This role pays more than
89%
of similar roles. Most pay
$172,125–$220,800
— the shaded band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$252k
versus about
$196k
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 a Principal Software Engineer on the Platform Team, you will define the technical vision and architecture for foundational tooling and security infrastructure designed to empower the organization with AI capabilities. You will lead high-impact initiatives including onboarding frontier models, scaling compute capacity, and optimizing proxy systems for logging, control, and security. Your daily work involves building secure gateways, developing risk-mitigation tools like intelligent code review assistants, and creating reusable assets to drive AI-first workflows. The role requires expertise in Python, Docker, Kubernetes, infrastructure-as-code, and MLOps while managing multi-cloud integrations and zero-trust security models. You will solve complex problems regarding how to convert engineering knowledge into reliable automation and data stores at scale, ensuring that trustworthy AI becomes a core capability for all teams by building robust, observable systems and scalable internal developer platforms.
What does a Software Engineer earn in California?
Median $214000 from 775 postings across 63 companies.