Site Reliability Engineer (High Performance Computing)
About this role
Managing the node lifecycle with infrastructure as code, building observability systems, and participating in the team's on-call rotation form the core of daily operations. The selected engineer takes ownership of the entire ecosystem as a product rather than managing a ticket queue, handling Linux machines, storage, and user-facing applications. Collaborating alongside HPC systems engineers, the team supports vehicle and structures simulation, machine learning, and AI inference platforms across the company.
SpaceX maintains this shared compute environment to drive advanced rocket and satellite programs, creating the need for a dedicated site reliability engineering model focused on toil reduction, automation, and sustainable incident response. Ideal candidates bring production instincts, write software to remove operational friction, and focus on user productivity rather than basic server pings.
What you will do
- Participate in the on-call rotation while practicing sustainable incident response and blameless postmortems.
- Manage the node lifecycle through infrastructure as code, covering operating systems, firmware, configuration management, and kernel stacks.
- Build comprehensive observability for both administrators and end users across clusters, nodes, and storage.
- Reduce operational toil by splitting time between production systems management and software automation.
- Sustainably manage compute and storage resources while leading capacity planning across company teams.
- Collaborate with systems engineers and cross-functional teams to design operable, maintainable infrastructure.
What you need
- Possess a bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, math, or a scientific discipline, or have at least two years of professional experience operating production infrastructure.
- Bring a minimum of two years of production experience working with Linux operating systems.
- Demonstrate two years of background in monitoring, debugging, and repairing production infrastructure such as servers, services, or networks.
- Meet eligibility requirements for access to classified material up to TS/SCI with polygraph and conform to U.S. Government export regulations.
- Commit to working primarily on-site in Hawthorne, CA, including participation in on-call rotations and extended hours as needed.
Nice to have
- Professional experience in SRE, DevOps, or production infrastructure engineering
- Experience with monitoring and alerting tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, or Nagios
- Familiarity with configuration management or infrastructure as code tools like Ansible, Puppet, or Terraform
- Experience writing scripts or code in Python or similar languages to automate tasks
- Background with containers, Kubernetes administration, or distributed storage
Benefits
- Comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage
- 401(k) retirement plan access
- Short and long-term disability insurance and life insurance
- Paid parental leave
- 3 weeks of paid vacation and 10 or more paid holidays per year
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan and long-term incentives
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What is the remote work policy for this role?
The position is based in Hawthorne, CA, and is primarily on-site. Employees must also be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed for incidents and time-critical failures.
What is the compensation range for this position?
Level 1 pays between $125,000.00 and $160,000.00, while Level 2 ranges from $145,000.00 to $195,000.00. Actual base salary is determined on a case-by-case basis depending on job-related knowledge, skills, education, and experience.
What tools and technologies will I work with?
The tech stack includes Linux, Python, infrastructure as code tools like Ansible or Terraform, container technologies, Kubernetes, and distributed storage systems. Prior HPC experience is not required, as the team provides training.
What are the citizenship or security requirements?
Applicants must conform to U.S. Government export regulations under ITAR, meaning they must be U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees, or asylees. Candidates must also be eligible for access to classified material up to TS/SCI with polygraph.