Chemical Engineer, Polymer Coatings

About 1X

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.

We work at the intersection of materials science, chemistry, hardware engineering, and manufacturing to invent the foundational technologies that make our robots lighter, stronger, safer, and more capable.

The Materials Science team researches and develops advanced polymers, elastomers, structural adhesives, coatings, and functional materials that directly influence the robot's durability, tactile performance, energy efficiency, and manufacturability. Our work moves rapidly from laboratory research into real robotic systems, partnering closely with mechanical, electrical, manufacturing, and systems engineers.

Develop the advanced coating materials that define the next generation of humanoid robotics.

You will lead a polymer chemistry-driven research and development efforts focused on novel polymer coating materials for load-bearing composites applications. You'll design experiments, characterize materials,, and collaborate with multidisciplinary engineering teams to integrate new materials into production-ready robotic systems. You will connect coating chemistry and polymer fundamental properties to materials performance, including adhesion, friction, abrasion, heat generation, flexibility, fatigue, and others.

Your work will directly shape the mechanical performance, durability, safety, and manufacturability of future 1X robots.

• Develop novel polymer coating materials for load-bearing materials and composites
• Characterize coating and composite material performance using advanced chemical, thermal, and mechanical analysis techniques, including tensile, abrasion, adhesion, flex-fatigue, DMA, DSC, TGA, FTIR, and optical microscopy testing
• Build a clear structure–property–process–performance model linking coating polymer chemistry, physical properties, and application parameters to performance in the defined use cases
• Investigate coating and composite failures and implement chemistry-driven solutions that improve materials performance Establish laboratory procedures, testing methodologies, and documentation that support manufacturing readiness and intellectual property development

• Strong understanding of polymer chemistry, formulation science, and advanced polymer coating materials
• Hands-on laboratory expertise with polymer synthesis, material characterization, and experimental design
• Practical knowledge of coatings, polymer processing, surface preparation, adhesion, and formulation variables
• Strong analytical mindset with experience using data to optimize formulations and manufacturing processes
• Excellent collaboration across chemistry, materials science, mechanical engineering, manufacturing, and systems engineering
• Ownership mindset with the ability to independently drive research from concept through production implementation

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Polymer Chemistry, Polymer Science, or a closely related engineering discipline
• Minimum 3 years of experience developing advanced polymer coating materials
  
  Strong experience with material characterization techniques including DMA, DSC, TGA, FTIR, rheology,…