Software Engineer - Systems, Foundations
San Carlos, CA (on-site)
The Role
NEO is a humanoid robot that walks into homes, learns from video, and works alongside people. We need engineers who can make its brain and nervous system faster, more reliable, and more capable.
You'll own the core C++ infrastructure that everything else runs on: sensor pipelines, motor control loops, inter-process communication, and the foundational libraries that ship on every robot. Your code executes thousands of times per second on hardware moving through the real world.
In This Role You Will:
Design and implement low-latency, high-throughput systems in modern C++ that run reliably on resource-constrained hardware
Own critical real-time infrastructure: sensor fusion pipelines, motor control interfaces, deterministic scheduling, and the foundational libraries shipping on every robot
Build the IPC and serialization layers connecting perception, planning, and actuation—lock-free queues, memory pools, shared-memory buffers, and high-rate logging that keeps data flowing without surprises
Establish performance as source of truth through microbenchmarks, flamegraphs, perf counters, regression tracking, and tooling that catches drift under load
Debug difficult issues across layers: toolchain/ABI problems, linking issues, kernel interfaces, cross-compilation, on-target performance
Make the system reliably boring: deterministic behavior where needed, clean failure modes, sharp interfaces other teams can build on
Ship code that runs on thousands of robots in homes and warehouses, not just prototypes in the lab
You Might Thrive In This Role If You:
Have 5+ years shipping production C++ in performance-critical systems (robotics, autonomous vehicles, HFT, game engines, OS/runtime, compilers, HPC)
Think in cycles, cache lines, and budgets—latency, memory, bandwidth, startup time—and design systems that stay within them under load
Be at home in a Unix/Linux environment, e.g. shells, GNU tools, Unix philosophy
Have shipped real-time systems where failure has physical consequences
Debug at the systems level with benchmarking, profiling, tracing, inspecting assembly code, and heavy use of linux kernel interfaces
Write code other engineers want to build on: clear interfaces, minimal dependencies, obvious correctness
Benefits & Compensation
Salary Range: $156,400 – $253,000 + Equity
Health, dental, and vision insurance
401(k) with company match
Paid time off and holidays
Equal Opportunity Employer
1X is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, marital status, medical condition, genetic information, disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.
Skills Required
- 5+ years in C++ production systems
- Experience in performance-critical systems
- Proficient in Unix/Linux environment
- Experience with debugging at systems level
What We Do
1X is a leader in humanoid robotics, creating humanoid robots for the home as a first step in developing general purpose robots 1X’s mission is to create an abundance of labor through safe, intelligent humanoids that work alongside people.
