Volunteer Observability Engineer Jobs in California

Who we are

Atoms is building the machines that power the next era of progress.

Over the last decade, software has transformed the digital world. But the physical world, where food is made, minerals are mined, goods are moved, and industries are run, remains far less intelligent, far less efficient, and far more constrained. We're changing that.

Atoms builds Physical AI - real-world robots for the industries that move civilization forward, starting with food, mining, and transport. Our systems are designed to understand, predict, and control the real world with precision, turning complex physical operations into something more reliable, more scalable, and more productive.

This work requires more than robotics. It requires deep integration across hardware, software, AI, operations, manufacturing, and real estate. We don't just build machines in a lab. We deploy them into real environments, operate them, learn from them, and improve them until they work at scale.

We are roboticists, engineers, operators, and builders. We believe the next great technology companies will not only transform information, but the physical systems that shape everyday life.

If you want to work on hard problems with real-world impact, join us.

What you'll do

• Lead a team of 6 engineers owning end-to-end observability across the company's infrastructure, including logs, metrics, traces, and event-based monitoring
• Own the roadmap for our observability and cost initiative independently, no PM or TPM support, meeting directly with engineering managers across the company to identify pain points and design end-to-end solutions
• Drive down time to detect and time to mitigate for production incidents across a system where a single request can traverse 60+ services
• Extend observability coverage beyond our original food delivery systems into new physical domains, including autonomous mining transport, as the company's mission expands
• Maintain and grow a highly cost-efficient observability stack (currently running at a fraction of comparable third-party tooling costs)
• Represent the technical state of your domain in real time, speaking confidently to feasibility, scope, and timelines for any ask without needing to defer to others
• Stay hands-on (roughly a third of your time), jumping in to unblock the team when needed, using AI tools to analyze issues and surface insights, without sitting on the critical path for delivery
• Grow the careers of the engineers on your team while maintaining strong technical ownership of your domain

What we're looking for

• 2+ years of experience managing and growing engineering teams, ideally within observability, platform, or infrastructure functions
• Strong foundation in engineering architecture and design fundamentals, enough to evaluate your team's technical decisions and push back constructively, even if you're not the one architecting solutions day to day
• Comfort operating without a PM or TPM, someone who can independently scope a roadmap, prioritize competing asks, and drive execution with high ownership
• Experience with, or ability to quickly ramp on, our stack: Go, Azure/Azure Kubernetes, Grafana, VictoriaMetrics, ClickHouse, OpenTelemetry. Prior Go experience is not required

Why join us

At Atoms, you'll work on one of the defining challenges of our time-bringing automation into the physical world to drive real, lasting impact. We exist to uncover valuable unknown truths and turn them into progress, which means constantly pushing beyond what's known and building what doesn't yet exist. The work is ambitious and often challenging, but it's grounded in a shared sense of purpose and a team committed to seeing it through together. Our work only matters if it serves others, and we know that meaningful progress depends on the trust of the people we serve and the strength of our team-so we invest in both, creating an environment where you can do your best work and grow.

What else you need to know

This role is based in our Mountain View office. Atoms is a company driven by invention and continuous change - we are constantly reimagining our industries, building new products, and refining how we operate. We do our best work together. That's why all of our office-based teams work onsite, five days a week.

The base salary range for this role is $185,000 - $254,000 per year.

Actual compensation will be determined on an individual basis and may vary depending on experience, skills, and qualifications.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package. You may also be eligible for equity awards and an annual performance-based bonus.

Benefits Summary (USA Full-Time Exempt Employees):

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance (multiple plans, incl. HSA options).
• Company-paid life and disability insurance (short- and long-term).
• Voluntary insurance: accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity.
• Optional supplemental life insurance for self, spouse, and children.
• Pet insurance discount.
• 401(k).
• Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Flexible Spending Accounts (Healthcare, Dependent Care, Commuter)
• Time Off policies:
• Discretionary vacation days
• 8 paid holidays per year
• Paid sick time
• Paid Bereavement leave
• Paid Parental Leave

Benefits are subject to change at the company's discretion.
Atoms accepts applications on an ongoing basis.

Ready to join us as we serve those who serve others? 

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