Senior/Staff Systems Engineer, Foundations

1X Technologies AS • Palo Alto, CA

6d • $156,400 - $253,000 • Onsite

About The Position

NEO is our humanoid robot that walks into homes, learns from video, and works alongside people. As a C++ Systems Engineer, you will own the foundational software that powers its brain and nervous system. You’ll design and maintain the real-time C++ infrastructure that drives sensor fusion, motor control, inter-process communication, and system-level libraries. Your work will directly affect how robots perceive, plan, and act in the real world—with code executing thousands of times per second on safety-critical hardware.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience developing production-grade C++ in performance-critical environments such as robotics, autonomous systems, game engines, compilers, or high-frequency trading
• Deep understanding of system-level constraints including latency, memory usage, bandwidth, and startup time—and the ability to design within those constraints
• Proficiency with Unix/Linux development environments, including shells, GNU tools, and system interfaces
• Experience shipping real-time systems where software reliability directly impacts physical behavior
• Strong debugging and profiling skills at the systems level, with expertise in benchmarking, tracing, and use of Linux kernel interfaces
• Ability to write clean, maintainable, and high-performance code with clear interfaces and minimal dependencies

Responsibilities

• Design and implement low-latency, high-throughput systems in modern C++ for resource-constrained hardware
• Own and maintain real-time infrastructure including sensor fusion pipelines, motor control interfaces, deterministic schedulers, and shared foundational libraries
• Develop and optimize IPC and serialization layers such as lock-free queues, memory pools, and shared-memory buffers to connect perception, planning, and actuation
• Establish performance baselines using microbenchmarks, flamegraphs, performance counters, and regression tracking to ensure consistency under load
• Debug complex system-level issues including ABI mismatches, linking errors, kernel interfaces, and cross-compilation challenges
• Build deterministic systems with clean failure modes and interfaces that enable reliable development by other engineering teams
• Ship robust code that runs not just in prototypes, but across thousands of deployed robots in homes and warehouses

Benefits

• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) with company match
• Paid time off and holidays

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees