Embedded UI/Graphics Engineer

About the role

We are creating DevPet: a small animated desktop companion for developers, somewhere between a Tamagotchi, a build monitor, and a tiny character living on your desk.

It knows when your build is broken. It notices when you have not committed in three days and celebrates when you merge and ship. DevPet will have multiple emotional states—happy, hungry, angry, sleeping, celebrating—with real animated transitions. The screen will combine the character with build status, commits, streaks, icons, and notifications.

Displaying a bitmap is easy. The real work is designing a tiny UI system that feels alive while running with limited RAM, storage, power, and refresh speed.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement the embedded UI architecture
• Build character states, animations, and transitions
• Create layouts combining sprites, text, icons, and status indicators
• Define the sprite, bitmap, font, and asset pipeline
• Optimize rendering using dirty rectangles, partial redraws, or partial refresh
• Connect the UI to signals such as Git activity, builds, and merge events
• Help choose the right display and hardware trade-offs
• Push back when an idea does not fit the hardware

You will work directly with the founders and help shape the interaction model, visual language, and technical architecture. You won't just implement a finished spec.

Requirements

• Experience with LVGL, U8g2, TFT_eSPI, Adafruit GFX, or similar
• Built custom UI or animation for an OLED, TFT, e-paper, or another small display
• Understanding of sprite and bitmap workflows, font rendering, frame buffers, and memory-constrained rendering
• Care about how an interface feels, not only whether it renders
• Ability to work independently and communicate in English

Side projects count. We care more about what you built than where you worked.

Nice to have

• Experience across multiple display technologies
• Knowledge of e-paper ghosting, partial refresh, or low-power rendering
• Experience with wearables, toys, instruments, desk devices, or other characterful hardware
• Strong opinions about embedded UI and asset-management tools
• Participation in embedded communities, forums, meetups, or open-source projects

Benefits

• Build something technically challenging, visible to an existing community of embedded developers, and worth showing in your portfolio
• No corporate layers or endless approval cycles—work directly with the founders and shape what we ship

Pay

Remote and part-time ($80–140/hr) for a paid, fixed-scope prototype contract. We'll agree on scope, timeline, and compensation based on your approach. Potential for ongoing work.