Lead, Manufacturing Engineering
1x
| Company | 1x |
| Category | Engineering |
| Location | San Carlos |
| Remote | On-site (inferred) |
| Employment | Not stated |
| Level | Lead |
| Salary | USD 144k–177k |
| Posted | 17 Jun 2026 |
| Last verified | 30 Jul 2026 |
| Source | Employer career page (ashby) |
Description
ABOUT 1X
We're building humanoid robots that work at 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. We've been at this since 2014 and we're 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. We're not demoing it — we're shipping it. We're excited to meet you, if this excites you.
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 — safely creating abundance for all.
ABOUT THE TEAM
The Manufacturing Engineering team owns how NEO gets built — from prototype through volume production. We design the processes, fixtures, test stations, and standards that turn engineering intent into a manufacturable reality, and we partner across design, quality, NPI, supply chain, and the production floor to make sure what leaves the line is precise, repeatable, and reliable. The Hands area is one of the most demanding production scopes at 1X, spanning precision mechanical assembly, fine motion mechanisms, electromechanical actuators, electronics assembly and test, and final precision electromechanical builds.
YOUR CHARTER
You'll set the technical direction for how Hands gets built at scale. As the most senior individual contributor in the Hands ME function, you own the standards, systems, and process architecture that the rest of the team builds on — the work instruction frameworks, fixture and test station design principles, process validation methodology, and quality systems that make Hands production repeatable across operators, shifts, and ramp phases. Your work is on the critical path to delivering NEO at scale: every standard you set, every system you put in place, and every process you architect is what lets the line hold its standard from one set to the next, from one shift to the next, and from one year to the next.
KEY OUTCOMES
- Own the technical roadmap for Hands manufacturing end-to-end — process architecture, fixture and test strategy, work instruction frameworks, and standards that scale across operators, shifts, and ramp phases
- Define and maintain ME standards and systems for the Hands area — fixture design principles, test station architecture, process validation methodology, work instruction templates, and the documentation backbone that lets the team scale without losing rigor
- Drive measurable improvement in first-pass yield, cycle time, and reliability across Hands assemblies, with clear ownership of part-family and area-level quality metrics
- Lead the most complex NPI work in Hands — partnering with design engineering on DFM/DFA, owning prototype and validation builds, and architecting the transition from EVT through stable volume production
- Set the technical bar for the Hands ME function — mentoring Senior MEs and below, anchoring design reviews, and serving as the credible technical voice in cross-functional decisions
- Serve as the escalation owner for high-severity production issues in Hands, from process failures to ECO impacts to quality excursions
KEY COMPETENCIES
- Deep systems thinker who can hold mechanical, electromechanical, electronics, and final assembly domains in their head at once and reason about how they interact at scale
- Strong technical leader who sets direction and standards through their own work and influence, not through hierarchy
- Architect-level instinct for process and tooling — designs syst