Product Operations Engineer, Government Applications Special Programs

SpaceX•Palo Alto, CA

13d•Onsite

About The Position

This team focuses on operating 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 SpaceX's standards, transparency, and ethical standards. Product Operations Engineers are responsible for the health, performance, and stability of the services that power these missions. You own the full end-to-end cycle of service reliability—from responding to outages to improving codebases and building lasting solutions. You will tackle critical issues for key government customers, introduce observability into complex systems, address technical debt in essential codebases, and inform strategic investments in core products. We are looking for engineers who enjoy deep-dive troubleshooting, feel strong ownership over the problems they encounter, and recognize the urgency of customer-facing outages. During periodic on-call shifts, you will respond to automated alerts, investigate issues reported by customers, and share technical expertise with adjacent product teams.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering or another STEM discipline; OR 2+ years of professional experience in software development in lieu of a degree
Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed
20% travel may be required to government sites
This position requires successfully obtaining and maintaining a Top Secret Security Clearance as a condition of employment.
Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. lawful, permanent resident, Refugee, or Asylee, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Nice To Haves

1+ years of hands-on software engineering experience building scalable systems, APIs, or AI/ML applications (strong Python proficiency, other languages a plus)
Experience working with large language models, generative AI, or agentic systems—either in research, production, or applied engineering
1+ years of experience working on enterprise applications that serve >10,000 users distributed across geograp hies and time zones
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.
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), API orchestration.

Responsibilities

Own the health, performance, and stability of integrations between frontier AI models (e.g., Grok family) and government systems, platforms, and data environments
Continuously invest in documentation, metrics, monitors, and other troubleshooting tools that keep these services observable and operable
Tackle critical issues for key government customers: respond to automated alerts, investigate reported problems, and drive lasting fixes
Partner with agency stakeholders and adjacent product teams to understand operational needs, share technical expertise, and iterate based on real-world feedback.
Partner with agency stakeholders to understand requirements, prototype solutions, and iterate rapidly based on real-world feedback
Address technical debt in essential codebases and inform strategic investments in core products
Participate in on-call rotations during business hours and occasional weekends, maintaining resilient, high-uptime production systems