thermal APIs, with enough AOSP background to follow us onto custom devices Experience offloading compute to NPU, DSP or FPGA Graphics programming experience: Vulkan, OpenGL DID WE GET YOU INTERESTED? Apply via the application form! Our recruitment process includes 2-3 discussions with the team. If you want to learn more about the position, reach out to our recruiter, Joel Kinnunen, at below email address. Kindly note that, for data privacy reasons, we are not able to process applications sent via email.

We are looking for a Senior Optical Engineer to design the optics behind our products for defence and automotive, based at our Helsinki HQ. At Distance, traditional and computational optics are designed together, so you get to solve problems with both, not just with glass. And your work won't stop at a simulation: you'll see your designs go from the screen to manufactured parts to the lab bench. WHY DISTANCE? At Distance Technologies, the problem we're solving is simple to state and hard to solve: the amount of data in the world is endless, but human capacity is not. We are building a fundamentally new perception layer between humans and machines, transforming transparent surfaces into interfaces unlike the world has ever seen. Think of the windscreen of a car, the visor of a helmet, or a sight device, each becoming a new front-end for AI. The way we turn bits and atoms into expanded human perception is protected by over 50 granted international patent families. We build it for two demanding worlds: defense and automotive. And we build it from a single foundation fusing software, hardware and computational optics. There are over 50 of us today, with decade-long experience building world's best products, optics, and open-source operating systems. We partner and build with globally leading companies like KIA, FORVIA HELLA, Supacat, and Galvion, and we were Google Ventures' first investment in Finland. What we're building is hard, and will fundamentally change how we operate and see the world, and that's exactly why we seek exceptional people who enjoy building things never seen before. THE ROLE You'll join a small team of experienced optical engineers within our hardware team, working on optical design across our products, from the first architecture to parts that end up in the actual products. In the beginning, much of your work will relate to products like our Field Operator HUD (FOH). Alongside the optics team, you'll work closely with the rest of hardware, the wider R&D organisation and project management, and split your time between simulation, the lab and our manufacturing partners. Your core responsibilities include: Optical architecture: Designing the optical systems for our products. Stray light and artifacts: Simulating and cutting down ghosting, flare, god rays and chromatic aberration in tools like Zemax OpticStudio or Code V. Designing for the human eye: Finding the right balance between a wide field of view, a large eyebox, comfortable eye relief and high optical efficiency. These pull against each other, and knowing where to land is a big part of the job. Displays and sensors: Making the lenses work together with high-resolution micro-displays (MicroOLED, MicroLED) and the eye-tracking cameras. Design for manufacturing: Working with injection molding and nano-fabrication vendors so our plastic optics can be made in volume with high yield. Lab: Building and maintaining our optical lab setups. WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU? What you design goes into products for defence and automotive, not demos built for fun. The specs are strict for a reason: a driver or a soldier has to be able to trust what they see. The whole chain. You take a design from simulation through manufacturing to testing, and see for yourself what held up. Lots of variety. Designing, building test setups, planning tests and running them. Optics meets computation. Combine the two for more agile imaging paths, with plenty of room for simulation work on technology that's genuinely new. AI in optics design. Work out with the team how AI can be used in optics design, and help decide how we do it. Eyes on what's next. Part of the job is keeping up with and scouting the latest XR technologies. OUR EXPECTATIONS You have senior-level industry experience in optics. You've worked with optics design software such as Zemax OpticStudio, Code V, Speos or LightTools, for optics design and for stray light and ghost analysis. You know how optics are manufactured and coated. You've done tolerance and yield analysis. You're at home in the lab and can build your own test setups when nothing off the shelf fits. You have a Master's or PhD in optical engineering, physics or electrical engineering. A focus on imaging or illumination systems is a plus. You like it when the work isn't fully mapped out yet and you get a real say in how it's done. The role is based at our Helsinki HQ, and with the lab work involved you'll be onsite most of the time. Strong English is essential, as our team is international. DID WE GET YOU INTERESTED? Apply via the application form! Our recruitment process includes 2-3 discussions with the team. If you want to learn more about the position, reach out to our recruiter, Joel Kinnunen, at below email address. Kindly note that, for data privacy reasons, we are not able to process applications sent via email.

