Gameplay Developer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

We’re building humanoid robots that work in 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.

The Behavior team builds the software that enables NEO to behave like an intelligent, autonomous character living alongside people. Drawing inspiration from modern game AI, 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.

If you've built believable NPCs, conversational AI systems, or complex gameplay engine systems, you'll find many of the same engineering challenges here—except the characters are real.

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’ll need to write performant systems code and manage latency from cloud systems. Your work will bridge the gap between game AI and embodied intelligence, creating robots that behave as naturally and reliably as the best NPCs in modern games.

• Design and implement scalable behavior architectures that enable robots to autonomously perform complex, multi-step household tasks leveraging cloud-based world models.
• 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.

• Deep expertise building gameplay systems, conversational AI, or NPC behaviors for complex interactive environments.
• Strong understanding of decision-making architectures, planning systems, and autonomous agent behaviors.
• Excellent software engineering skills with experience building scalable, performance-critical systems in C++.
• 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.

• 6+ years of professional experience (Senior) or 10+ years (Staff) developing gameplay systems, conversational AI, NPC behaviors, or system architecture.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Game Development, Robotics, AI, or a related technical field.
• Strong proficiency in C++, system programming, and object-oriented software design.
• Experience working with Unreal Engine, Unity, proprietary game engines, or large-scale simulation environments.

• 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.

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.

190,000 - $280,000 + Equity

• 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

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.