Software Engineer - Operating Systems

1X • San Carlos, CA

16h • Onsite

About The Position

1X is building humanoid robots for home use, aiming to give people their time back by handling chores and tasks. This requires solving complex problems in robotics, AI, and manufacturing simultaneously and at scale. NEO is their flagship home robot designed to move, learn, and operate safely alongside people in real-world environments. The company is scaling and hiring with intention, seeking individuals inspired by the mission to change how humans spend their time by creating abundance safely. The Foundations team is responsible for the entire platform NEO runs on, from initial power-up to the software stack supporting perception, planning, and controls. They build and ship the embedded Linux distribution, BSP, kernel, drivers, and system software, acting as the crucial layer between hardware and intelligence. The team emphasizes the stability, boot speed, and update reliability of this layer, which directly impacts the work of all other teams. This role offers the opportunity to own the OS as a product.

Requirements

• 5+ years shipping embedded Linux systems in production, including BSP, kernel customization, and distribution ownership.
• Proven experience writing production device drivers and working with Yocto or Buildroot for custom embedded distributions.
• Demonstrated ability to debug at the kernel level and trace software root causes, comfortable with kernel tracing tools, serial consoles, and crash capture.
• Platform ownership mindset: treating the OS as a product with real users, not a build artifact; holding strong opinions about release engineering, reproducibility, and what “production-grade” means for embedded Linux.
• Kernel-level fluency: debugging confidently at the kernel level, tracing software root causes from hardware symptoms, and writing production device drivers for common buses (I2C, SPI, CAN, USB, Ethernet, PCIe).
• Schematic literacy: reading hardware schematics to reason about behavior from software symptoms, reducing the round-trip between firmware investigation and hardware root cause.
• High-ownership operator: defining the standard rather than inheriting it; taking end-to-end responsibility from prototype bring-up through fleet-scale production hardening.

Nice To Haves

• Experience designing and operating OTA update systems for embedded fleets, including rollback, partial updates, and reliability under real-world network conditions.
• Familiarity with real-time Linux extensions (PREEMPT_RT) or low-latency kernel configuration for robotics or industrial applications.
• Experience taking a hardware platform from early prototype through high-volume production, including reliability and optimization tradeoffs as hardware evolves.
• Background in robotics, autonomous vehicles, or other physical systems where platform stability has direct operational consequences.

Responsibilities

• Own the embedded Linux foundation for NEO from BSP and kernel through distribution, provisioning, and OTA updates, ensuring it boots fast, stays stable, debugs cleanly, and updates confidently as we scale from prototypes to a growing fleet in homes and warehouses.
• Ship a production-grade custom embedded Linux distribution (Yocto) with reproducible builds, fast deterministic startup, and release artifacts that the full engineering team can depend on across hardware revisions.
• Own kernel and driver development end-to-end: device tree, board bring-up, peripheral enablement such that new hardware platforms are enabled on schedule with minimal downstream disruption.
• Deliver reliable fleet tooling for provisioning, flashing, and OTA updates that scales from dozens of prototypes to high-volume production without manual intervention or data loss.
• Build CI/CD for embedded images and kernel builds that catches regressions before they reach hardware, reducing bring-up cycles and unblocking dependent teams faster.

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

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed