Principal Software Engineer (Platform Team)

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the long-term technical vision and architecture for SpaceX’s AI platform and security infrastructure
• Lead high-impact initiatives with full ownership over strategy, design, implementation, and successful company-wide rollout
• Oversee onboarding of frontier models, massive compute scaling, and continuous optimization of proxy systems for security, efficiency, logging, and control
• Lead adoption efforts at scale — establishing standards, mentoring senior engineers, building reusable assets, and driving cultural change toward AI-first workflows
• Proactively identify and execute on the highest-leverage opportunities to turn ideas into production software, trained models, and automated systems with managed, reliable compute
• Invent and scale advanced risk-mitigation capabilities (AI code review, automated PR tools, safety systems) that protect and accelerate the business
• Establish best practices and technical direction for lean, secure, and maximally effective applied AI across the company
• Serve as a key technical advisor and collaborator with leadership and cross-functional teams to align platform capabilities with SpaceX’s most ambitious goals

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, or other engineering discipline and 7+ years of professional experience building and scaling production platforms; OR 9+ years of professional experience building and scaling production platforms in lieu of a degree
• Experience designing and operating large-scale AI/ML platforms, internal developer platforms, or mission-critical infrastructure

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Demonstrated success architecting and scaling AI gateways, secure proxy layers, or enterprise MLOps platforms that serve hundreds of users
• Expert-level experience with Docker/Kubernetes ecosystems, zero-trust security models, and multi-cloud/frontier-model integrations
• Deep expertise in MLOps, distributed compute, model lifecycle management, and building highly observable, reliable systems
• Strong history of enabling organization-wide impact through technical leadership, mentoring, and creation of shared platforms and standards
• Entrepreneurial leadership with a proven ability to spot and deliver transformative solutions
• Mastery of Python and broad expertise across modern languages and tooling
• Extensive experience with infrastructure-as-code, advanced observability, and building platforms that others love to use
• Deep passion for responsible AI, developer velocity, and converting deep engineering knowledge into reliable automation at planetary scale