Principal Network Engineer, AI Infrastructure (Starshield)

SpaceX • Washington, DC

6h • $210,000 - $340,000

About The Position

The Principal Network Engineer will drive the operation, build, and deployment of the Starshield data center network, which supports critical national security missions. The engineer will own network design with teammates and propose and implement continual improvements to add capabilities and customers. The role also focuses on monitoring and improving network security, performance, and reliability, and optimizing network deployments. Starshield leverages SpaceX’s Starlink technology and launch capability for government use, initially focused on earth observation, communications, and hosted payloads.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical or engineering discipline and 7+ years of professional networking experience deploying enterprise network solutions or cloud and web-scale networks; or 10+ years of such professional networking experience in lieu of a degree.
• 7+ years of networking experience deploying enterprise network solutions and/or cloud and GPU networks; internship or co-op experience qualifies.
• Layer-1 experience, such as transport, DWDM, optical fiber, circuit troubleshooting, or activations.
• Hands-on experience deploying networking hardware, such as routers, modems, switches, or firewalls.
• Successfully obtain and maintain a Top Secret Security Clearance as a condition of employment.
• Willingness to travel domestically and globally when needed.
• Availability for on-call rotations.
• Willingness to work extended hours and weekends as needed.
• Meet SpaceX ITAR eligibility requirements: be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. lawful permanent resident, refugee, asylee, or eligible to obtain required U.S. Department of State authorizations.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in a technical or engineering discipline.
• Experience with physical troubleshooting of fiber.
• Deep understanding of data center networks, including Ethernet, IPv4, IPv6, MPLS, BGP, OSPF, VXLAN, switching and routing.
• Experience with InfiniBand and NVLink.
• Experience with NVIDIA GPU deployment stacks, including Blackwell or Rubin.
• Experience implementing network security functions.
• Cisco, Juniper, Arista, or other industry certification.
• Ability to work independently and in a team, take initiative, and communicate effectively.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret or Top Secret SCI clearance.

Responsibilities

• Manage network infrastructure and deployments to Top Secret data centers.
• Design, validate, and productize high-speed copper and optical connectivity solutions for AI clusters at 100,000+ GPU scale.
• Collaborate with ML training teams to translate workload communication patterns into interconnect topology and optical reconfigurability requirements.
• Contribute to tools for rapid deployments, including zero-touch provisioning and custom provisioning tools.
• Improve network performance and reliability using system performance metrics, including capacity planning, failure detection, and remediation.
• Assist with capacity augmentation and network optimization deployments.
• Lead network integration and troubleshooting efforts.
• Collaborate with hardware, software, and network engineers to improve the Starshield network design.
• Assist in updating system configuration and firmware.
• Build automation for network devices and operational and deployment tools.
• Mentor and train junior network engineers.
• Lead the team to technical excellence and guide it through technical decisions.

Benefits

• Potential long-term incentives in the form of company stock or long-term cash awards.
• Potential discretionary bonuses.
• Ability to purchase additional stock at a discount through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
• Medical, vision, and dental coverage.
• 401(k) retirement plan.
• Short- and long-term disability insurance.
• Life insurance.
• Paid parental leave.
• Various other discounts and perks.
• Accrual of 3 weeks of paid vacation.
• 10 or more paid holidays per year.
• Paid sick leave pursuant to Company policy.
• 10% differential for employees with an active clearance once officially briefed into a classified program, up to an additional $20,000 annually.

What This Job Offers

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