Opal Electronics — Product Engineer
Type: Full-time | On-site | San Francisco, CA
Compensation: $180,000 – $230,000 + competitive equity
Hiring count: 2
Visa sponsorship: Yes — H-1B, OPT; relocation supported
Reports to: Head of Software (name/LinkedIn not provided on the role page)
About Opal Electronics
Opal Electronics is a Series B, OpenAI-backed consumer electronics company building AI-native consumer devices. It began as a webcam company and has evolved into an R&D-driven hardware shop with the runway and creative control to explore what is genuinely possible in AI hardware — each device potentially different from the last. The company is deliberately independent, small, and hands-on, with full creative control.
Founded: 2021 | Team size: ~22 (Series B 11-50) | Total funding: Not disclosed
Industry: Consumer Tech / AI hardware
Website: op.al
Office: San Francisco, CA
Why Candidates Should Join
- OpenAI-backed, R&D-first hardware: Runway and creative control to explore AI-native devices rather than iterate on a single product line.
- True zero-to-one ownership: Four-person software team; meaningful surfaces of the product owned with minimal hierarchy or hand-holding.
- Balanced intensity + strong benefits: Startup-fast but explicitly not 996 — client described the pace as balanced. Medical/dental/vision 100% covered, free lunch (and dinner if working late).
Intake Call Summary
- ~22 people in SF; software team of four, hardware team of five to six; a real prototyping lab.
- Pre-revenue; focused on shipping its first product and building out its core team this year.
- Zero-to-one engineering role. Team currently works together on the priority product; plan is to move to pods (groups owning different products on different timelines) after first launch.
- Genuinely R&D: curiosity and going deep on new problems weighted as heavily as raw technical filters.
- Heavy emphasis on culture, curiosity, and team fit over rigid technical requirements.
- Pace is startup-fast but explicitly not 996; described as balanced.
- Fully on-site in SF, in part because the team demos physical products and prototypes in person.
No intake transcript was on the role page; this summary is drawn from the About the Role / About the Company content. An intake video is available on Contrario if you want deeper notes pulled.
The Role
A zero-to-one, full-stack product engineering role on a four-person software team inside a small, flat, fast-moving AI hardware company.
What You'll Be Doing
- Full-stack, product-focused engineering across the stack on AI-native consumer devices
- Zero-to-one product building with high autonomy on a very small team
- Owning meaningful surfaces of the product with minimal hierarchy or hand-holding
- Working closely with a tight software and hardware team, moving quickly from prototype to launch
- Over time, owning within a pod as the team scales to parallel products
Tech stack: Not specified (full-stack; product-focused)
Requirements
- Full-stack / product engineer
- 2-5 YOE (flexible)
- Startup / small-team background
- High autonomy + ownership
- Curiosity, R&D mindset
- SF, 5 days on-site
Green Flags
- Startup or small-team experience, including a small team within a larger company
- High autonomy, self-management, and a strong ownership mentality
- Personal projects outside of work
- Clear curiosity and eagerness to learn in an R&D environment
Red Flags
- Coming from a large company with a highly structured workflow that does not translate to a small, ambiguous startup
- Big-company backgrounds without evidence they can operate in a lean, zero-to-one environment
Role Details
- Salary — $180,000 – $230,000
- Equity — Competitive equity
- On-site policy — 5 days/week on-site in SF
- Visa sponsorship — H-1B, OPT; relocation supported
- Employment type — Full-time
- Location — San Francisco, CA
Screening Questions
No explicit screening questions were published on the Contrario role page. An intake video is available on Contrario — I can turn its key questions into a screening list if you want.
Interview Process
Stage 1 — Pending Approval — Candidates awaiting initial approval.
Stage 2 — Screening (HM) — High-level background and culture fit.
Stage 3 — Chat with the Head of Software.Stage 4 — Chat with a Co-founder — High-level, culture and background.
Stage 5 — On-site Technical Interview — Approximately 1.5 hours.
Stage 6 — In-person Product Demo.Stage 7 — Final On-site — Co-founder (behavioral / culture fit) plus another engineer (technical-leaning discussion), back to back, on-site.
Stage 8 — Offer Extended.Stage 9 — Candidate Hired — Candidate accepts and starts.
Ideal Companies & Backgrounds
Not provided on the role page.
Ideal Candidate Profiles
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Rejected Candidate Feedback
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