Targeted start date: Immediately. Relocation provided.

Research Engineers in infrastructure are generalists who build and maintain infrastructure and platforms for robot learning. A typical day involves scaling up data and compute engines, or improving the reliability and uptime of model training and inference. You will be responsible for scaling model training and deployment, data engines and databases, and frontends and backends. You will work closely with other AI team members and also develop independently. Success in this role means unblocking data pipelines and compute scaling for an exponentially growing fleet of robots.

1X's mission is to create an abundant supply of physical labor through safe, intelligent androids that work alongside humans. Since 2014, we’ve designed our products with large-scale manufacturing in mind, so we can produce androids at a high enough volume to meet the world’s labor demand.

Our wheeled Android EVE, is engineered to work with you, from guarding to logistics, and our bipedal model, NEO, is designed to become a household android with broad deployment in various applications. Our products will understand both natural language and physical space, so they can complete useful tasks in any environment.

We’ve established our dual HQ in San Francisco and Norway. Our positions require in-person presence to ensure effective execution and seamless collaboration in our hardware-focused environment. We value passion for our work and encourage candidates who share our dedication to join our team.

Why this job is exciting

Your role on the team will be to scale up the learning stack on state-of-the-art hardware and drive success of robot operations
You will build upon one of the largest android datasets, which is continuing to grow exponentially
We aim to (1) double the number of tasks the robot can perform and (2) half the error rate on existing tasks, quarter over quarter
The team works closely together to prioritize direction and scale up a single approach to a production-ready system

Responsibilities

Day to day: ship AI platform for non-technical robot operators, scale up AI model training workloads, and own model inference reliability
Build the data engine (frontend UI and backend) to log, clean, and label data for foundation model training
Work with our robot operations team to scale up our datasets and model capabilities

Must-Haves

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent
5+ years of professional, full-time experience building ML infrastructure
Proficiency working with and testing large codebases in Python, and C++ or Rust
Experience with databases (Postgres, NoSQL)
Ability to rapidly prototype ideas in code in an independent manner
Experience with Deep Learning Frameworks (Pytorch, TF, JAX, etc.)
Ability to build scrappy, cost-effective solutions to prove out ideas quickly and then harden them for production use cases

Nice-to-haves

Experience managing ML compute clusters, cloud infrastructure, and workload management, and setting up hybrid cloud infra
Have implemented highly performant software
Have built large programming projects on your own for fun (e.g. open source projects)
Training large-scale ML models such as visual foundation models, large language models, pixel-level generative models

Compensation

We offer a total compensation package including base salary from US$105,000 to US$250,000 annually, with generous stock options and other benefits.

Interview process

Introduction Stage - we have initial conversations to get to know you better

[30m] Recruiter Screen with Win Yu
[45m] Hiring Manager Screen with a AI team

Team Interview Stage - we then dive into your experience in more depth and introduce you to members of the team. This is also the stage where you will do your take-home challenge

[90m] Technical Deep-Dive conversation with the AI team

Final Interview Stage - we move you to our final round

[15m] Role expectation management with Eric Jang
[30m] Conversation with CEO Bernt Øivind Børnich

Not sure if this is you?

If you’re excited about this role, but you’re not sure if you qualify, apply anyway! You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Location

This position is based in Sunnyvale, California, USA, at our newly renovated AI headquarters. We offer visa sponsorship for exceptional candidates. Joining our team means becoming a valued member of one of the biggest brands in humanoid robotics, where you'll play a part in shaping the future of general purpose androids.

A value driven team

These are the ideas that express our team’s culture and how we work:

Be Nice

Collaboration is our driving force. Our team creates an open, trusting environment where everyone can be their most creative.

Stay Smart

A world-changing team needs the brightest minds in every discipline. This is where people come to work, learn, and grow to their full potential.

Make History

Everything we do gets us closer to one ambitious vision: general-purpose androids helping people around the globe. We believe what we build today will impact generations.

1X is an inclusive and equal-opportunity employer that values diversity. We consider all qualified applicants regardless of race, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, or any other protected class. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please don't hesitate to let us know during the interview process. We will do our best to accommodate your needs.

We're excited to have you on board!

1X jobs

Research Engineer, Infrastructure