Softgoods Product Design Engineer

San Carlos, CA
Full-time
$175K - $215K
Posted Oct 28, 2026

Job description

ABOUT 1X

Weʼre building humanoid robots that work in home - doing the chores, handling the tasks, and giving people their time back. Simple, but itʼs 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 youʼre inspired by this, youʼll thrive here. Weʼve been at this since 2014 and weʼre at the point where the hard problems are behind us and the hard work is in front of us.

NEO is our flagship - a home robot designed to move, learn, and operate in the real world alongside real people. Weʼre not demoing it - weʼre shipping it. Weʼre excited to meet you, if this excites you.

If youʼve spent your career working on problems that matter and want to see them actually reach the world - this is that moment. Weʼre scaling, weʼre hiring with intention, and we need people who want to build something that will genuinely change how humans spend their time - safely creating abundance for all.

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Softgoods team is a group of makers, engineers, and designers united by a passion for creating products people love to touch, trust, and use. We bring together rigid and soft materials—textiles, elastomers, and foams—pairing traditional techniques with the exotic and unexpected, always with safety, a soft-touch experience, and a warm, welcoming feel at our core, carrying every product from first concept through prototyping to full mass production.

YOUR CHARTER

As a Product Design Engineer on the Softgoods team, you'll design the parts of NEO that people actually reach out and touch — the textiles, foams, and elastomers that turn a humanoid robot into something a family welcomes home. Owning these components end to end, you'll pair traditional softgoods craft with exotic, unexpected materials and carry them from first sketch through prototyping into full mass production. Working alongside industrial designers, materials scientists, and manufacturing engineers, you'll translate "soft-touch and welcoming" into repeatable parts that hold their quality at scale.

KEY OUTCOMES

•Own the full lifecycle of NEO's softgoods components (textiles, foams, elastomers) from concept through mass production, accountable for delivering parts at production quality and on schedule.

•Deliver a soft-touch, welcoming tactile experience that holds at scale, accountable for components meeting defined feel and finish standards with a low defect rate across production runs.

•Ensure all touch-facing softgoods meet safety and durability requirements, owning qualification so parts pass validation testing before launch. Owning testing & fixtures.

•Drive design-for-manufacturability and cost targets, accountable for hitting per-unit cost goals and improving first-pass yield as parts move from prototype to mass production.

•Qualify materials and manufacturing partners for new and exotic softgoods, responsible for bringing production-ready material solutions to the program.

KEY COMPETENCIES

•Softgoods design expertise — deep hands-on knowledge of textiles, foams, and elastomers, including yarns, dyes, knitting, and weaving, and the techniques that join them (cut-and-sew, bonding, lamination, molding), with the craft sensibility to make parts that look and feel premium.

•CAD and FEA proficiency — fluent in 3D CAD modeling and surface design, and uses FEA to validate structural performance, durability, and fit early, reducing costly iteration once tooling is committed.

•Design for manufacturing at scale — fluency in translating prototypes into repeatable, high-volume production, anticipating tolerance, fit, and process constraints early so quality holds from the first unit to the millionth. GD&T is a Plus.

•Cross-functional collaboration — works fluidly with industrial designers, materials scientists, and manufacturing engineers, translating a subjective goal like "soft and welcoming" into shared, buildable specifications.

•Hands-on maker — has personally built, assembled, and prototyped their own designs, bringing the shop-floor intuition to know what will actually work, fit, and assemble in production.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

•Experience: 5-10 (Open to review candidates that shine with less)

•Education: Bachelors of Science engineering or related, or equivalent experience

•A portfolio is required, showcasing your professional work, personal projects, and passion projects.

PREFERRED SKILLS

•You take pride in doing things well and don't cut corners.

•You love thinking outside the box and finding creative solutions.

•You get excited blending tried-and-true methods with new technologies to solve problems the right way.

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 itʼs the one thing you canʼt 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

$175,000 - $215,000 + 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.