Senior Software Engineer, CDN

SpaceX

Confirmed live yesterday Trusted

Quick summary

Work type: On-site
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Salary: $175,000–$280,000 / yr
Posted: 39 days ago
Freshness: Confirmed live yesterday
Nearby: 99+ roles within 25 mi

Market check

Salary context

Above market

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $168k

This role $228k

$112k most similar roles pay here $298k

This role pays more than 92% of similar roles. Most pay $137,500–$197,500 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $228k 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 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 Software Engineer, CDN

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Sr. Software Engineer, CDN (Starlink) joins the CDN team to design, build, and scale a new Content Delivery Network for Starlink. This role involves developing robust, responsive distributed systems while building tools, visibility, and alerting mechanisms to maintain business-critical infrastructure in real-time. The engineer will design algorithms to optimize hardware utilization and cost efficiency, implement traffic shaping across multiple CDNs, and lead architecture and code reviews. Candidates should possess experience in C, C++, or Rust, along with expertise in distributed systems and networking. Preferred skills include knowledge of Edge Networking, DNS, Traffic Management, Caching, Load Balancing, SSL/TLS, and DDoS protection. The role addresses the technical challenge of managing a massive satellite constellation by building scalable infrastructure to support global broadband internet services for a growing user base through advanced network topology and optimization techniques.

What does a Software Engineer earn in California?

Median $214000 from 775 postings across 63 companies.

See salary data

Skills

C C++ Rust Distributed Systems CDN Networking Edge Networking DNS Traffic Management Caching Load Balancing SSL/TLS DDoS Protection Monitoring Graph Theory Convex Optimization

What you'll do

Design, build, and scale a new Content Delivery Network (CDN) for Starlink.
Build robust, responsive, and scalable distributed systems.
Create tools, visibility, and alerting mechanisms to diagnose and maintain business-critical systems in real-time.
Design algorithms to optimize hardware utilization and cost efficiency against performance metrics.
Implement systems that manage and shape traffic across multiple CDNs.
Lead architecture, design, and code reviews for the engineering team.
Develop prototypes and manage experiments to validate future design concepts and use cases.

What we're looking for

Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or another STEM field is required, or 7+ years of software development experience in lieu of a degree.
Candidates must have at least 5 years of professional experience in software development if they hold a relevant degree.
Experience in software development using C, C++, or Rust is required.
At least 3 years of professional distributed systems experience or experience building and scaling a CDN system is required.
At least 3 years of professional networking experience is required.
Advanced degrees in computer science or engineering are preferred.
Experience with complex networking systems (layers 0-7), Edge Networking, DNS, Traffic Management, Caching, Load Balancing, SSL/TLS, and DDoS protection is preferred.
Applicants must be a U.S. citizen, national, lawful permanent resident, or have applicable refugee/asylee status to meet ITAR requirements.