Application Software Engineer, Applied AI

About the role

The application software team is the central nervous system of SpaceX – we create mission critical applications that are used throughout SpaceX to accelerate launch vehicle production and flight as well as systems that allow Starlink to grow into a worldwide fast, reliable Internet service. We are looking for engineers who treat fellow teammates with fairness, respect, and support.

Responsibilities

• Develop highly reliable software solutions used across SpaceX, including AI-powered applications that accelerate production, flight, and Starlink operations
• Create new applications that improve how SpaceX operates by incorporating modern large language models, agentic systems, and other AI capabilities
• Own the full lifecycle of Applied AI systems: design, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and iteration from prototype to production
• Deep dive into users’ problems to uncover high-leverage AI opportunities and deliver efficient, production-grade solutions
• Architect production systems for agentic workflows, tool-use, multi-agent orchestration, advanced retrieval, and long-context applications that prioritize reliability, safety, and responsible deployment
• Build and maintain rigorous evaluation frameworks (LLM-as-judge, automated benchmarks, online evaluation) and production observability/monitoring for AI quality, safety, latency, and cost
• Stay at the frontier of LLM techniques and rapidly incorporate emerging best practices into production systems across SpaceX programs

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, math, or scientific discipline; OR 2+ years of professional experience building software in lieu of a degree
• 1+ years of experience in full stack development

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience evaluating, deploying, and integrating AI models into production systems
• Proven track record of delivering (or significantly contributing to) end-to-end AI products or production AI-powered features
• Proven track record of shipping real-world AI products from prototype through production deployment and iteration
• Deep hands-on experience with modern LLM techniques: agentic systems, tool-use / function calling, multi-agent orchestration, advanced retrieval architectures, fine-tuning, and structured outputs
• Experience building production evaluation systems (LLM-as-judge, automated eval harnesses, A/B testing, red-teaming) and AI observability/monitoring (tracing, quality metrics, safety, cost)
• Experience designing and implementing production architecture for AI-powered applications with strong emphasis on reliability, safety, and responsible deployment
• Previous experience in AI product design, development, integration, testing, and productionization
• Strong software engineering foundation with expertise in designing production systems (including AI-powered and system-to-system architectures) and a track record of writing clean, maintainable code
• Programming experience in Python, C#.NET, Go, Scala, Java, or similar
• Production experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and modern data streaming (Kafka or similar)
• Front-end experience (Angular, React, or similar) and database experience (PostgreSQL, SQL Server, or similar)
• Demonstrated ability to stay current with rapidly evolving AI technologies and best practices
• Able to work under pressure and deliver results across multiple parallel priorities in a fast-paced, high-reliability environment

Additional Requirements

• You may be asked to work extended hours/weekends dependent on launch cadence
• This role requires you to be onsite
• Remote and/or hybrid work will not be considered

Compensation and Benefits

Pay Range Level 1: $125,000.00 - $160,000.00
Level 2: $145,000.00 - $195,000.00

Requirements

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C.1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C.1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.