Sr. AI Engineer, Special Programs

About the role

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars.

SR. AI ENGINEER, SPECIAL PROGRAMS

This team focuses on engineering and deploying AI capabilities (models, APIs, tools, and integrations) for U.S. federal agencies. You'll work closely with product, research, infrastructure, and legal/governance teams to make AI and future models maximally useful for missions while upholding safety, transparency, and ethical standards.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

- Design, build, and optimize integrations between AI frontier models (e.g., Grok family) and government systems, platforms, and data environments

- Collaborate on custom SDKs, APIs, developer tools, and documentation tailored for government and enterprise developers

- Partner with agency stakeholders to understand requirements, prototype solutions, and iterate rapidly based on real-world feedback

- Ship production-grade code and features with a bias toward speed, simplicity, and measurable impact

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

- Bachelor's degree in computer science or another STEM discipline; OR 2+ years of professional experience in software development in lieu of a degree

- 5+ years of hands-on software engineering experience building scalable systems, APIs, or AI/ML applications (strong Python proficiency, other languages a plus)

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

- Experience working with large language models, generative AI, or agentic systems—either in research, production, or applied engineering

- Familiarity with government or public sector technology environments (federal civilian agencies, state/local gov, or regulated industries like healthcare, finance, or infrastructure)

- Strong product sensibility: ability to translate ambiguous stakeholder needs into concrete technical solutions

- Demonstrated ability to write clean, maintainable, high-performance code under tight timelines

- Exceptional problem-solving skills and intellectual curiosity—you thrive on hard, ambiguous challenges

- Excellent communication skills; you can explain complex technical concepts to non-technical partners clearly and concisely

- Prior work on AI safety, governance, red-teaming, or responsible AI deployment

- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), or API orchestration

- Background in policy-adjacent technical roles, civic tech, or public-interest technology

- Contributions to open-source AI projects or developer tools

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

- Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed

- 20% travel may be required to government sites