Staff Systems Engineer - Software Systems
Atomic Machines · Emeryville or Santa Clara, CA
$170,000–$215,000
Jul 2, 2026
Emeryville or Santa Clara, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A staff-level software engineering role focused on designing and building the software infrastructure that ties together precision manufacturing equipment, robotics, and distributed control systems. Day-to-day work spans defining system architecture, writing APIs and communication protocols, integrating hardware and software components, and building automated testing and validation tooling. Suited to engineers with broad distributed-systems experience who are comfortable working close to hardware.
Staff level · 7+ years · San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA · Full-time
Pay in the description: $170,000–$215,000
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 220 people in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 120–290
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $190,744 (middle half $167,095–$224,501). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (6)
The role is titled 'Staff Software Systems Engineer' and explicitly requires cross-team architectural ownership (spanning embedded, controls, cloud, and manufacturing applications), which genuinely supports a Staff-level classification rather than Senior.
C++, Rust, and Go are listed together as a single preferred/alternative requirement ('Experience with C++, Rust, or Go preferred') — C++ is the primary with Rust and Go as named alternatives.
Embedded systems and simulation appear in the requirements section but are qualified with softer language ('Familiarity with' and bundled with CI/CD) — treated as preferred rather than hard gates.
The role is on-site at either Emeryville or Santa Clara, CA. Both locations fall within the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley CBSA (41860); Santa Clara is in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara CBSA (41940), so the metro is ambiguous. Emeryville is listed first and the company's primary office context leans Oakland/East Bay, so 41860 is used, but the Santa Clara office could place this in CBSA 41940.
Degree requirement is listed as 'BS/MS … or equivalent,' so no hard degree gate is set.
Compensation includes equity and benefits in addition to the stated salary range.
Read the full posting
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