Senior AI Engineer, Special Programs

SpaceX

Confirmed live 2 days ago Trusted

Quick summary

Work type: On-site
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Salary: $220,000–$350,000 / yr
Posted: 113 days ago
Freshness: Confirmed live 2 days ago
Nearby: 99+ roles within 25 mi

Market check

Salary context

Above market

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $204k

This role $285k

$139k most similar roles pay here $373k

This role pays more than 93% of similar roles. Most pay $162,000–$246,150 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $285k versus about $204k 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.

Most-posted roles

View all roles at SpaceX

At a glance

TL;DR · Senior AI Engineer, Special Programs

Role Posting Log in to save

As a Sr. AI Engineer, Special Programs, you will join a team dedicated to engineering and deploying AI capabilities for U.S. federal agencies. You will work with product, research, infrastructure, and legal teams to build integrations between frontier models like the Grok family and government systems while ensuring safety and ethical standards. Your daily responsibilities include developing custom SDKs, APIs, developer tools, and documentation tailored for enterprise use. You will collaborate with agency stakeholders to prototype solutions and ship production-grade code focused on speed and impact. The role requires proficiency in Python, experience with large language models, generative AI, or agentic systems, and familiarity with cloud platforms like AWS, GCP, or Azure. You will solve complex technical problems within the domain of government technology environments and public-interest infrastructure to make advanced models useful for federal missions.

What does a AI Engineer earn in California?

Median $246150 from 84 postings across 12 companies.

See salary data

Skills

Python Large Language Models Generative AI Agentic Systems AWS GCP Azure Docker Kubernetes API Orchestration SDKs open-source AI Safety Red-teaming Software Engineering

What you'll do

Design, build, and optimize integrations between frontier AI models and government systems.
Develop custom SDKs, APIs, developer tools, and documentation for government and enterprise users.
Prototype solutions and iterate rapidly based on feedback from agency stakeholders.
Translate ambiguous stakeholder requirements into concrete technical solutions.
Ship production-grade code with a focus on speed, simplicity, and measurable impact.
Ensure AI deployments uphold safety, transparency, and ethical standards.
Maintain high-performance, maintainable code under tight timelines.

What we're looking for

Bachelor's degree in computer science or another STEM discipline, or 2+ years of professional software development experience.
5+ years of hands-on software engineering experience building scalable systems, APIs, or AI/ML applications.
Proficiency in Python and other programming languages.
Experience with large language models, generative AI, or agentic systems.
Familiarity with government technology environments or regulated industries like healthcare and finance.
Ability to write clean, maintainable, high-performance code under tight timelines.
Must be able to obtain and maintain a Top Secret Security Clearance.
Must meet U.S. export control requirements (U.S. citizenship, permanent residency, or specific protected status).