Senior Software Engineer, CDN

SpaceX

Confirmed live 2 days ago High trust

Quick summary

Work type: On-site
Location: Hawthorne, CA
Salary: $185,000–$265,000 / yr
Posted: 15 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 $168k

This role $225k

$114k most similar roles pay here $281k

This role pays more than 91% of similar roles. Most pay $137,500–$197,500 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $225k 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. The role involves developing robust, responsive distributed systems while building tools for real-time monitoring, alerting, and maintenance of business-critical infrastructure. Key responsibilities include designing algorithms to optimize hardware utilization and cost efficiency, implementing traffic shaping across multiple CDNs, leading architecture reviews, and managing experiments to validate future design concepts. 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 scaling a global broadband internet system by building scalable infrastructure to support increasing user demand across the Starlink satellite constellation.

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 DNS Traffic Management Caching Load Balancing SSL/TLS DDoS Protection Monitoring Graph Theory Convex Optimization Numerical 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 and 5+ years of professional software development experience.
7+ years of software development experience in lieu of a degree.
Software development experience in C, C++, or Rust.
3+ years of professional distributed systems experience or experience designing, building, and scaling a CDN system.
3+ years of professional networking experience.
Advanced degree in computer science or engineering (preferred).
Experience with complex networking systems, Edge Networking, DNS, Traffic Management, Caching, Load Balancing, SSL/TLS, DDoS protection, and monitoring (preferred).
Knowledge of network topology, numerical optimization, graph theory, or convex optimization (preferred).
Must be a U.S. citizen, national, lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee to meet ITAR requirements.