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Sr. AI Engineer, Supercomputing, Special Programs - Top Secret Clearance

Build tooling for classified environments as a Senior AI Engineer at SpaceX, ensuring effective operations for engineers in critical settings.

Location
Washington, DC
Compensation
$220k–$350k/yr
Level
senior
Type
full time

Posted by employer 4 months ago

First seen on Joblaze 4 months ago

Last verified on the company career page 8 minutes ago

Requirements

Experience
5+ 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 this role, the Sr. AI Engineer focuses on developing robust tooling for classified environments, ensuring that engineers can operate effectively without direct support. Key skills include proficiency in Go Lang or Python, along with extensive experience in Kubernetes and CI/CD pipeline automation. This position is ideal for seasoned professionals with a strong background in infrastructure and deployment automation, particularly those who can navigate the complexities of air-gapped systems. The role is critical to SpaceX's mission, requiring a Top Secret clearance and a commitment to high-stakes projects.

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: Redmond, WA, Hawthorne, CA, Palo Alto, CA.
  • Salary band is above the typical range for AI/ML roles (median ~$190,000).
  • Starts above 77% of 204 comparable senior ai/ml roles in United States that list Python we track (median $181,000 across 69 companies). See Python salary trends
  • Python appears in 52.8% of 544 comparable senior ai/ml roles in United States; PXE boot appears in 0.4% of 544 comparable senior ai/ml roles in United States.

Quick facts

What's the salary range?
SpaceX lists $220,000–$350,000 for this role.
How much experience is required?
At least 5 years of relevant experience for this Sr. 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 senior candidates for this position.
Is this full-time or contract?
Full-time for this Sr. 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.

SR AI ENGINEER, SUPERCOMPUTING, SPECIAL PROGRAMS - TOP SECRET CLEARANCE

As a Sr 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.
  • 5+ years of experience in Go Lang and/or Python.
  • 5+ 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:
Member of Technical Staff: $220,000.00 - $350,000.00/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.