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AI Engineer, Supercomputing, Special Programs - Top Secret Clearance

Join SpaceX as an AI Engineer to build tooling for classified environments, ensuring engineers can operate effectively without direct support.

Location
Palo Alto, CA
Compensation
$125k–$220k/yr
Level
mid
Type
full time

Posted by employer 4 months ago

First seen on Joblaze 4 months ago

Last verified on the company career page 2 hours ago

Requirements

Experience
1+ years
Education
Bachelor's degree
Visa
Sponsorship available

Not disclosed in this posting: work arrangement.

Benefits

401k Match Paid Vacation Paid Sick Leave Equity/Stock Options Paid Holidays Health Insurance Parental Leave

Joblaze summary

In the role of AI Engineer for Platform Infrastructure at SpaceX, the individual will focus on developing robust tooling that supports engineers working in classified environments, ensuring that their operations run smoothly without direct assistance. Key skills include proficiency in Go Lang or Python, experience with Kubernetes, and familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure-as-Code practices. This position is ideal for someone with a technical background and at least one year of relevant experience, particularly in environments requiring security clearances. The role is critical to SpaceX's mission, contributing to advanced technologies aimed at enabling human life on Mars.

Joblaze insights

  • Listed about 4 months ago — first seen on Joblaze May 22, 2026. Last confirmed on SpaceX's careers page October 9, 2026.
  • This exact title is also open at 3 other locations at SpaceX: Hawthorne, CA, Redmond, WA, Washington, DC.
  • Salary band is below the typical range for AI/ML roles (median ~$190,000).
  • Starts above 9% of 113 comparable mid ai/ml roles in United States that list Python we track (median $150,000 across 49 companies). See Python salary trends
  • Python appears in 48.1% of 466 comparable mid ai/ml roles in United States; PXE boot appears in 0.2% of 466 comparable mid ai/ml roles in United States.

Quick facts

What's the salary range?
SpaceX lists $125,000–$220,000 for this role.
How much experience is required?
At least 1 year of relevant experience for this AI Engineer, Supercomputing, Special Programs - Top Secret Clearance role.
What's the tech stack?
Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: CI/CD, CUDA, GPU, Go, Infiniband, Kubernetes.
Does SpaceX sponsor work visas for this role?
Yes — the posting indicates visa sponsorship is available for the right candidate.
What seniority level is this role?
SpaceX targets mid-level candidates for this position.
Is this full-time or contract?
Full-time for this AI Engineer, Supercomputing, Special Programs - Top Secret Clearance role at SpaceX.

From the original posting

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars.

AI ENGINEER, SUPERCOMPUTING, SPECIAL PROGRAMS - TOP SECRET CLEARANCE

As an AI Engineer on Special Programs Supercomputing you will build the tooling, and work with our cleared engineers at classified sites execute it. The quality of what you build directly determines how effectively those engineers can operate in environments where they cannot call you for help. Your tooling must be deterministic, complete, well-tested, and foolproof.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
  • Design and build the deployment generator.
  • Create and maintain platform documentation.
  • Build the bundle pipeline.
  • Implement profile-driven rendering for public cloud, enterprise on-prem, and classified air-gap targets based on profile selection.
  • Build and maintain the cross-profile CI matrix.
  • Build the testing and validation framework.
  • Integrate with the existing Supercompute team's operators, Helm charts, and CRDs by consuming their work as inputs to the generator without modifying production infrastructure.
  • Own the monitoring stack migration.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
  • Bachelor's degree in computer science, mathematics, computer engineering, physics, data science, or engineering discipline.
  • 1+ years of experience in Go Lang and/or Python.
  • 1+ years of experience working with Kubernetes or similar tooling for automating, developing and scaling containerized applications.
PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
  • Ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret or Top Secret SCI clearance.
  • Experience building CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation (Buildkite, GitHub Actions, or equivalent).
  • Familiarity with container image management.
  • Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (Pulumi or Terraform) and understanding of state management tradeoffs.
  • Understanding of Linux systems.
  • Experience building air-gapped or disconnected deployment tooling where all dependencies must be pre-staged.
  • Familiarity with GPU infrastructure, including NVIDIA drivers, CUDA, NCCL, InfiniBand/RoCE networking.
  • Experience with PXE boot, cloud-init, squashfs, or other bare metal provisioning technologies.
  • Own the bare metal provisioning pipeline.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
  • Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed.
  • 20% travel may be required to government sites.
  • This position requires successfully obtaining and maintaining a Top Secret Security Clearance as a condition of employment. While the clearance may not be immediately necessary upon hire, we encourage you to initiate the application process promptly upon accepting this offer. Your ability to secure the necessary clearance is essential for fulfilling key responsibilities of the role. Should you be unable to obtain it, SpaceX reserves the right to modify or terminate your employment to align with operational needs.
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

Pay range:
AI Engineer: $135,000 - $230,000/per year

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package at SpaceX. You may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of company stock, stock options, or long-term cash awards, as well as potential discretionary bonuses and the ability to purchase additional stock at a discount through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan. You will also receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, paid parental leave, and various other discounts and perks. You may also accrue 3 weeks of paid vacation and will be eligible for 10 or more paid holidays per year. Employees accrue paid sick leave pursuant to Company policy which satisfies or exceeds the accrual, carryover, and use requirements of the law.

ITAR REQUIREMENTS:

Standard company text repeated across SpaceX's postings is omitted here.