AI Engineer, Supercomputing, Special Programs - Top Secret Clearance
About this role
SpaceX is focused on developing the technologies required to enable human life on Mars. This role is centered on building the essential tooling and infrastructure that allows cleared engineers to operate effectively in secure, classified environments. The quality and reliability of the systems developed directly impact the operational effectiveness of these engineers in environments where direct support is unavailable. The core objective is to create deterministic, complete, well-tested, and foolproof infrastructure components.
This AI Engineer will be responsible for developing critical deployment mechanisms and integration pipelines. They will work closely with existing teams to consume existing components, such as those from the Supercompute team, to build new generation tools. A key aspect of the work involves implementing profile-driven rendering across various deployment targets, including public cloud, enterprise on-premise systems, and classified air-gap targets.
This position is designed for an individual who excels at building robust automation, managing complex infrastructure, and ensuring high reliability under strict operational constraints. Candidates who thrive in environments requiring meticulous attention to detail and the ability to manage security-sensitive tooling will be well-suited for this opportunity.
What you will do
- Design and construct the deployment generator tool.
- Create and maintain comprehensive platform documentation.
- Develop the bundle pipeline.
- Implement profile-driven rendering for public cloud, enterprise on-prem, and classified air-gap targets based on selected profiles.
- Build and maintain the cross-profile CI matrix.
- Develop the testing and validation framework.
- Integrate with the Supercompute team's operators, Helm charts, and CRDs by using their work as inputs for the generator without altering production infrastructure.
- Own the monitoring stack migration.
What you need
- A Bachelor's degree in a quantitative field such as computer science, mathematics, computer engineering, physics, data science, or engineering is required.
- Candidates must possess at least one year of professional experience working with Go Lang and/or Python.
- The role requires at least one year of experience utilizing Kubernetes or similar tooling for automating, developing, and scaling containerized applications.
- Experience building CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation using tools like Buildkite or GitHub Actions, or equivalents, is preferred.
- Familiarity with container image management practices is necessary.
- Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code tools such as Pulumi or Terraform, along with an understanding of state management tradeoffs, is advantageous.
- A solid understanding of Linux systems is a prerequisite for success in this role.
Nice to have
- Ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret or Top Secret SCI clearance
- 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
- Ownership of the bare metal provisioning pipeline
Benefits
- Comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage
- Access to a 401(k) retirement plan
- Short and long-term disability insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid parental leave
- 3 weeks of paid vacation
- 10 or more paid holidays per year
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What is the remote policy for this role?
The posting does not explicitly detail the remote work policy for this position.
What is the compensation range for this role?
The salary range for the AI Engineer role is listed as $135,000 to $230,000 per year.
What is the required tech stack?
The required experience includes Go Lang and/or Python, Kubernetes experience, and familiarity with CI/CD tools like Buildkite or GitHub Actions.
What is the team environment like?
The role involves working with cleared engineers at classified sites, and the tooling built must be deterministic, complete, and foolproof to ensure engineer effectiveness.
What is the hiring process regarding security clearance?
Successfully obtaining and maintaining a Top Secret Security Clearance is a condition of employment, and applicants are encouraged to initiate the process promptly.