New Employee Onboarding

Welcome to OpticWorks!

Congratulations on joining the team! OpticWorks is building the future of presence sensing with mmWave radar technology. We’re a small team working on hardware, firmware, open source, and e-commerce - and we’re excited to have you on board.

This guide will walk you through everything you need to get productive in your first few weeks.

Your First Day

1. Account Setup

You should have received invites to:

Service	Check Your Email For	Action
Google Workspace	Welcome email	Set up @optic.works email
Slack	Workspace invite	Join and introduce yourself in #general
GitHub	Organization invite	Accept and enable 2FA
Infisical	Account invite	Create account, enable 2FA
1Password	Vault invite	Create account, enable 2FA

Enable 2FA Everywhere

Two-factor authentication is required for all OpticWorks accounts. We recommend using 1Password’s built-in authenticator.

2. Essential Slack Channels

Join these channels on your first day:

Channel	Purpose
#general	Company-wide announcements
#engineering	Technical discussions
#random	Non-work chat and fun
#standup	Daily async standups
Your team channel	Team-specific discussions

3. Meet Your Manager

Your manager will schedule a 1:1 to:

• Welcome you and answer questions
• Set initial goals and expectations
• Assign your onboarding buddy
• Plan your first week’s meetings

First Week Checklist

Day 1-2: Setup

• Complete all account setups (above)
• Read this entire onboarding guide
• Review Company Culture
• Set up your development environment
• Clone the repositories for your team

Day 3-4: Learn

• Read documentation for your team’s projects
• Shadow team members in meetings
• Review recent PRs and issues
• Set up Infisical CLI for secret access

Day 5: Contribute

• Pick up a “good first issue” from your team’s backlog
• Submit your first PR (documentation update is fine!)
• Schedule 1:1s with key teammates

Understanding OpticWorks

What We Do

OpticWorks develops mmWave radar-based presence sensing technology:

1. RS-1 Hardware Device - Our flagship sensor fusion device combining radar and vision
2. Open Source Presence Engine - ESP32-based presence detection for Home Assistant
3. OpticWorks Store - E-commerce at optic.works selling our sensors

Our Tech Stack

Layer	Technologies
Hardware	RV1106 SoC, ESP32, mmWave radar (LD2410/LD2450)
Firmware	C, Go, ESPHome, RTOS
Backend	Node.js, Medusa, PostgreSQL, Redis
Frontend	Next.js 15, React, TypeScript, Tailwind
Infrastructure	Hetzner, Cloudflare Workers/R2, GitHub Actions
Secrets	Infisical

Team Structure

Team	Focus Areas	Slack Channel
Hardware	RS-1, firmware, sensor fusion	#hardware-engineering
Web	Store, customer experience	#web-engineering
Open Source	Presence Engine, community	#open-source
Platform	Infrastructure, CI/CD, DevOps	#platform

Key Resources

Documentation

Resource	What You’ll Find
Projects Overview	All engineering projects
Infrastructure	Hetzner, Cloudflare, architecture
Infisical Guide	Secret management
Development Hardware	N100 nodes, RS-1 kits, ESP32
Code Standards	Coding conventions
Git Workflow	Branching and PR process

Tools You’ll Use Daily

Tool	Purpose	Setup
Slack	Communication	slack.com/downloads
VS Code	Code editor	code.visualstudio.com
GitHub	Code & issues	github.com/r-mccarty
Infisical	Secrets	brew install infisical
Docker	Local services	docker.com

External Services

Service	Purpose	Access
Stripe	Payments	Request from Finance
EasyPost	Shipping	Request from Web team
Hetzner	Servers	Request from Platform team
Cloudflare	CDN/Edge	Request from Platform team

Team-Specific Onboarding

Hardware Team

After completing general onboarding:

1. Request RS-1 dev kit from hardware lab
2. Read hardwareOS documentation
3. Set up cross-compiler toolchain
4. Run your first firmware build
5. Shadow a firmware debugging session

First project ideas:

• Add a small feature to the fusion algorithm
• Improve documentation for a component
• Write unit tests for existing code

Web Team

After completing general onboarding:

1. Read OpticWorks Store documentation
2. Set up local Medusa backend
3. Run the storefront locally
4. Create a Stripe test account
5. Process a test order end-to-end

First project ideas:

• Fix a UI bug on the storefront
• Improve checkout validation
• Add a new admin dashboard feature

Open Source Team

After completing general onboarding:

1. Build an ESP32 + LD2410 test device
2. Read Presence Engine documentation
3. Set up Home Assistant test instance
4. Flash and test the presence sensor
5. Review community issues and PRs

First project ideas:

• Respond to community questions
• Fix a reported bug
• Improve calibration documentation

Platform Team

After completing general onboarding:

1. Get SSH access to staging servers
2. Read Infrastructure documentation
3. Review GitHub Actions workflows
4. Set up Grafana access
5. Shadow an on-call shift

First project ideas:

• Improve a deployment script
• Add monitoring for a new metric
• Document a runbook

Development Environment

Quick Setup

# 1. Install Homebrew (macOS) or apt packages (Linux)
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

# 2. Install core tools
brew install git node docker infisical/get-cli/infisical

# 3. Configure git
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@optic.works"

# 4. Clone repositories
mkdir -p ~/workspace/opticworks && cd ~/workspace/opticworks
git clone git@github.com:r-mccarty/opticworks-store.git
git clone git@github.com:r-mccarty/hardwareOS.git
git clone git@github.com:r-mccarty/presence-dectection-engine.git

# 5. Login to Infisical
infisical login

For detailed setup: Development Setup Guide

Your First 30 Days

Week 1: Orientation

• Complete account and environment setup
• Read all documentation for your team’s projects
• Attend team meetings and standup
• Meet with manager and teammates
• Submit first PR (even if small)

Week 2: Integration

• Take on your first “good first issue”
• Participate in code reviews
• Ask questions in Slack (no question is too basic!)
• Start building context on codebase

Week 3: Contribution

• Work on larger tasks
• Pair program with teammates
• Contribute to documentation
• Share feedback on onboarding experience

Week 4: Ownership

• Complete first significant feature/fix
• Present work in team demo
• Have 30-day check-in with manager
• Set goals for next quarter

Getting Help

Who to Ask

Question Type	Who to Ask
HR/Benefits	hr@optic.works
IT/Access issues	#it-support or IT ticket
Code questions	Your team channel or buddy
Architecture decisions	Team lead
Product questions	Product team

Support Resources

• IT Tickets: Submit an IT ticket
• Slack: Ask in relevant channel
• 1:1s: Schedule time with teammates
• Pair Programming: Request via Slack

Feedback

Your fresh perspective is valuable! Let us know:

• What’s confusing in the documentation?
• What tools could work better?
• What would have helped during onboarding?

Share feedback in #general or directly with your manager.

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Welcome to the team! We’re glad you’re here. 🎉