Rack Design Engineer (Starmind)

SpaceX • Bastrop, TX

24d

About The Position

The Rack Design Engineer on SpaceX’s Starmind Compute team owns high-density AI compute racks as products, from initial concept through production and deployment. The team designs training and inference compute clusters, including compute architecture, datacenter networks, rack builds, connectivity, custom computers, and the manufacturing line that builds the compute. The role integrates rack structure, power, cooling, service paths, servers, switches, optics, and liquid cooling into reliable, manufacturable, and serviceable systems.

The engineer works across mechanical, electrical, optical, software, network, and firmware disciplines to resolve cluster-level thermal, structural, power, and integration constraints. The role supports prototype and production builds on the factory floor, drives parts through qualification, maintains production-ready CAD and documentation, and supports deployment and bring-up at datacenter sites. Extended hours and weekends may be required, and travel to manufacturing and datacenter sites may be up to 30%.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or another engineering discipline.
• At least 2 years of professional experience designing electromechanical hardware that was built and shipped; internship and project experience counts if the hardware was physically produced.
• Willingness to work extended hours and weekends as needed for design releases, line bring-up, and cluster deployments.
• Willingness to travel up to 30% to manufacturing and datacenter sites.
• Ability to lift up to 25 lbs. unassisted and work around active factory and datacenter hardware.
• Must satisfy U.S. export-control eligibility requirements: be a U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee, or be eligible to obtain required U.S. Department of State authorizations.

Nice To Haves

• Ownership of rack, chassis, or similarly dense electromechanical products through prototype and production.
• Experience or background in Ethernet switching, networking, interconnects, high-power distribution, or other relevant datacenter technologies.
• CAD fluency in SolidWorks, Creo, or NX, with experience releasing drawings that a shop and factory can build from.
• AI/HPC/GPU rack design experience, such as NVIDIA HGX/GB-class, custom OCP, or equivalent high-power liquid-cooled compute.
• Liquid-cooling design experience involving cold plates, manifolds, CDUs, quick disconnects, leak detection, and coolant compatibility.
• High-power rack electrical integration experience involving busbars, PDUs, 48V, high-current three-phase power, grounding, and service safety.
• Cable and fiber physical design inside racks, including MPO/OSFP dress, bend radius, and service loops, in partnership with optical and network engineers.
• Experience taking a rack from NPI onto an in-house manufacturing line, including fixtures, cycle time, poka-yoke, and rework loops.
• Thermal and structural analysis experience using CFD or FEA to make design decisions.
• Experience at a high-velocity hardware organization, such as an AI/GPU cloud, custom compute company, or OEM/ODM team with end-to-end product ownership.
• Comfort working in a factory or datacenter build environment, including first articles, yield, and hardware debugging on the floor.

Responsibilities

• Own mechanical, structural, and integration design of high-density AI compute racks and related chassis, frames, busbars, manifolds, and cable/fiber raceways.
• Integrate compute, networking, power distribution, and liquid cooling into a buildable, serviceable, high-yield rack architecture.
• Design for the in-house manufacturing line, including DFM/DFA, fixtures, work instructions, incoming inspection, first article, and production ramp.
• Resolve thermal, structural, and power constraints with cooling, electrical, optical, and network counterparts at the cluster level, including CDUs, cold plates, quick disconnects, PDUs/busbars, high-current distribution, tray limits, and bend-radius limits.
• Drive vendor and in-house parts from concept to qualified production, including sheet metal, extrusions, busbar, manifolds, cable management, and rack accessories.
• Support prototype and production builds on the floor by debugging fit, leaks, cable dress, airflow/liquid balance, and service time, and incorporating issues into revisions.
• Produce and maintain CAD, BOMs, drawings, and build documentation suitable for volume manufacturing.
• Support cluster deployment of designed racks, including first-site bring-up and feedback for subsequent hardware generations.
• Partner with network, optical, electrical, and firmware teams to deploy custom compute for inference and training across SpaceX programs.

What This Job Offers

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