Site Reliability Engineer, AI Infrastructure (Starshield)
About this role
Engineers who thrive in high-stakes environments and want to scale infrastructure for national security missions will find a natural home here. SpaceX is building out the Starshield constellation in Redmond, WA, creating the systems that deliver critical intelligence data for the US government.
The selected candidate will design, operate, and scale GPU and CPU infrastructure supporting massive AI clusters. Daily work involves developing automation for on-premise compute resources, managing bare metal and virtualized platforms, and collaborating directly with internal AI teams.
Applicants need a solid foundation in Linux, containerization, and site reliability engineering principles. Success in the role requires navigating complex infrastructure challenges and maintaining high availability across critical systems.
What you will do
- Manage GPU and CPU infrastructure deployments to Top Secret datacenters while providing support for external customers.
- Design, validate, and productize solutions for AI clusters scaling to over 100k GPUs.
- Develop automation to deploy and manage on-premise Kubernetes and AI clusters along with operating systems.
- Deploy and manage core infrastructure components including databases, monitoring tools, and distributed storage.
- Collaborate closely with AI engineers to build scalable, operable, and maintainable software products.
- Own the full lifecycle of services from inception and design through deployment, operation, and refinement.
- Implement monitoring and alerting to maintain high availability across supporting systems.
What you need
- Hold a bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, IT, or an engineering discipline alongside professional SRE or DevOps experience, or possess equivalent professional experience in lieu of a degree.
- Bring professional experience working with Linux operating systems.
- Demonstrate hands-on experience using infrastructure tools such as Terraform or Ansible.
- Have experience with containerization technologies including OCI containers and Kubernetes.
- Show proficiency in scripting languages like Bash or Python.
- Possess development experience using Python, C++, or Go.
Nice to have
- 1+ years of experience with Python and Python-based development frameworks
- Experience managing Kubernetes clusters beyond basic usage
- Deep understanding of testing, continuous integration, build, deployment, and continuous monitoring
- Strong networking knowledge of TCP/IP
- Experience using NVIDIA GPU deployment stacks
Benefits
- Comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage
- Access to a 401(k) retirement plan
- Short and long-term disability insurance and life insurance
- Paid parental leave, paid vacation, and 10 or more paid holidays per year
- Company shuttles for roundtrip travel from select Seattle locations to the Redmond office
- Eligible for long-term incentives, discretionary bonuses, and an Employee Stock Purchase Plan
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What is the salary range for this position?
The pay range for Level 1 is $125,000.00 to $165,000.00, while Level 2 ranges from $145,000.00 to $200,000.00. Your actual level and base salary are determined on a case-by-case basis based on knowledge, skills, education, and experience.
What are the security clearance requirements?
This position requires successfully obtaining and maintaining a Top Secret Security Clearance as a condition of employment. Those with an active clearance will also receive a 10% differential up to an additional $20,000 annually once officially briefed into a classified program.
Where is the role located?
This position is located in Redmond, WA. Company shuttles are offered for roundtrip travel from select Seattle locations to the office Monday through Friday.