Assistant Audio Engineer Jobs in Houston, TX (NOW HIRING)

Description -

The Audio Technical Program Manager and Strategist will own the strategy for HP's audio and voice experiences across future PC platforms, including playback quality, microphone performance, conferencing audio, speech clarity, voice interaction, Voice AI readiness, and intelligent collaboration experiences.

This role will connect customer experience expectations, Marketing direction, competitive insights, technical feasibility, supplier roadmaps, and platform requirements into clear roadmap decisions and an executable strategy. The successful candidate will bring technical depth, program discipline, and strong stakeholder leadership to help HP define and deliver best-in-class audio and voice experiences across future AI PCs.

This role will also ensure HP's audio and voice roadmap supports emerging AI-enabled user experiences, including natural voice interaction, contextual awareness, collaboration intelligence, and future Agentic AI use cases.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive HP's audio & voice strategy and roadmap across Commercial, Consumer, Gaming, and Workstation PC portfolios.

• Own the audio and voice technology roadmap, including playback, microphone capture, conferencing audio, speech clarity, voice interaction, Voice AI readiness, and future AI-enabled collaboration experiences.

• Translate customer experience needs, Marketing expectations, competitive insights, and platform requirements into clear audio & voice experience targets and technical requirements.

• Partner with Marketing, Product Planning, Platform Architecture, Audio Engineering, Poly, ODMs, IHVs, silicon vendors, software teams, validation teams, and program teams to align audio & voice strategy.

• Lead audio & voice proof-of-concept planning with audio architects, including scope definition, success criteria, demo readiness, stakeholder alignment, risk management, and transition path to NPI.

• Drive Voice AI and voice interaction strategy, including voice input experiences, speech command experiences, AI assistant interaction models, wake-word or activation concepts, intelligent collaboration use cases, and system-level voice experience requirements.

• Drive Better Together audio innovation between HP PCs and Poly solutions, including collaboration experiences, conferencing quality, headset and PC integration, device-to-device continuity, and differentiated user experiences.

• Partner with Voice AI, Vision AI, Sensor, and Agentic AI stakeholders to ensure audio & voice strategy supports future AI-enabled experiences, including voice interaction, contextual awareness, intelligent collaboration, and cross-device orchestration.

• Establish and manage a disciplined audio demo governance process with Marketing, including demo objectives, competitive reference units, decision logs, action items, ownership, and closure criteria. Maintain an audio demo tracker to capture requested demos, demo status, Marketing feedback, key decisions, open issues, and follow-up actions.

• Coordinate competitive audio & voice benchmarking across key competitor systems to ensure HP audio and voice performance is evaluated against market expectations and customer-perceived quality.

• Drive early alignment with Marketing and Product Planning before major audio & voice demos to clarify expectations, trade-offs, decision criteria, and success metrics.

• Lead both audio and voice core-team discussions and ensure open issues, roadmap gaps, technology trade-offs, supplier dependencies, and platform risks are clearly tracked and communicated.

• Support evaluation of audio subsystem trade-offs, including codec, amplifier, speaker, microphone, DSP, OS and driver dependencies, silicon integration, cost, power, mechanical constraints, industrial design impact, and platform scalability.

• Collaborate with Procurement and suppliers to evaluate technology readiness, vendor roadmap alignment, cost opportunities, technical risks, and long-term supplier strategy.

• Use data, competitive evidence, customer experience feedback, and technical feasibility analysis to influence roadmap decisions and resolve stakeholder conflicts.

• Support ACCS three-year strategy and roadmap planning by connecting audio & voice technology direction with broader Camera, Comms, Sensor, Voice AI, Vision AI, and Poly Better Together strategies.

Education & Experience Recommended

• Four-year or graduate degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Audio Engineering, Acoustics, Computer Science, or equivalent technical discipline.

• Typically has 7+ years of technical program management, product development, platform architecture, audio engineering, or related experience.

• Experience leading cross-functional programs involving hardware, firmware, software, platform architecture, validation, suppliers, and product or marketing stakeholders.

• Experience managing roadmap planning, technical risks, issue tracking, schedules, dependencies, executive communication, and cross-functional decision-making.

• Experience with PC audio, conferencing audio, collaboration devices, embedded audio systems, consumer electronics, or related technology areas is preferred.

