Smart Home Systems & Automation Engineer (Home Assistant & Matter)

Job Description

About the Company
Our client is a Dubai-based real estate and hospitality developer building technology-led, longevity-focused living environments. They treat intelligent infrastructure as a core part of the residential and commercial experience, not an add-on. Their teams combine design, engineering and data to create spaces that are responsive, secure and wellness-driven. They are now strengthening their in-house smart systems capability to deliver local-first, privacy-centric automation at scale.

Job Description: Smart Home Systems & Automation Engineer

Mandatory Keywords: Home Assistant, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter, Thread, Node-RED, ESPHome, Linux

Peripheral Keywords: Home Assistant OS, HACS, YAML, Jinja2, Blueprints, Zigbee2MQTT, ZHA, Z-Wave JS, Bluetooth Proxy, Docker, LXC, Debian, Ubuntu, Bash, Home Assistant Assist, Voice Assistant, Whisper, Piper, MQTT, WebSockets, USB Passthrough, SkyConnect, Sonoff, Presence Detection, Adaptive Lighting, Backup, Remote Access, Low-Voltage Wiring, Electrical, Structured Cabling, Proxmox VE, Homelab, Self-Hosting

Role Overview
We are seeking a highly skilled and meticulous Smart Home Systems & Automation Engineer to lead the deployment, configuration and structural orchestration of our advanced residential and commercial automation environments. In this role, you will bridge the gap between physical IoT hardware, localized Linux host servers and complex ambient environments. You will create robust, secure, low-latency and highly responsive smart spaces that elevate automated logic into true contextual intelligence.

If you are a passionate homelab enthusiast, a seasoned self-hoster and an expert in local-first hardware networks who prefers resilient, privacy-centric design over fragile cloud-dependent ecosystems, this role is tailored for you.

Technical Stack & Ecosystem

• Smart Home Hubs: Home Assistant Core/OS/Supervised (advanced architecture, custom integrations, Add-ons, HACS)
• Automation Engines: Node-RED (complex visual flows), Home Assistant native automations, YAML Blueprinting
• Hardware & Mesh Protocols: Zigbee (Zigbee2MQTT / ZHA), Matter over Thread, Z-Wave (Z-Wave JS), Bluetooth Proxies
• Infrastructure & OS: Linux (Debian/Ubuntu, CLI systems administration), Docker containers, LXC hardware passthrough
• Voice & Ambient Control: Home Assistant Voice Assist, ESPHome (custom microcontrollers, satellite voice nodes), Piper, WhisperKey Responsibilities

1. Home Assistant Deployment & Systems Administration

• Architect, deploy and provision production-grade Home Assistant servers across diverse host environments (bare-metal, Docker containers or Linux Containers).
• Manage system administration tasks, including secure remote access setup, automated local/cloud backup configurations, database optimization and underlying Linux kernel/OS updates.
• Supervise the installation, maintenance and secure configuration of critical Supervisor add-ons and Community Store (HACS) integrations.2. Network & Hardware Orchestration

• Design, build and optimize robust local IoT mesh networks using Zigbee, Matter over Thread and Z-Wave protocols across complex physical properties.
• Execute hardware passthrough configurations (e.g., passing USB coordinators such as Sonoff ZBDongle-E or SkyConnect safely from Linux hosts to specific containers/VMs).
• Flash, configure and maintain custom hardware peripherals using ESPHome for localized presence detection, environmental telemetry and smart sensor logic.3. Advanced Scene & Automation Engineering

• Build elegant, maintainable and deeply complex state machines and multi-condition automations using Node-RED and Home Assistant scripts.
• Program context-aware physical environments by engineering intricate room schemas, behavioral scenes, adaptive lighting profiles and climate routines.
• Develop local-first, privacy-focused voice control topologies using Home Assistant Assist, managing speech-to-text (Whisper) and text-to-speech (Piper) pipelines.4. Diagnostics & System Resilience

• Monitor network topologies, debug complex state discrepancies via WebSocket/MQTT traffic and trace log structures to resolve device dropouts or timing collisions.
• Ensure maximum system uptime by engineering strict fallback behaviors for when the main internet connection or individual mesh nodes experience hardware failure.
Required Experience & Skills

• Experience: 3+ years of professional or extensive homelab systems engineering experience, with a heavy focus on IoT networking, Linux administration or smart space deployments.
• Home Assistant Mastery: Deep conceptual knowledge of Home Assistant’s architecture, including entity management, state triggers, event tracking, template sensors (Jinja2) and config splits.
• Protocol Expertise: Practical, field-tested experience deploying, pairing, diagnosing and expanding Zigbee, Z-Wave and emerging Matter over Thread hardware ecosystems.
• Linux Competency: Strong command-line interface (CLI) navigation skills, shell scripting ability and familiarity with virtualization/containerization layers.
• Pragmatic Automation Mindset: Proven ability to construct dependable, deterministic automations that prioritize user safety, system privacy and execution speed.Preferred / Bonus Qualifications

• Active contributor to the Home Assistant community, ESPHome development or open-source local IoT projects.
• Background in electrical troubleshooting, low-voltage wiring or structured physical network installations.
• Real-world experience managing multi-node Proxmox VE hypervisors or custom-built physical GPU/TPU server nodes.Why Join Us?

• Autonomy & Impact: Complete technical ownership over the hardware selection, layout and implementation paths of our smart spaces.
• Privacy-First Mandate: A strict architectural commitment to local processing, keeping data storage and machine logic safe from third-party cloud vulnerabilities.
• Cutting-Edge Environments: Continuous opportunities to deploy and evaluate the newest protocol layers (such as Matter/Thread) in practical, high-stakes environments.
Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive Tax-Free Salary: A market-leading monthly package in AED, commensurate with experience.
• Performance Incentives: Rewards linked to quality and delivery outcomes, subject to Company Internal Policy.
• Visa & Medical Insurance: Full UAE visa sponsorship and comprehensive health cover.
• Paid Leave: As per Company Internal Policy and UAE Labour Law.
• Annual Flight Ticket & End-of-Service Gratuity: As per UAE market practice and labour law.
• Autonomy & Impact: Own the smart systems function from the ground up and shape how local-first intelligence is deployed in the physical world.