Software teams building access control and hardware automation run into a common roadblock: IoT devices lack unified interfaces. Seam builds a platform and unified API to connect, control, and orchestrate hardware devices from multiple manufacturers. Backed by Root Ventures, Y Combinator, and Tiger Global, the 25-person startup is hiring across engineering, solutions, developer enablement, and product design at its headquarters in San Francisco.
Abstracting Hardware for Software Engineers
Founded in 2020 by Sy Bohy and Dawn Ho, Seam focuses primarily on door lock and access systems, abstracting protocols like Zigbee, Z-Wave, and proprietary manufacturer clouds into a standardized interface. Its customer base includes companies in hospitality, real estate, networking equipment, and last-mile delivery that need code to manipulate the physical environment.
In an interview on Branch, CEO Sy Bohy described the company as an infrastructure layer analogous to Stripe for payments or Twilio for telecommunications. Bohy noted that billions of connected devices ship annually, but integrating them remains fragmented. Rather than relying on non-technical interfaces, Seam targets developers and technical operators. Bohy observed that the growth of AI coding tools has rapidly expanded its user base, stating that the company saw a 5x to 10x surge in weekly API key generation as developers and prosumers build custom software to manage rental properties, buildings, and workflows.
To bridge this fragmentation, Seam builds a device-agnostic layer. The company is currently hiring a Senior Software Engineer (Onsite - SF) to develop client libraries, create standardized device APIs, and maintain the backend integration layer that links diverse IoT hardware brands.
Embedded Linux and Edge Gateways
Underneath its cloud interface, Seam operates deep technical infrastructure. As Bohy detailed in an interview on Founders and Builders, connecting local protocols such as Zigbee and Z-Wave to the cloud requires an edge bridge. Seam engineered its own Linux distribution called Battha, running a containerized architecture on custom hardware and white-labeled gateways.
This setup allows Seam to run Docker containers directly on edge gateways, processing logic locally and decoupling mission-critical operations from constant cloud connectivity. The team developed kernel-level differential update mechanisms to push code updates over cellular connections without sending gigabytes of OS image files over constrained bandwidth.
To strengthen its core platform reliability, Seam is hiring a Senior Platform Engineer (Onsite - SF). The role focuses on developing TypeScript tooling, optimizing PostgreSQL database queries, and hardening testing infrastructure to handle enterprise scaling requirements.
Founders and Operating Team
Seam's founding team spent years working on consumer hardware and connected real-estate systems:
- Sy Bohy worked at Nest in 2012 following his studies at Stanford, shipping early smart thermostats alongside the team that originally developed the iPod and iPhone. He later co-founded automotive marketplace Instamotor before founding Seam.
- Dawn Ho, who holds a degree from Stanford, previously led IoT integration at Sonder. In that role, Ho managed the deployment and integration of tens of thousands of connected door locks across international properties, confronting the absence of developer-ready hardware APIs firsthand.
The broader engineering team includes alumni from Apple, Latch, Berkeley, and GitHub Enterprise. Advising the company is hardware engineer and open-source advocate Bunnie Huang.
Technical Stack
Seam's software stack relies heavily on TypeScript across its developer tooling and frontend applications:
- Languages & Frameworks: TypeScript, React, Next.js, with Python and Ruby services.
- Data Layer: PostgreSQL.
- Hosting & Infrastructure: Deployed on Vercel with background workers running on Fly.io.
- Edge Systems: Custom Yocto Linux distributions and Docker runtimes deployed onto physical edge gateways.
Open Roles at Seam
All current open positions are based onsite at Seam's San Francisco office. The engineering team is seeking a Senior Product Engineer (Onsite - SF) to abstract manufacturer device APIs into clean interfaces, ship customer-facing features, and support early-stage connectors.
On the product and design front, Seam is recruiting a Senior Product Designer (Onsite - SF) to establish the company's design system and design dashboards, hosted UIs, and SDK experiences. To support developer adoption, the team is hiring a Developer Relations Lead - Content & Enablement to produce technical documentation, sample applications, and integration guides.
For enterprise customer rollouts, Seam is bringing on a Solutions Engineer to serve as the lead technical contact across sales, onboarding, and implementation, as well as a Partner Growth/Enablement Manager to manage renewals, build customer success playbooks, and accelerate platform adoption.
| Role | Location | Work Mode | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior Platform Engineer (Onsite - SF) | San Francisco, CA | Onsite | $170,000 – $220,000 |
| Senior Software Engineer (Onsite - SF) | San Francisco | Onsite | $130,000 – $200,000 |
| Senior Product Engineer (Onsite - SF) | San Francisco, CA | Onsite | $160,000 – $230,000 |
| Solutions Engineer | San Francisco | Onsite | $150,000 – $190,000 |
| Senior Product Designer (Onsite - SF) | San Francisco, CA | Onsite | $120,000 – $210,000 |
| Partner Growth/Enablement Manager | San Francisco | Onsite | $140,000 – $190,000 |
| Developer Relations Lead - Content & Enablement | San Francisco, CA | Onsite | $130,000 – $180,000 |