Preferred Certifications
NA
Knowledge & Skills

• Strong understanding of PC audio architecture, including speakers, microphones, amplifiers, codecs, DSP, audio drivers, OS audio stack, tuning, validation, and system-level integration.

• Strong understanding of audio experience requirements across collaboration, conferencing, media playback, gaming, hybrid work, and enterprise PC usage models.

• Ability to translate business, customer, or Marketing needs into technical requirements, execution plans, measurable success criteria, and roadmap priorities.

• Experience with subjective and objective audio quality evaluation, including playback quality, microphone capture, speech clarity, noise suppression, echo cancellation, beamforming, and user-perceived quality.

• Experience with competitive benchmarking, demo planning, demo tracking, decision documentation, and stakeholder alignment.

• Strong technical judgment in balancing experience quality, technical feasibility, cost, schedule, platform constraints, supplier readiness, and portfolio scalability.

• Strong program management skills, including roadmap management, issue tracking, risk management, dependency management, escalation, and executive communication.

• Ability to structure ambiguous problems, define decision criteria, manage trade-offs, and drive decisions using data and clear rationale.

• Knowledge of Windows audio architecture, driver integration, firmware dependencies, silicon integration, and platform-level validation is preferred.

• Knowledge of Poly collaboration solutions, headset ecosystems, conferencing use cases, or Better Together device integration is preferred.

Cross-Org Skills

• Strong communication and influencing skills across Marketing, Product Planning, Engineering, Architecture, Procurement, suppliers, and executive stakeholders.

• Ability to drive alignment across multiple organizations with different priorities, constraints, and decision timelines.

• Ability to lead technical and business discussions with clear framing, structured options, trade-off analysis, and recommended path forward.

• Ability to create clarity in ambiguous situations and help teams move from repeated review cycles to documented decisions and execution.

• Ability to build trusted working relationships with Marketing and Engineering by connecting customer experience expectations with technical feasibility and measurable outcomes.

Impact & Scope

• Drives HP's audio & voice strategy and roadmap across multiple PC portfolios and influences future platform architecture, supplier strategy, customer experience differentiation, and ACCS roadmap planning.

• Improves audio decision efficiency by creating stronger Marketing alignment, clearer demo objectives, better competitive benchmarking, and disciplined decision closure.

• Accelerates Better Together audio & voice innovation between HP PCs and Poly solutions and helps translate emerging audio opportunities into product-ready experiences.

Complexity

• Works across multiple product segments, technology domains, platform schedules, supplier ecosystems, and stakeholder organizations to resolve complex trade-offs involving audio quality, voice quality, user experience, cost, power, mechanical design, software readiness, silicon dependencies, validation, and roadmap timing.

• Requires strong technical depth, business judgment, stakeholder influence, and program discipline to drive audio & voice strategy from early concept through roadmap alignment and demo validation to successful hand-off to NPI execution and portfolio adoption.

Disclaimer
This job description describes the general nature and level of work performed in this role. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, skills, responsibilities, knowledge, etc. These may be subject to change and additional functions may be assigned as needed by management.

Compensation and Benefits

The pay range for this role is$121,950.00 - 179,900.00 lUSD annually with additional opportunities for pay in the form of bonus and/or equity (applies to United States of America candidates only). Pay varies by work location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Benefits:

HP offers a comprehensive benefits package for this position, including:

• Health insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Long term/short term disability insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible spending account
• Life insurance
• Generous time off policies, including;
• 4-12 weeks fully paid parental leave based on tenure
• 11 paid holidays
• Additional flexible paid vacation and sick leave (US benefits overview)

The compensation and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. The Company reserves the right to modify this information at any time, with or without notice, subject to applicable law.

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Equal Opportunity Employer (EEO) -

HP, Inc. provides equal employment opportunity to all employees and prospective employees, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, sexual orientation, age, disability, or status as a protected veteran, marital status, familial status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic predisposition or carrier status, uniformed service status, political affiliation or any other characteristic protected by applicable national, federal, state, and local law(s).

Please be assured that you will not be subject to any adverse treatment if you choose to disclose the information requested. This information is provided voluntarily. The information obtained will be kept in strict confidence.

For more information, review HP'sEEO Policy or read about your rights as an applicant under the law here: "Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal"