Staff Developer Experience Engineer

Atoms; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 224,000 - 275,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision insurance

FSA/HSA options

401(k)

Equity

Sick Time & Paid Holidays

Team lunch

Job summary

Atoms in San Francisco is hiring a foundational Developer Experience Engineer to build scalable developer infrastructure for our autonomous transport initiative. You will optimize multi-language build pipelines and drive OTA deployment for edge vehicles.

You will reduce build times, tame dependency graphs, and empower hardware and robotics teams with fast, secure tooling. This role demands strong collaboration across software, firmware, and operations.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional experience in Developer Experience, Build Engineering, or Infrastructure, specifically supporting large-scale engineering organizations.
• Strong programming proficiency in Python, C++, Go, or similar, with deep knowledge of modern build systems and package managers (e.g., Bazel, CMake, UV).
• Hands-on experience scaling CI/CD systems, monorepo architectures, and automated testing pipelines for complex codebases.
• Familiarity with embedded systems, firmware builds, or containerized IoT operating systems (such as Balena Linux or Yocto).
• Foundational understanding of designing secure, fail-safe Over-The-Air (OTA) deployment pipelines for edge hardware or robotics.
• Proven ability to reduce build/test cycle times, eliminate flaky tests, and untangle complex dependency graphs.
• Exceptional communication skills and a passion for acting as an empathetic force multiplier for cross-functional software, hardware, and robotics teams.

Responsibilities

• Build scalable developer infrastructure powering our autonomous transport initiative.
• Own build pipelines for Transport's multi-language repos to minimize context switching for engineers.
• Optimize build systems to cut times and ensure reproducibility with Bazel or similar tooling.
• Automate building and testing embedded firmware and the vehicle OS (e.g., Balena).
• Design and implement OTA deployment pipelines for staged rollouts, redundancy, and rollback.
• Decide repository architecture and artifact/versioning strategies for scalable growth.
• Wire Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) automation into release validation to catch regressions.
• Develop observability and tooling to track build health, test flakiness, and time-to-deploy.

Skills

Python

C++

Go

CI/CD

Tools

Bazel

CMake

UV

Balena Linux

Yocto

Job description

Atoms is building the machines that power the next era of progress.

Over the last decade, software has transformed the digital world. But the physical world, where food is made, minerals are mined, goods are moved, and industries are run, remains far less intelligent, far less efficient, and far more constrained. We’re changing that.

Atoms builds Physical AI - real-world robots for the industries that move civilization forward, starting with food, mining, and transport. Our systems are designed to understand, predict, and control the real world with precision, turning complex physical operations into something more reliable, more scalable, and more productive.

This work requires more than robotics. It requires deep integration across hardware, software, AI, operations, manufacturing, and real estate. We don’t just build machines in a lab. We deploy them into real environments, operate them, learn from them, and improve them until they work at scale.

We are roboticists, engineers, operators, and builders. We believe the next great technology companies will not only transform information, but the physical systems that shape everyday life.

If you want to work on hard problems with real-world impact, join us.

What you’ll do

We are seeking a foundational Developer Experience Engineer to build scalable developer infrastructure powering our autonomous transport initiative. In this role, you will be the first dedicated engineer optimizing developer workflows across our large-scale C++, Python, Go, Rust and embedded firmware codebases. You will eliminate build friction, prevent dependency hell, and architect secure Over-The-Air (OTA) update mechanisms to safely deploy software to our edge vehicle fleet. By empowering our robotics, ML, and software teams with high-speed, reliable tooling, you will directly accelerate the delivery of safe, on-road autonomous transportation. While you may not work on every single aspect of it, the team will own the following scope:

• CI/CD Infrastructure: Own the build pipelines for Transport's repos: large, multi-language (C++, Python, firmware). Make them fast enough that engineers stop context-switching while they wait.
• Build System Optimization: Cut build times and make builds reproducible. Bazel or similar; you'll own the build graph, caching, and dependency management.
• Firmware & Embedded Integration: Automate building and testing embedded firmware and the vehicle OS (e.g., Balena).
• Over-The-Air (OTA) Deployment: Design and build over-the-air updates for vehicles in the field: staged rollouts, redundancy, and rollback that always works.
• Repository Architecture: Decide how code is organized (monorepo vs. multi-repo), how artifacts are versioned and stored, and how dependencies are tracked, in a way that still holds up when the team is many times bigger.
• Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Automation: Wire HIL rigs and simulation into release validation so regressions are caught before code ever reaches a vehicle.
• Developer Observability & Tooling: Track build health, test flakiness, and time-to-deploy. Instill a data-informed culture, so the numbers are visible and the problems actually get fixed.

What we’re looking for

• 8+ years of professional experience in Developer Experience, Build Engineering, or Infrastructure, specifically supporting large-scale engineering organizations.
• Strong programming proficiency in Python, C++, Go, or similar, with deep knowledge of modern build systems and package managers (e.g., Bazel, CMake, UV).
• Hands-on experience scaling CI/CD systems, monorepo architectures, and automated testing pipelines for complex codebases.
• Familiarity with embedded systems, firmware builds, or containerized IoT operating systems (such as Balena Linux or Yocto).
• Foundational understanding of designing secure, fail-safe Over-The-Air (OTA) deployment pipelines for edge hardware or robotics.
• Proven ability to reduce build/test cycle times, eliminate flaky tests, and untangle complex dependency graphs.
• Exceptional communication skills and a passion for acting as an empathetic force multiplier for cross-functional software, hardware, and robotics teams.

At Atoms, you’ll work on one of the defining challenges of our time — bringing automation into the physical world to drive real, lasting impact. We exist to uncover valuable unknown truths and turn them into progress, which means constantly pushing beyond what’s known and building what doesn’t yet exist. The work is ambitious and often challenging, but it’s grounded in a shared sense of purpose and a team committed to seeing it through together. Our work only matters if it serves others, and we know that meaningful progress depends on the trust of the people we serve and the strength of our team — so we invest in both, creating an environment where you can do your best work and grow.

What else you need to know

This role is based in our San Francisco office. Atoms is a company driven by invention and continuous change - we are constantly reimagining our industries, building new products, and refining how we operate. We do our best work together. That’s why all of our office-based teams work onsite, five days a week.

The base salary range for this role is $224,000 - $275,000 per year.

Actual compensation will be determined on an individual basis and may vary depending on experience, skills, and qualifications.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package. You may also be eligible for equity awards.

Benefits Summary (USA Full-Time Exempt Employees):

• Medical, Dental, Vision, Disability, and Life Insurance
• Flexible Spending Account / Health Savings Account Options
• 401(k)
• Equity
• Sick Time, Unlimited Flexible Time Off, and Paid Holidays
• Team lunch in our SoMa office every Tuesday and Thursday

Benefits are subject to change at the company's discretion.
Atoms accepts applications on an ongoing basis.

Ready to join us as we serve those who serve others?

As set forth in Atoms’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.