This role pays less than
80%
of similar roles. Most pay
$142,500–$214,000
— the shaded band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$135k
versus about
$178k
for comparable roles.
Based on 240 similar postings.
Employer
About SpaceX
SpaceX designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft with the mission of enabling humans to become a multi-planetary species. It operates the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Starship launch vehicles, as well as the Starlink satellite internet constellation.
SpaceX currently has
680 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$130,000–$165,000
across 442 roles with salary data.
As an AI Software Engineer (Vehicle Engineering), you will join the Artificial Intelligence Software Engineering team to solve complex data problems for launch vehicles and spacecraft. You will develop core AI technologies, including training internal models from scratch, fine-tuning foundation models like LLMs and vision systems, and utilizing Reinforcement Learning to post-train models. Your daily work involves building agentic engineering tools, RAG-based systems, and MCP servers to accelerate hardware design and testing for electronics and propulsion systems. You will utilize Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX within Linux environments while managing large-scale training pipelines on GPU clusters. The role requires expertise in MLOps, Docker, Kubernetes, and various data infrastructures like PostgreSQL and vector databases. Your work directly addresses engineering bottlenecks by transforming how flight data is accessed to support satellite communications and rocket development.
Train and fine-tune large language models (LLMs) and vision models using reinforcement learning and other machine learning techniques.
Design agentic AI systems and multi-agent workflows to automate complex engineering tasks.
Build and optimize large-scale machine learning training pipelines for production-grade applications.
Develop RAG-based tools and MCP servers to extract knowledge from internal SpaceX data.
Create AI tools for data analysis, anomaly detection, predictive modeling, and automated decision-making.
Manage the full AI model lifecycle including data preparation, infrastructure, deployment, and monitoring.
Establish rigorous standards for model validation, safety, reliability, and data security.
Build and iterate on AI prototypes to solve specific engineering bottlenecks in hardware design and testing.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's degree in computer science, data science, engineering, math, or physics, or 4+ years of professional experience building and training AI/ML systems.
At least 1 year of experience in AI software engineering focusing on model training, fine-tuning, and machine learning systems.
At least 1 year of programming experience in Python.
Expert understanding of LLM transformer architectures and training procedures including pre-training, supervised fine tuning, and reinforcement learning.
Experience building agentic AI systems, multi-agent workflows, and RAG-based tools.
Proficiency with modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX.
Experience with MLOps best practices, Linux systems, Git, Docker, and Kubernetes.
Must be a U.S. citizen, national, lawful permanent resident, or eligible for required export control authorizations.
AWS
S3
C#
C++
Java
Perl
Machine Learning
Natural Language Processing
Information Retrieval
Data Infrastructure
Vector Embeddings
Object Oriented Design
Source Control Management
C++
Machine Learning
Robotics
autonomous vehicle s
Motion Planning
Trajectory Generation
Real-time Systems
Simulation
AI Infrastructure
Performance Optimization