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Principal Software Engineer (Platform Team)

SpaceX· Starship Software Engineering
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Hawthorne, CA$200k - $285kfull-timePosted 6mo ago

About the role

Principal Software Engineer for SpaceX’s AI platform. Leads technical vision and implementation of secure, scalable AI infrastructure; focuses on AI gateways, proxy systems, frontier model onboarding, and risk-mitigation tools to enable AI at scale across SpaceX.

Responsibilities

  • Define and drive the long-term technical vision and architecture for SpaceX’s AI platform and security infrastructure
  • Lead high-impact initiatives with full ownership over strategy, design, implementation, and successful company-wide rollout
  • Oversee onboarding of frontier models, massive compute scaling, and continuous optimization of proxy systems for security, efficiency, logging, and control
  • Lead adoption efforts at scale — establishing standards, mentoring senior engineers, building reusable assets, and driving cultural change toward AI-first workflows
  • Proactively identify and execute on the highest-leverage opportunities to turn ideas into production software, trained models, and automated systems with managed, reliable compute
  • Invent and scale advanced risk-mitigation capabilities (AI code review, automated PR tools, safety systems) that protect and accelerate the business
  • Establish best practices and technical direction for lean, secure, and maximally effective applied AI across the company
  • Serve as a key technical advisor and collaborator with leadership and cross-functional teams to align platform capabilities with SpaceX’s most ambitious goals

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, or other engineering discipline and 7+ years of professional experience building and scaling production platforms; OR 9+ years of professional experience building and scaling production platforms in lieu of a degree
  • Experience designing and operating large-scale AI/ML platforms, internal developer platforms, or mission-critical infrastructure

Skills

Required:DockerKubernetesSecurity (zero-trust)
Nice to have:MLOpsPython

Benefits

  • comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage
  • 401(k) retirement plan
  • short and long-term disability insurance
  • life insurance
  • paid parental leave
  • 3 weeks of paid vacation and 10+ paid holidays per year
  • discretionary bonuses and Employee Stock Purchase Plan
  • stock or long-term cash awards (LI)
  • discounts and various other perks
Last updated Jul 8, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About SpaceX

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