Software Engineer, Collision Avoidance

SpaceX

Confirmed live today Low trust

Quick summary

Work type: On-site
Location: Hawthorne, CA
Salary: $125,000–$160,000 / yr
Posted: 57 days ago
Freshness: Confirmed live today
Nearby: 99+ roles within 25 mi

Market check

Salary context

Below market

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $181k

This role $142k

$113k $235k

below market most similar roles pay here above market

This role pays less than 77% of similar roles. Most pay $145,000–$217,500 — the blue band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $142k versus about $181k 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.

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At a glance

TL;DR · Software Engineer, Collision Avoidance

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Software Engineer, Collision Avoidance (Starshield) joins the GNC organization to build mission-critical systems for low-earth orbit safety. You will manage the complete software lifecycle, from initial prototyping and design concept quantification to development, testing, and rollout. Key responsibilities include developing highly reliable software for managing thousands of satellites, creating payload management tools, and building orbital prediction and analysis pipelines. The role requires proficiency in Python, C++, or similar object-oriented languages, alongside experience with distributed systems, containerization technologies like Docker and Kubernetes, and relational databases such as PostgreSQL or CockroachDB. You must understand version control, continuous integration, and performance profiling. This position addresses the technical challenge of maintaining large spacecraft constellations for government earth observation, communications, and hosted payloads within a national security context.

What does a Software Engineer earn in California?

Median $214500 from 1193 postings across 76 companies.

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Skills

Python C++ Distributed Systems Docker Kubernetes PostgreSQL CockroachDB Version Control Testing Monitoring Profiling Object-Oriented Programming Orbital Prediction

What you'll do

Develop highly reliable software systems to manage thousands of satellites in low-earth orbit.
Build mission-critical tools for payload management, collision avoidance, and orbital prediction.
Create analysis pipelines to verify the performance of fleet systems.
Develop prototypes to prove key design concepts and quantify technical constraints.
Manage the full software lifecycle from initial requirements and prototyping to testing and rollout.
Support critical path development and on-orbit operations during extended hours or weekends.

What we're looking for

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, math, or science; or 3+ years of professional software development experience in lieu of a degree.
1+ year of professional experience in software development.
Experience with Python, C++, or a similar object-oriented programming language (preferred).
Experience with distributed systems, large-scale consumer internet systems, or containerization technologies like Docker and Kubernetes (preferred).
Understanding of version control, testing, continuous integration, build, deployment, and monitoring (preferred).
Experience with profiling application performance and relational databases like PostgreSQL or CockroachDB (preferred).
Strong background in math and physics (preferred).
Must be a U.S. citizen, national, lawful permanent resident, refugee, asylee, or eligible for Department of State authorization.

5+ yrs exp

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