below marketmost similar roles pay hereabove market
This role pays less than
90%
of similar roles. Most pay
$137,500–$215,000
— the blue band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$115k
versus about
$176k
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
851 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$130,000–$165,000
across 590 roles with salary data.
The Operations Engineer (Starshield Products) joins a team focused on operating and deploying AI capabilities, including models, APIs, and integrations, for U.S. federal agencies. You will own the end-to-end cycle of service reliability, ensuring the health, performance, and stability of integrations between frontier AI models like the Grok family and government systems. Day-to-day responsibilities include responding to automated alerts, investigating customer-reported issues, addressing technical debt, and building observability tools like metrics and monitors. You will use Python, cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure, and containerization tools like Docker and Kubernetes. This role solves the technical challenge of maintaining high-uptime production systems and providing scalable AI/ML applications within regulated government or public sector technology environments while translating ambiguous stakeholder needs into concrete technical solutions.
Own the health, performance, and stability of integrations between frontier AI models and government systems.
Respond to automated alerts and investigate reported problems to drive lasting technical fixes.
Develop documentation, metrics, and monitoring tools to keep services observable and operable.
Address technical debt in essential codebases and inform strategic investments in core products.
Prototype solutions and iterate rapidly based on real-world feedback from agency stakeholders.
Participate in on-call rotations to maintain resilient, high-uptime production systems.
Translate ambiguous stakeholder needs into concrete technical solutions for government customers.
What we're looking for
Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or another STEM discipline.
2+ years of professional experience in software development in lieu of a degree.
Must be a U.S. citizen, national, lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee as required by ITAR.
Must be able to successfully obtain and maintain a Top Secret Security Clearance.
1+ years of hands-on software engineering experience building scalable systems, APIs, or AI/ML applications with strong Python proficiency (preferred).
Experience working with large language models, generative AI, or agentic systems in research, production, or applied engineering (preferred).
1+ years of experience working on enterprise applications serving over 10,000 users across geographies and time zones (preferred).
Experience with cloud platforms, containerization, and API orchestration (preferred).
Python
Large Language Models
Generative AI
AWS
GCP
Azure
Kubernetes
Docker
APIs
Observability
Scalable Systems
Agentic Systems
Cloud Platforms
API Orchestration
Python
Large Language Models
Generative AI
Agentic Systems
AWS
GCP
Azure
Docker
Kubernetes
APIs
SDKs
AI Safety
Red-teaming
API Orchestration
Production-grade Code