---
title: 'Senior to Staff AI Product Engineer at 1X'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-to-staff-ai-product-engineer-1x-san-carlos-sqykce3qx8z0'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-20'
---

# Senior to Staff AI Product Engineer at 1X

- **Company:** [1X](https://feeny.ai/companies/1x)
- **Location:** San Carlos, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-07-28
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-20
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/1x/59edfa1d-e1e0-468b-9995-9d863d08def1

## Job description

## About 1X

We’re building humanoid robots that work in the 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. NEO is our flagship - a home robot designed to move, learn, and operate in the real world alongside real people. We’re not demoing it - we’re shipping it! If you’ve spent your career working on problems that matter and want to see them actually reach the world - this is that moment. We’re scaling, we’re hiring with intention, and we need people who want to build something that will genuinely change how humans spend their time.

## About the Team

The Behavior team builds the software that enables NEO to be an intelligent, autonomous character living alongside people. We develop the decision-making systems, world simulation, and behavior frameworks that allow robots to perceive their surroundings, understand context, prioritize goals, and interact naturally in dynamic environments.

## Your Charter

Build the behavior systems that bring humanoid robots to life. You will design scalable AI architectures that enable robots to reason about their environment, make autonomous decisions, manage competing goals, and perform complex tasks in real-world homes. You will build the systems that orchestrate multiple ML models with varying capabilities. Your work will create robots that behave naturally and reliably in real world situations.

## Key Outcomes

- Build an orchestration framework that interfaces with multiple LLMs, breaking complex tasks into simple steps. This will form the foundation for scalable behavior architectures that enable robots to autonomously perform household tasks naturally and intuitively.
- Build systems that extract, store and index relevant details about environments and people.
- Build decision-making frameworks using behavior trees, hierarchical state machines, or similar AI architectures.
- Partner with Core, World Model, Apps, and Motion teams to integrate behavior systems into real-world robot operation.
- Improve the realism, robustness, and adaptability of robot behaviors while establishing engineering best practices for large-scale behavior development.

## Key Competencies

- Expertise building products that leverage the capabilities of LLMs and custom ML models, exposing these in unique and intuitive user experiences.
- Experience with multiple key AI technologies, such as conversational interfaces, agent orchestration, prompt engineering, MCPs, and management of agent context and memory.
- Strong understanding of decision-making architectures, planning systems, and autonomous agent behaviors.
- Excellent software engineering skills.
- Strong systems thinking with the ability to simplify complex autonomous behaviors into maintainable software architectures.
- Comfortable leading technical initiatives and collaborating across multidisciplinary engineering teams in a fast-moving environment.

## Minimum Requirements

- 6+ years of professional experience (Senior) or 10+ years (Staff) developing conversational AI, NPC behaviors, or system architecture.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Robotics, AI, or a related technical field.
- System programming, and software design.

## Preferred Skills

- Experience implementing behavior trees, GOAP, hierarchical state machines, planners, or similar AI architectures under tight performance constraints.
- Experience building open-world games, large-scale simulations, conversational AI, or emergent gameplay systems.
- Familiarity with robotics, autonomous systems, reinforcement learning, or embodied AI.
- Experience with navigation systems, pathfinding, task scheduling, perception systems, or world modeling.
- Experience developing tools that enable designers, researchers, or engineers to rapidly author and debug complex AI behaviors.

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

190,000 – $280,000 + 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.

## About 1X

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: 1X develops general-purpose humanoid robots for home and industrial environments, combining AI and hardware to automate everyday tasks.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B funding stage)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2015
- **Founders**: Bernt Øyvind Børnich

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Robotics Engineering / Artificial Intelligence
- **Target customers**: B2C (home consumers via NEO) and B2B/Enterprise (industrial tasks via EVE)
- **Mission**: Build a truly abundant society through general-purpose robots capable of performing any kind of work autonomously, allowing humans to focus on what they love.

