Category Engineering Leader - Audio Technology Licensing (Finance)

You know the moment. It's the first notes of that song you love, the intro to your favorite movie, or simply the sound of someone you love saying "hello." It's in these moments that sound matters most.

At Bose, we believe sound is the most powerful force on earth. We've dedicated ourselves to improving it for nearly 60 years. And we're passionate down to our bones about making whatever you're listening to a little more magical.

The Engineering team at Bose is a thriving, passionate, deeply skilled team of professionals from a broad range of disciplines and experiences, who share a common goal-to create products that provide transformative sound experiences.

Job Description

About the Role

We are seeking a senior technical leader with a strong background in embedded software and audio systems to accelerate innovation and productization in our Audio Technology Licensing business. This role blends deep hands-on engineering expertise with strategic foresight, enabling the delivery of advanced audio technologies to a broad ecosystem of global partners.

As a senior member of our engineering leadership team, you will operate at the intersection of Research, Engineering, Product Management, Business Development, and Platform Strategy. You will drive the successful transition of cutting-edge research into production-quality software and assess external technology opportunities for integration. Additionally, you will serve as a key technical liaison to our corporate-centralized technology platform team-helping ensure our audio solutions align with the system-level compute architectures and roadmaps used across the broader consumer product portfolio.

Ideal candidates will bring a solid track record of technical leadership in the development of embedded audio solutions for wearables or Wi-Fi connected audio products (e.g., soundbars, smart speakers), as well as experience working within matrixed organizations and cross-functional collaborations.

Key Responsibilities

• Accelerate the adoption of research-stage audio algorithms into commercially viable software deliverables, ready for integration into partner products.
• Act as the primary technical point of contact between the business unit and the corporate technology platform team, ensuring alignment with broader compute architecture strategies and hardware roadmaps.
• Evaluate and integrate external technologies-including third-party IP, open-source components, and partner contributions-that enhance our product offering.
• Guide the design and evolution of scalable software architectures for audio playback, ANC, and wireless audio pipelines on embedded platforms.
• Lead technical due diligence for potential technology partners and licensing engagements.
• Work closely with Product Management and Business Development to identify market pain points, emerging trends, and customer needs that inform technology strategy.
• Support internal teams with architectural oversight, technical mentorship, and cross-functional coordination.
• Represent engineering in strategic partner discussions and internal roadmap planning efforts.

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years of software engineering experience, including architect-level leadership on embedded or real-time systems.
• Proven expertise in developing and shipping embedded audio systems in consumer electronics, such as wearables, earbuds, or Wi-Fi connected speakers.
• Deep understanding of audio playback pipelines, active noise cancellation (ANC), wireless audio streaming, and DSP-based audio processing.
• Familiarity with embedded Linux, RTOS platforms, audio middleware (e.g., ALSA, PipeWire), and wireless protocols (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Chromecast, AirPlay).
• Experience working with centralized platform or architecture teams in a multi-business-unit corporate structure.
• Strong system thinking skills and the ability to drive alignment across organizational boundaries.
• Excellent technical communication skills, with a track record of influencing decisions across product, engineering, and business teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in technology licensing or IP-focused business models.
• Exposure to SDK development and delivery workflows for partner enablement.
• Experience coordinating hardware-software co-design for compute-constrained platforms.
• Graduate degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.

Why Join Us

This is a rare opportunity to shape the trajectory of advanced audio technology as it moves from research into real-world deployment across diverse products and global markets. You will operate as a senior technical leader in a nimble, entrepreneurial environment-while also helping connect our innovations to a broader technology platform strategy that supports consumer products at scale.

Bose is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristics. The EEOC's "Know Your Rights: Workplace discrimination is illegal" Poster is available here: https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/22-088_EEOC_KnowYourRights6.12ScreenRdr.pdf. Bose is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you require reasonable accommodation in completing this application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please direct your inquiries to applicant_disability_accommodationrequest@bose.com. Please include \"Application Accommodation Request\" in the subject of the email.

Our goal is to create an atmosphere where every candidate feels supported and empowered in the interviewing process. Diversity and inclusion are integral to our success, and we believe that providing reasonable accommodation is not only a legal obligation but also a fundamental aspect of our commitment to being an employer of choice. We recognize that individuals may have different needs and requirements based on their abilities, and we provide reasonable accommodations to ensure ideal conditions are met during the application process.