Senior Systems Engineer - Network
About the role
About 1X: We're building humanoid robots that work in the home — doing chores, handling tasks, and giving people their time back. Solving robotics, AI, and manufacturing at scale in a safe form factor for family life. We've been at this since 2014; the hard problems are behind us and the hard work is in front of us. NEO is our flagship home robot designed to move, learn, and operate in the real world alongside real people — we're shipping it, not just demoing it.
About The Team: The Core team builds and owns the C++ infrastructure that NEO's entire stack runs on — sensor pipelines, motor control interfaces, networking, inter‑process communication, and foundational libraries that ship on every robot. Our code runs thousands of times per second on hardware moving through the real world, and its correctness and performance directly determine 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: The mission of this role is to make networking a solved problem for every robot we ship, at any scale. You'll own the design and execution of all networking systems on the core robot, working with our Cloud Infra and Apps teams to scale robot operations end‑to‑end, from fleet management to real‑time VR teleop. This is critical‑path work: as 1X scales from hundreds to tens of thousands of robots, the reliability, performance, and simplicity of networking becomes a critical piece of every successful deployment. You'll lead architecture decisions, build core components, and set the technical standards the rest of the team builds on.
Responsibilities
- Own the core networking systems for robots and design topologies that minimize latency for peer‑to‑peer, peer‑to‑server, and one‑to‑many communication.
- Design and implement load balancing strategies that maximize CPU/GPU utilization.
- Deliver seamless connectivity across multiple networks, including Wi‑Fi and 5G.
- Build APIs and protocols that transmit multimodal data at scale, including high‑bandwidth video.
Requirements
- Proven track record of 6+ years in network engineering, distributed systems, or related cloud infrastructure roles.
- Proven track record of shipping network systems in production at large scale.
- Experience with network fundamentals including TCP/IP, UDP, WebRTC, and related video/audio protocols.
- Experience with wireless networking (Wi‑Fi/5G) in mobile or embedded systems.
- Demonstrated ability to write production‑grade C++.
Qualifications
- Experience in robotics, autonomous vehicles, drones, or other embedded real‑time systems.
- Experience in video transport protocols such as WebRTC or MoQ.
- Experience in edge computing or hybrid cloud/edge networking.
- Experience in multi‑radio systems.
Skills
- Deep understanding of network topology design for peer‑to‑peer, peer‑to‑server, and one‑to‑many multicast.
- Load balancing and resource management on both client and server.
- Experience architecting systems that support network transitions and degraded connectivity.
- Protocol design for high‑bandwidth, low‑latency multimodal payloads.
- End‑to‑end system thinking across hardware, embedded, network stack, and cloud.
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.
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
Pay
$190,000 - $230,000 + Equity