## Products & Services
- **NEO**: A friendly home humanoid robot designed to integrate seamlessly into daily life and handle chores. Currently in early access after the NEO Beta (2024) and NEO Gamma (2025) iterations. [1x.tech](https://www.1x.tech/about)
- **EVE**: A wheeled industrial humanoid deployed in factories worldwide for autonomous industrial tasks. [1x.tech](https://www.1x.tech/about)
- **Revo1**: A high-torque-to-weight drive servo motor inspired by human tendon actuation, used in 1X robots. [1x.tech](https://www.1x.tech/about)
- **1X World Model**: A physics-grounded video model that enables NEO to learn autonomously from text or voice commands. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/1x-technologies)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of $169M as of mid-2026, with a $100M Series B led by EQT Ventures in January 2024. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/1x-technologies)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: EQT Ventures (lead), plus other investors in secondary rounds. Acquired Kind Humanoid in January 2025. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/1x-technologies)
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Headcount grew 121.2% YoY to 394 employees. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/1x-technologies)
  - Full-scale production of NEO began in Hayward, CA, with capacity to build 10,000 units per year. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/1x-technologies)
  - New Palo Alto HQ consolidated teams from Sunnyvale and Moss, Norway. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/1x-technologies)
  - Appointed Mohi Khansari as Head of Robot Learning (January 2026) and Vikram Kothari as VP of Operations (August 2025). [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/1x-technologies)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Vertical integration**: Owns manufacturing in Hayward (U.S.) and Moss (Norway), controlling the full production stack.
- **Proprietary hardware**: Revo1 servo motor offers world-leading torque-to-weight ratio, enabling flexible, low-gear-ratio robotics.
- **AI-first approach**: The 1X World Model allows robots to learn physical tasks via simulation and self-supervised video prediction, reducing need for manual programming.
- **Early home deployment**: NEO is one of the first humanoid robots entering private homes, giving 1X real-world data and feedback loops.

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling NEO production and expanding early access to more households across the U.S.
- Enhancing AI capabilities through the World Model and reinforcement learning (e.g., Redwood mobility controller).
- Building a robust supply chain and service network for home robots.
- Continuing enterprise deployments of EVE while shifting emphasis to the consumer market.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Fast-paced, mission-driven environment focused on building humanoid robots that coexist with humans. Strong emphasis on AI, hardware, and real-world impact.
- **Work model**: Likely on-site for hardware and AI roles (multiple offices in Palo Alto, San Carlos, Sunnyvale, Hayward, and Moss). Some software roles may offer flexibility.
- **Notable perks**: Opportunity to work on cutting-edge robotics and AI, contribute to a product (NEO) that is already entering homes, and be part of a rapidly scaling company with strong funding.
- **Engineering culture**: High concentration of talent from Tesla, Apple, Google, and SpaceX. Active research in biomechanics, reinforcement learning, and simulation. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/1x-technologies)
- **Open roles**: 65+ positions listed on the careers page across AI, hardware, software, operations, and manufacturing. [1x.tech](https://www.1x.tech/careers)

## Sources
1. [1x.tech](https://www.1x.tech/about)
2. [1x.tech](https://www.1x.tech/careers)
3. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/1x-technologies)

## Other roles at 1X

- [Internship - CNC Machine Park](https://feeny.ai/job/internship-cnc-machine-park-1x-hayward-bdkw3zkk5pa2) — Hayward, CA
- [Production Supervisor - Body](https://feeny.ai/job/production-supervisor-body-1x-hayward-kasd33mpzjgt) — Hayward, CA
- [Production Supervisor - Hands](https://feeny.ai/job/production-supervisor-hands-1x-san-carlos-nagxpxvb4bza) — San Carlos, CA
- [Robot Assembly Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/robot-assembly-technician-1x-hayward-b4yt43a0s439) — Hayward, CA
- [Robot Assembly Technician - Hands](https://feeny.ai/job/robot-assembly-technician-hands-1x-san-carlos-217s2y4txr3t) — San Carlos, CA
- [Recruiting Coordinator](https://feeny.ai/job/recruiting-coordinator-1x-san-carlos-7syy9m0c2esv) — San Carlos, CA
- [AI Researcher - Perception](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-researcher-perception-1x-san-carlos-ydyqjrthn02c) — San Carlos, CA
- [Internship - Manufacturing Engineering](https://feeny.ai/job/internship-manufacturing-engineering-1x-san-carlos-w4x93jk7gwpw) — San Carlos, CA
- [Motor Test Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/motor-test-technician-1x-san-carlos-zsyhcdhha6ew) — San Carlos, CA
- [Operator - Data Collection (Swing Shift)](https://feeny.ai/job/operator-data-collection-swing-shift-1x-san-carlos-36y5yx97sgj2) — San Carlos, CA