Camera Architect

About the Role

As a Camera Architect, you will define and own the end-to-end imaging architecture of camera subsystems — single-camera or multi-camera — for Meta's AR and VR product lines, serving photography, computer vision, and contextual-AI feature pipelines. Working alongside dedicated sensor, lens, and module design teams, you will drive foundational hardware trade-off decisions about how these elements integrate into a coherent imaging solution. You will maintain a strong line-of-sight to the end-to-end imaging and AI-feature pipelines to ensure architecture decisions directly enable day-0 commitments for both capture quality and on-device intelligence.

Responsibilities

• Define and defend the camera subsystem architecture — whether a single camera or a multi-camera system — driving how sensors, lenses, actuators, and modules integrate into a coherent imaging solution. This includes focus strategy (fixed-focus vs. AF), image stabilization approach (OIS, EIS-friendly design, hybrid), camera placement geometry, and calibration methodology. The architecture must serve photography use cases, computer vision workloads, and contextual-AI features.
• Distill a broad, often competing set of requirements — from product, system, software, and feature teams — into the smallest option space the team can realistically execute, finding the minimal camera system that satisfies the feature set while resisting unnecessary hardware complexity.
• Drive sensor-level and imaging-performance trade studies (resolution, pixel size, sensitivity/SNR, dynamic range, frame rate, power, size, cost, fixed-focus depth-of-field vs. AF complexity, rolling vs. global shutter).
• Define the metrics and figures of merit that connect product features and user experiences to underlying camera hardware performance. Establish quantitative linkage between feature KPIs (e.g., photo quality, video stabilization, ML model accuracy, tracking robustness, passthrough latency) and camera hardware specs (MTF, SNR, dynamic range, frame sync, motion blur, FoV), and build the data-driven case for recommended camera selections and generational improvements.
• Translate product features across workload classes into component- and module-level hardware specifications — optical performance, module thermal envelope, power budget, data rates, interfaces, multi-camera synchronization/timestamping, and calibration tolerances that support factory-scale manufacturing.
• Partner with silicon architecture teams on ISP and sensor-companion-chip requirements, influencing hardware/firmware partitioning decisions that affect camera subsystem performance, power, and feature enablement (3A, actuator control, frame timing, AI pre-processing).
• Communicate technical details, risks, and pathways to success across the product stack and with cross-functional teams.
• Travel domestically and internationally up to 10%.

Requirements

• 8+ years in camera/imaging system architecture or design, with direct ownership of hardware specification, trade-off analysis, and architecture decisions at the camera-system level.
• Experience architecting complete imaging systems from first-principles physics, optics, and sensor science — making defensible trade-offs and reasoning to the theoretical upper bound of what is achievable, even without deep specialization in any one component technology.
• Experience building the quantitative, data-driven case for camera architecture decisions — defining metrics and figures of merit that link camera hardware performance to feature quality across photography, computer vision, and AI/ML.

Preferred Qualifications

• Working understanding of signal processing and computational photography principles — enough to identify where hardware innovation hits diminishing returns and software/algorithm optimization is more cost-effective.
• Experience modeling camera image quality end-to-end from hardware modules through ISP and software pipelines to analyze key performance indicators and inform architectural decisions based on trade-offs.
• Experience co-defining camera hardware requirements with ISP, ML/AI, and computer vision teams.
• Experience working with product managers and industrial design teams in translating product vision into requirements through multiple product cycles.
• Track record of proactively shaping product roadmaps through technical foresight and analysis into actionable recommendations for leadership.
• Experience influencing key partners, internal and external, on roadmap and technology development.

Pay

$173,000/year to $245,000/year + bonus + equity + benefits. Individual compensation is determined by skills, qualifications, experience, and location.