Head of IoT
Palo Alto, CA / New York, NY
Technology – Flow Engineering /
Salaried, full-time /
Hybrid
About the Company
At Flow, we're on a mission to enhance living experiences across communities by leveraging the power of technology. Our focus is on developing, owning, and managing multifamily apartment buildings, where we implement cutting-edge solutions to provide superior living conditions and foster vibrant communities. Our success is built on a foundation of innovation, high standards, and a team-driven approach, where integrity, loyalty, and trust are paramount.
Joining Flow means becoming part of an extraordinary team that values collective achievements over individual accolades. Our team members are passionate about making a meaningful impact, embrace creativity and ambition, and are committed to excellence, urgency, and accountability in all they do.
About the Role
We're launching an entirely new division that will define the future of smart buildings and edge computing in residential, hospitality, retail, and commercial spaces. As our founding Head of IoT of Smart Building Technology & Edge AI, you'll architect and lead a groundbreaking initiative that combines IoT devices, artificial intelligence, distributed computing, and privacy-first design to create intelligent environments that anticipate and respond to human needs. This isn't just another IoT role—it's an opportunity to build the nervous system of next-generation buildings while solving complex challenges around privacy, scalability, and human-centric automation. You'll be creating technology that makes buildings not just smart, but genuinely helpful and respectful of the people who inhabit them.
Responsibilities
- Edge-First Architecture: Design and implement a distributed network of local Single Board Computer (SBC) controllers that proxy Thread/Matter, Zigbee, WiFi, and proprietary 1st and 3rd party IoT devices.
- Multi-Protocol Integration: Build bridges between diverse IoT ecosystems while maintaining local processing capabilities.
- Privacy-as-a-Human-Right AI: Develop machine learning systems that process data exclusively within each room, apartment, or space—ensuring personal data never leaves the individual's private domain and remains invisible to anyone other than its rightful owner, with zero cloud dependency.
- Privacy-Preserving Mesh Networks: Engineer custom mesh networking powered by local controllers that enable building-wide coordination while keeping personal data isolated within individual spaces.
- Scalable Intelligence: Architect systems that work equally well in a single apartment, a 500-unit building, or a multi-building complex.
- The Business Impact: Launch Flow into connected buildings across all lines of business and deliver amazing, market leading and disrupting, experiences to everyone in the Flow ecosystem.
- Strategic Leadership: Define the technical roadmap for Flow's smart building ecosystem across multiple vertical markets, Build and lead a world-class team of hardware engineers, IoT specialists, AI/ML engineers, and distributed systems architects.
- Cross-functional collaboration: Partnered across teams—including Property Management Systems, hospitality, legal and compliance, real estate operations, and external vendors—to ensure seamless integrations, deliver thoughtful and non-invasive user experiences, navigate global privacy regulations, and align with building system requirements.
Ideal Background
- Deep technical expertise: 15+ years in technology leadership roles, with 8+ years leading teams building IoT, distributed systems, or edge computing platforms.
- Deep technical expertise in at least 3 of: IoT protocols (Thread/Matter, Zigbee, LoRaWAN), edge AI/ML, distributed systems, embedded systems, mesh networking, or cybersecurity.
- Leadership experience building and scaling technical teams from 10-50+ engineers across multiple disciplines.
- Product mindset with experience translating complex technical capabilities into magical user experiences/
- IoT Ecosystem Mastery: Deep understanding of Thread/Matter, Zigbee, WiFi 6/7, and emerging IoT protocols.
- Edge AI/ML: Experience deploying machine learning models on resource-constrained hardware with privacy constraints.
- Low-Power & Open Source Architecture: Expertise in ultra-low-power device design and open source ecosystem development, with experience building sustainable, community-driven hardware and software platforms.
- Distributed Systems: Expertise in building resilient, scalable systems that handle real-time data processing.
- Security & Privacy: Understanding of security frameworks for IoT devices, mesh networks, and privacy-preserving computation.
- Hardware Integration: Experience working with SBCs and/or custom hardware and building system integrations.
- Strategic Thinking: Ability to see technical possibilities 3-5 years ahead while executing on immediate priorities.
- Team Building: Track record of attracting, developing, and retaining top technical talent in competitive markets.
- Communication: Exceptional ability to explain complex technical concepts to diverse stakeholders.
- Execution Focus: History of delivering complex projects on time and under budget while maintaining high quality standards.
Preferred Background
- Human- centric technologies: Experience in consumer electronics, user experience design, or human-centric technology products with focus on making complex systems feel intuitive and delightful.
- Privacy-preserving technologies: such as federated learning, differential privacy, or homomorphic encryption.
- Startup or scale-up experience in senior leadership roles.
- Domain expertise: Consumer IoT, ambient computing, or human-computer interaction with focus on creating invisible, anticipatory technology experiences.
- International expansion: experience, particularly in markets with strict privacy regulations.
What Success Looks like
- Step 1: Foundation & Proof of Concept
- Hire and onboard a core team of 8-12 technical leaders across hardware, IoT, AI, and distributed systems.
- Deploy pilot installations in 3-5 Flow properties with recognized industry leading experiences and privacy
- Establish partnerships with key IoT device manufacturers and building system providers.
- Achieve sub-100ms response times for critical building automation while maintaining 99.9% edge processing rates.
- Step 2: Scale & Market Expansion
- Scale the platform to 25+ buildings across all Flow verticals.
- Achieve broadly recognized world class privacy protection while delivering competitive intelligence capabilities.
- Build a sustainable technical organization capable of supporting exponential growth.
- Step 3: Market Leadership
- Process data from hundreds of thousands IoT devices across diverse business types entirely privately at the edge.
- Create new open standards for edge-first building intelligence.
$180 - $270 a year
Benefits
• Comprehensive Benefits Package (Medical / Dental / Vision / Disability / Life)
• Paid time off and 13 paid holidays
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Healthcare and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)
• Access to HSA-compatible plans
• Pre-tax commuter benefits
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP), free therapy through SpringHealth, acupuncture, and other wellness offerings
Flow is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and hires regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity and/or expression, pregnancy, Veteran status any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. In addition, we provide reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities.
