Head of Hardware

About the role

CYVL is a Physical AI company on a mission to bring Infrastructure Intelligence to every city, town, and community on the planet. We help governments plan, build, and maintain the physical infrastructure that people depend on every day, roads, sidewalks, bridges, utilities, and more, better than ever before. We pioneered an end-to-end approach that combines purpose-built hardware, computer vision, cloud data pipelines, and AI to transform raw LiDAR and imagery into a living, structured understanding of the built world. Our platform turns what used to take months of manual inspection into actionable intelligence that's easy for any agency to use, saving cities time, money, and resources across hundreds of communities nationwide. At CYVL, we're building toward a future where every piece of public infrastructure on Earth is captured, understood, and continuously monitored, so the agencies responsible for it and the residents who rely on it can make better decisions, faster. That's the power of Physical AI applied to the real world. We're a fast-moving, high-growth team based in Boston, MA that believes in solving real-world problems with authenticity, simplicity, and boldness. Every member of our team is empowered to take ownership, deliver results, and leave a lasting impact on the communities we serve. About You Cyvl is scaling its capture hardware from a hand-built sensor to a contract-manufactured platform, and the Head of Hardware owns that transition end to end. You will define and drive the hardware strategy for V5 and the generations that follow, take our next-generation sensor from prototype through its first contract-manufactured production run, and build the lean team that delivers it. You will own vendor selection, the bill of materials, supply chain, and the contract manufacturing relationship, while holding the line on cost, quality, security, and reliability for national deployment across government fleets. This is the role that turns Cyvl's hardware bet into the durable foundation for our national infrastructure data layer.

Responsibilities

• Own Cyvl's hardware strategy and roadmap: platform architecture, sensor integration, modular design, the build-vs-buy posture, and the generational roadmap beyond V5.
• Lead vendor selection and BOM component procurement, and own all vendor relationships and supply chain timelines through to production.
• Stand up and manage the contract manufacturing relationship, engaging the CM partner early and locking the first production run.
• Build and lead a best-in-class lean hardware team, delivering rock-solid firmware and an unparalleled hardware UX.
• Drive the scaled BOM cost down to at-scale targets while protecting quality, security, and reliability for national government deployment.

Requirements

• Required:
• 10+ years of hardware engineering experience, including time leading hardware teams or programs.
• Has personally shipped at least one hardware product at scale, from design through high-volume production and into the field.
• Proven track record taking hardware or sensor products from prototype to scaled, contract-manufactured production.
• Deep experience owning vendor selection, BOM management, supply chain, and contract manufacturing relationships.
• Experience leading and growing cross-functional hardware teams across embedded, firmware, electrical, and mechanical disciplines.
• Strong systems judgment on build-vs-buy and COTS strategy, with a bias toward riding the cost curve rather than moving to custom builds before volume justifies it.
• Hands-on familiarity with sensor stacks (LiDAR, cameras, GNSS/IMU) and edge compute platforms such as NVIDIA Jetson/Orin.
• Bachelor's or higher in electrical, mechanical, computer, or systems engineering, or equivalent hands-on experience.
• Experience deploying hardware into government, defense-adjacent, or otherwise regulated and security-sensitive environments.
• Background in physical AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles, or mobile mapping.
• Familiarity with edge anonymization, data pipelines, and how capture hardware feeds a downstream data platform.

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