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Principal Software Engineer (Platform Team)

SpaceX· Starship Software Engineering
Apply on company site
Sunnyvale, CA$210k - $295kfull-timePosted 5mo ago

About the role

Lead the AI platform at SpaceX, defining technical vision and building scalable, secure AI infrastructure and tooling to empower multiple teams across SpaceX. Focus on gateways/proxy systems, frontier model onboarding, multi-cloud integrations, and risk-mitigation tools to enable trustworthy AI at planetary scale.

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:Docker/KubernetesMLOpsPython
Nice to have:Infrastructure as codeSecurityLeadership & Mentoring

Benefits

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

About SpaceX

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