We are looking for a Senior Engineer, Sensor Platform to join our Perception team in Helsinki. Everything our perception models learn, they learn from what our research vehicles and rigs record. If the sensors are not synchronized, calibrated and trusted, the work downstream stalls. This role owns that platform end to end, from choosing the sensors to the versioned dataset the team trains on. WHY DISTANCE? At Distance Technologies, the problem we're solving is simple to state and hard to solve: the amount of data in the world is endless, but human capacity is not. We are building a fundamentally new perception layer between humans and machines, transforming transparent surfaces into interfaces unlike the world has ever seen. Think of the windscreen of a car, the visor of a helmet, or a sight device, each becoming a new front-end for AI. The way we turn bits and atoms into expanded human perception is protected by over 50 granted international patent families. We build it for two demanding worlds: defense and automotive. And we build it from a single foundation fusing software, hardware and computational optics. There are over 50 of us today, with decade-long experience building world's best products, optics, and open-source operating systems. We partner and build with globally leading companies like KIA, FORVIA HELLA, Supacat, and Galvion, and we were Google Ventures' first investment in Finland. What we're building is hard, and will fundamentally change how we operate and see the world, and that's exactly why we seek exceptional people who enjoy building things never seen before. THE ROLE You own the sensor platform on our research vehicles and rigs, and every recording that comes off it. You design, specify and validate the setup, and the hardware team builds and maintains it to your guidance. That covers: Picking and proving the sensors: selecting and characterizing lidar, thermal, visible/NIR and IMU/INS, and understanding the physical effects that decide whether the data is any good. The recording setup: designing the sensing network and recording hardware, USB/GMSL/Ethernet cameras, switches and data recorders. Time synchronization: making sure every sensor shares the same clock so the data lines up. Calibration: multi-sensor calibration, and the acceptance thresholds that say when a calibration is good enough to trust. The dataset: a versioned store for the recordings, with clear provenance, so anyone can see where a piece of data came from. Running collections: data collection projects across automotive, defense and the rest of the perception team's work. You take over data collection and multi-sensor calibration from the people doing it today, and act as a reviewer on pull requests and reports. This is a senior, hands-on role. Routine drives go to a part-time driver hired separately, against acceptance criteria that you set. WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU? Technical ownership of the coolest car in Finland. You own the sensor platform on it, end to end. You'll see it in the interviews! 😎 Work that matters for safety. The data you collect feeds systems whose whole point is keeping people safer. A hard problem the whole product leans on. Getting data collection right is genuinely complex, and a lot of what the perception team builds depends on it. If the recordings are off, nothing downstream works. Real ownership from day one. This is a new role. Data collection is already happening, but nobody owns it as their main job. You take it on, put it on a solid footing, and shape where it goes from here. OUR EXPECTATIONS You are a senior engineer who owns the platform, sets the standard for what good data looks like, and can turn what the team needs into sensor and hardware requirements. You back your decisions with measurement, and you validate the setup under real-world conditions, not just on the bench. We're looking for knowledge and hands-on experience across all of the following: Strong software engineering skills in Python and/or C++. Strong understanding of sensor technology & data quality and the physical effects that drive it, including vibration, thermal expansion, sensor thermal dynamics, focus, calibration, synchronization, and mechanical tolerances. Intrinsics and extrinsics calibration, ideally including multi-sensor/multi-modal calibration (e.g. lidar, thermal, radar, visible/NIR/SWIR). Understanding of the data needs of ML systems, including dataset quality, coverage, bias, edge cases, ground truth, and how sensor characteristics propagate into model performance. Communication counts as much as the engineering here, inside the team and across it. You'll coordinate upgrades with the hardware team and make sensor recommendations to the programs that rely on your data, so you're comfortable explaining your reasoning to people outside perception too. It's a plus, though not expected, if you bring one or more of the following: multi-sensor recording systems (e.g. ROS2, rosbag, MCAP); machine vision cameras and networking (e.g. GigE Vision, GenICam, 10GigE, PoE); time synchronization for multi-sensor setups (PTP, PPS, hardware triggers, exposure timestamps); versioned datasets and cloud pipelines (e.g. GCS); IMU calibration (e.g. Kalibr, LI-init); frame grabbers, CAN bus and automotive data recorders; or experience with automotive or robotics data collection vehicles. This role is based at our Helsinki HQ and is mostly onsite, since the work happens at the physical hardware. We would expect around four days a week at the HQ. Strong English is essential, Finnish is not required. B-class driver's license is seen beneficial. We support relocation for the right person. DID WE GET YOU INTERESTED? Apply via the application form! Our recruitment process includes 2-3 discussions with the team. If you want to learn more about the position, reach out to our recruiter, Joel Kinnunen, at below email . Kindly note that, for data privacy reasons, we are not able to process applications sent via email.