Senior Software Engineer, High Performance Computing

SpaceX

Confirmed live yesterday High trust

Quick summary

Work type
On-site
Location
Palo Alto, CAHawthorne, CARedmond, WA
Salary
$175,000–$240,000 / yr
Posted
117 days ago
Freshness
Confirmed live yesterday

Market check

Salary context

Above market

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $179k
This role $208k
$122k most similar roles pay here $253k

This role pays more than 71% of similar roles. Most pay $142,500–$215,000 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $208k versus about $179k 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 720 open roles on FindRole.

Listed pay typically runs $130,000–$165,000 across 511 roles with salary data.

Most-posted roles

View all roles at SpaceX

At a glance

TL;DR · Senior Software Engineer, High Performance Computing

As a Sr. Software Engineer, High Performance Computing (Starlink), you will join the Starlink program as a Beam Planning Software and Network Software Engineer. You will be responsible for the complete lifecycle of software development, including design, testing, and support to optimize hardware utility. Your daily work involves developing highly reliable, real-time software to determine beam formation for a low-latency, high-bandwidth satellite-based global network. You will lead architecture reviews, develop prototypes to prove design concepts, and build tools for data analysis, visualization, and test execution across virtualized and hardware-in-the-loop environments. The role requires proficiency in assembly, C, or C++, with preferred expertise in real-time rendering, physics simulation, network topology, numerical optimization, and graph theoretic approaches. You will solve complex problems related to managing a large laser mesh network in orbit to provide global broadband internet access.

What does a Software Engineer earn in California?

Median $214000 from 869 postings across 70 companies.

See salary data

What you'll do

  • Develop real-time software to determine optimal beam configurations for low-latency satellite networks.
  • Lead architecture design and conduct comprehensive code reviews.
  • Build prototypes and manage experiments to validate key design concepts.
  • Create tools for data analysis, visualization, and test execution across multiple environments.
  • Manage the full software lifecycle including development, testing, and production support.
  • Execute tests in virtualized hardware environments and real hardware-in-the-loop simulations.
  • Perform on-orbit testing to close the feedback loop between design and performance.

What we're looking for

  • Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, math, or STEM discipline and 5+ years of professional software development experience.
  • 7+ years of professional software development experience in lieu of a degree.
  • Development experience in assembly, C, or C++.
  • Knowledgeable in real-time rendering, game engine development, physics simulation, or other high-performance computing (preferred).
  • Knowledgeable in network topology, numerical optimization, graph theory, or convex optimization (preferred).
  • Experience with distributed systems and internet services (preferred).
  • Proven experience developing, debugging, and deploying software for real-world applications (preferred).
  • Must be a U.S. citizen, national, lawful permanent resident, or eligible for required export control authorizations.

More like this

Similar roles

Senior Software Engineer, High Performance Computing

SpaceX

Redmond, WA +2 117 days ago $165,000–$230,000
C++ C Assembly High Performance Computing Distributed Systems Network Topology Numerical Optimization Convex Optimization Physics Simulation Game Engine Development Hardware-in-the-loop Simulation
5+ yrs exp

Software Engineer, High Performance Computing

SpaceX

Redmond, WA +1 117 days ago $125,000–$150,000
C C++ Assembly High Performance Computing Network Topology Numerical Optimization Convex Optimization Distributed Systems Physics Simulation Game Engine Development

Senior Software Engineer, Beam Planning

SpaceX

Redmond, WA +2 117 days ago $165,000–$230,000
C C++ Assembly Distributed Systems Network Topology Numerical Optimization Convex Optimization Physics Simulation Game Engine Development Hardware-in-the-loop High-Performance Computing
5+ yrs exp

Software Engineer, Low Latency Computing

SpaceX

Redmond, WA +1 117 days ago $125,000–$150,000
C C++ Assembly High-Performance Computing Distributed Systems Network Topology Numerical Optimization Convex Optimization Physics Simulation Game Engine Development

Software Engineer, Low Latency Computing

SpaceX

Palo Alto, CA +1 117 days ago $135,000–$160,000
C C++ Assembly Distributed Systems Network Topology Numerical Optimization Convex Optimization Physics Simulation Game Engine Development

Senior Software Engineer, Data Platform

SpaceX

Redmond, WA 39 days ago $160,000–$270,000
Scala Java C# Python Go Angular React JavaScript Apache Kafka Spark Flink Hive Delta Lake PostgreSQL CockroachDB Grafana Metabase PowerBI Machine Learning
5+ yrs exp