Staff Systems Engineer - Core

1X; San Carlos (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision

Paid time off

401(k) with company match

FSA/HSA options

Commuter benefits

Disability & life insurance

EAP program

Job summary

1X is building humanoid robots for home assistance, with a focus on safe, scalable systems that power perception, planning and actuation. The Core Team develops the foundational C++ infrastructure and sensor pipelines that run on robots at scale.

The role emphasizes latency, determinism, and reliability, with opportunities to shape the IPC layer and performance benchmarks used by multiple teams. You’ll ship libraries that run millions of cycles across devices.

Qualifications

• 5+ years shipping production C++ in performance-critical systems.
• Experience profiling and debugging at the systems level.
• Strong interface-first design with deterministic behavior.

Responsibilities

• Own real-time C++ infrastructure across sensor pipelines and IPC.
• Deliver benchmarks, flamegraphs, and regression tracking.
• Build lock-free IPC and serialization layers with clean interfaces.
• Ship foundational libraries for thousands of robots.

Skills

C++

Real-time systems

Linux

Profiling

Performance optimization

Tools

Lock-free data structures

Shared-memory IPC

Cross-compilation toolchains

Embedded Linux

Job description

ABOUT 1X

We’re building humanoid robots that work in home - doing the chores, handling the tasks, and giving people their time back. Simple, but it’s not. To do this right, we have to solve robotics, AI, manufacturing - at the same time, at scale, in a form factor that has to be safe enough to live with your family. If you’re inspired by this, you’ll thrive here. We’ve been at this since 2014 and we’re at the point where the hard problems are behind us and the hard work is in front of us.

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Core team builds and owns the core C++ infrastructure that NEO’s entire stack runs on sensor pipelines, motor control interfaces, inter-process communication, and the foundational libraries that ship on every robot. Our code executes thousands of times per second on hardware moving through the real world, and its correctness and performance directly determines what every other team can build and ship. If you want to work on the systems layer that makes physical AI possible at scale, this is that team.

YOUR CHARTER

Own the foundational C++ infrastructure that NEO’s brain and nervous system depend on ensuring it is fast, deterministic, and reliable as we scale from prototypes to thousands of robots in homes and warehouses. This is critical-path work: the latency, correctness, and maintainability of sensor pipelines, motor control loops, and IPC layers directly determines what the perception, planning, and controls teams can ship. Every clean interface introduced, every regression caught, and every millisecond saved here multiplies across every robot we deploy.

KEY OUTCOMES

• Own and continuously improve real-time C++ infrastructure: sensor pipelines, motor control interfaces, deterministic scheduling such that dependent teams can build on it without hitting foundational performance or reliability blockers
• Establish performance as a measurable standard: deliver benchmarking, flamegraph tooling, and regression tracking that catches latency or throughput drift before it reaches production
• Build the IPC and serialization layer connecting perception, planning, and actuation: lock-free queues, memory pools, shared-memory buffers with clean interfaces that other engineers trust and build on
• Ship foundational libraries that run reliably on thousands of robots in homes and warehouses, not just prototypes in the lab

KEY COMPETENCIES

• Thinks in cycles, cache lines, and budgets designing systems around latency, memory, and bandwidth constraints and can explain exactly where time and memory go under load
• Deep Linux and systems fluency debugging across toolchain, ABI, kernel interfaces, and cross-compilation; uses profiling, tracing, and assembly inspection as everyday tools, not last resorts
• Interface-first thinker writing code with clear contracts, minimal dependencies, and obvious correctness that other engineers reach for when building higher-level systems
• Reliability-oriented under pressure shipping real-time systems where failure has physical consequences, and treats deterministic behavior and clean failure modes as engineering requirements, not afterthoughts

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

• 5+ years shipping production C++ in performance-critical systems: robotics, autonomous vehicles, HFT, game engines, OS/runtime, compilers, or HPC
• Demonstrated ability to profile, benchmark, and debug at the systems level: flamegraphs, perf counters, assembly inspection, and Linux kernel interfaces
• Proven track record of writing systems code other engineers build on clean interfaces, minimal dependencies, deterministic behavior under load

PREFERRED SKILLS

• Experience with real-time or safety-critical systems where latency guarantees and failure modes have physical consequences
• Familiarity with lock-free data structures, memory pools, and shared-memory IPC patterns
• Experience with cross-compilation toolchains and embedded Linux targets
• Background in robotics, autonomous vehicles, or other physical systems

WHAT DOES A SUCCESSFUL 1X TEAM MEMBER LOOK LIKE

Team members at 1X who thrive here are builders. They move fast, own their work completely, and treat time like it’s the one thing you can’t get back - because it is. They say what they mean, finish what they start, and hold themselves to a standard before anyone has to ask. We push each other to be better, and we do it with honesty and respect.

COMPENSATION RANGE

$250,000 - $300,000 + Equity

BENEFITS

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Generous paid time off, company holidays, and parental leave
• 401(k) plan with company match (100% on the first 3% of contributions, 50% on the next 2%)
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) and Health Savings Accounts (HSA) options
• Commuter benefits (transit and parking)
• Short-term and long-term disability, and life insurance
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for mental health, financial, and personal support
• Onsite snacks and catered lunches

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, justice system impact, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.