Software Engineer, Tracking

SpaceX

Confirmed live yesterday Low trust

Quick summary

Work type
On-site
Location
Hawthorne, CA
Salary
$125,000–$160,000 / yr
Posted
57 days ago
Freshness
Confirmed live yesterday

Market check

Salary context

Competitive pay

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $168k
This role $142k
$116k $208k
below market most similar roles pay here above market

This role pays less than 60% of similar roles. Most pay $137,500–$199,012 — the blue band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $142k versus about $168k 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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View all roles at SpaceX

At a glance

TL;DR · Software Engineer, Tracking

As a Software Engineer, Tracking (Starshield), you will join the GNC organization to build mission-critical systems for low-earth orbit safety. You will manage the complete software lifecycle, from determining core requirements and prototyping to development, testing, and rollout. Your daily work involves building payload management tools, orbital prediction tools for large spacecraft constellations, and analysis pipelines to verify fleet performance. You will utilize C++ or Python to develop prototypes that quantify technical constraints and analyze system performance. The role requires expertise in distributed systems, containerization technologies like Docker and Kubernetes, and relational databases such as PostgreSQL or CockroachDB. You will solve technical problems related to earth observation, communications, and hosted payloads within a government-focused framework using your knowledge of math, physics, and version control.

What does a Software Engineer earn in California?

Median $214500 from 1193 postings across 76 companies.

See salary data

What you'll do

  • Build software tools and construct scenarios to analyze system performance.
  • Develop prototypes to prove key design concepts and quantify technical constraints.
  • Manage the full software lifecycle from core requirements to rollout and support.
  • Build mission-critical systems for payload management and orbital prediction.
  • Develop analysis pipelines to verify the performance of the spacecraft fleet.
  • Support critical path development and on-orbit operations during extended hours.

What we're looking for

  • Bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering, computer science, data science, or an engineering discipline.
  • Software development experience in either C++ or Python.
  • Ability to work extended hours and weekends as needed to support critical path development and on-orbit operations.
  • Must be a U.S. citizen, national, lawful permanent resident, refugee, asylee, or eligible for Department of State authorization.
  • Active Top Secret, Top Secret SCI, or DOE Level Q clearance, or the ability to obtain and maintain one.
  • Experience with distributed systems or large-scale consumer internet systems (preferred).
  • Production experience with containerization technologies like Docker or Kubernetes (preferred).
  • Experience with satellites or spacecraft systems (preferred).

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