AI Engineer, Special Programs - Top Secret Clearance

SpaceX • Palo Alto, CA

7d

About The Position

AI engineers work directly with our end customers to own strategy, execution, and deployment of mission-critical AI solutions for U.S federal agencies. You'll work closely with product, research, infrastructure, and legal/governance teams to deliver high-stakes projects to make current and future models maximally useful for missions while upholding safety, transparency, and ethical standards.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, mathematics, computer engineering, physics, or data science.
• 1+ years of hands-on software engineering experience building scalable systems, APIs, or AI/ML applications.
• Active Top-Secret or Top-Secret SCI.

Nice To Haves

• Demonstrated success working with government agencies, DoW, or federal contractors on AI, software, or data projects.
• 6+ years of software engineering experience, ideally in environments requiring high reliability or security.
• Expertise in designing, implementing, and maintaining robust, scalable, and secure AI-driven solutions that meet stringent compliance and operational standards.
• Proven experience implementing AI or machine learning products with APIs, back-end systems, and front-end interfaces.
• Proficiency in Python and/or TypeScript.
• Strong understanding of the HTTP protocol and secure API design.
• Robust engineering background, preferably in fields such as Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Physics, or Data Science.
• Experience building evaluation frameworks for AI systems and assessing capabilities in regulated or high-stakes contexts.
• Deep understanding of machine learning fundamentals—model evaluation, training, and fine-tuning—with a focus on production-ready deployments.
• History of deploying machine learning models to production, ideally in secure or cloud-based government environments.
• Expertise in writing developer documentation or maintaining SDKs for technical audiences, including government developers.
• Ability to work with massive datasets, optimize system performance, and scale solutions for high-throughput, mission-critical workloads.
• Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tools like Pulumi or Terraform, particularly in secure or government-aligned deployments.
• Adaptability to shifting priorities and requirements in a fast-paced, mission-driven startup setting.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, with experience documenting technical solutions for diverse stakeholders.
• Active Top-Secret or Top-Secret SCI with a full scope polygraph.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and optimize integrations between AI frontier models (e.g., Grok family) and government systems, platforms, and data environments.
• Identify pain points, scoping product specifications, and designing and building AI-powered software for government or enterprise use cases.
• Benchmark models and develop evaluation frameworks to assess performance and address weaknesses, ensuring compliance with customer standards.
• Enhancing model performance through system prompt tuning or fine-tuning, with an eye toward secure and scalable deployment.
• Analyze request logs, prompt data, or system outputs to ensure reliability and audibility.
• Build internal tooling to streamline workflows and automate repetitive tasks in secure environments.
• 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.

Benefits

• comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage
• access to a 401(k) retirement plan
• short and long-term disability insurance
• life insurance
• paid parental leave
• various other discounts and perks
• 3 weeks of paid vacation
• 10 or more paid holidays per year
• paid sick leave

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level