Helix AI Engineer, Backend

Figure; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

Figure, an AI Robotics company in San Jose, is seeking a senior backend engineer to architect and scale cloud backend systems for real-time data streams. In this role, you'll work closely with AI and robotics teams, tackling high-throughput data challenges.

The position requires deep experience with cloud infrastructure and low-latency architectures. A full-time salary of $150,000 - $400,000 annually is offered, reflective of skills and experience.

Qualifications

• Deep experience scaling cloud backend systems for real-time data streams.
• Strong fundamentals in distributed systems and low-latency architecture.
• Proficiency in one or more languages like Go, C++, Python, or Rust.

Responsibilities

• Architect and scale cloud backend infrastructure for media and sensor data streaming.
• Design low-latency data pipelines for real-time processing.
• Own SLAs for reliability, latency, and throughput of streaming infrastructure.

Skills

Cloud backend systems scaling

Real-time data stream processing

Distributed systems fundamentals

Backend programming languages (Go, C++, Python, Rust)

Containerized infrastructure

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

AWS

GCP

Azure

Triton Inference Server

TensorRT

WebRTC

Kafka

Job description

San Jose, CA

Figure is an AI Robotics company developing a general purpose humanoid. Our humanoid robot is designed for commercial tasks and the home. We are based in San Jose and require 5 days/week in-office collaboration. It’s time to build.

We're looking for a senior-level backend engineer who has scaled high-throughput, low-latency data systems and has strong instincts around cloud infrastructure and real-time streaming pipelines. You'll architect and build the core backend systems that power Figure's real-time data infrastructure — enabling the scale and reliability that our AI and robotics platforms depend on.

This is a high-ownership role at the intersection of media and sensor data streaming, cloud systems, and applied ML serving. You'll work closely with our AI and robotics teams to ensure latency, reliability, and throughput meet the demands of real-world robot operation.

What You'll Do

• Architect and scale cloud backend infrastructure for high-concurrency, real-time streaming of media and sensor data across robot fleets and user sessions.
• Design and build low-latency data pipelines that ingest, route, and process high-bandwidth streams — including camera feeds, IMU data, and other robot sensor outputs — into our AI stack in real time.
• Own reliability, latency, and throughput SLAs for streaming and data infrastructure.
• Collaborate with AI and robotics teams to integrate ML model serving into real-time data pipelines.
• Build observability, alerting, and tooling to give the team full situational awareness over live robot traffic.
• Drive architectural decisions and mentor engineers across the team.

What We're Looking For

• Deep experience scaling cloud backend systems handling high-concurrency, real-time data streams — media, sensor, telemetry, or equivalent high-bandwidth pipelines.
• Strong fundamentals in distributed systems: stream processing, connection management, data transport, and low-latency architecture.
• Proficiency in one or more backend languages (Go, C++, Python, Rust) and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Experience with containerized infrastructure, service mesh, and large-scale deployment pipelines.
• Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Nice to Have

• Hands‑on experience integrating AI inference serving (Triton Inference Server, TensorRT, SageMaker, or similar) into real-time data pipelines.
• Background in robotics, autonomous vehicles, live media platforms, or other latency‑critical streaming domains.
• Familiarity with protocols such as WebRTC, RTSP, gRPC, or Kafka for real‑time data transport.
• Experience with on‑device or edge inference and the tradeoffs of cloud vs. edge processing.

The US base salary range for this full‑time position is between $150,000 - $400,000 annually.

The pay offered for this position may vary based on several individual factors, including job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package may also include additional components/benefits depending on the specific role. This information will be shared if an employment offer is extended.