Application Software Engineer, Applied AI

Overview

The Application Software team is the central nervous system of SpaceX – creating mission-critical applications used throughout SpaceX to accelerate launch vehicle production and flight, as well as systems that allow Starlink to grow into a worldwide fast, reliable internet service.

In this Applied AI role, you will design, evaluate, deploy, and integrate modern AI systems—including large language models and agentic systems—that power products and infrastructure across SpaceX. You will own the end-to-end lifecycle of AI capabilities from prototype to production while partnering closely with Product, Engineering, and Operations teams.

Responsibilities

• Develop highly reliable software solutions used across SpaceX, including AI-powered applications that accelerate production, flight, and Starlink operations.
• Create new applications that improve operations by incorporating modern LLMs, agentic systems, and other AI capabilities.
• Own the full lifecycle of Applied AI systems: design, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and iteration from prototype to production.
• Deep dive into users' problems to uncover high-leverage AI opportunities and deliver efficient, production-grade solutions.
• Architect production systems for agentic workflows, tool-use, multi-agent orchestration, advanced retrieval, and long-context applications prioritizing reliability, safety, and responsible deployment.
• Build and maintain rigorous evaluation frameworks (LLM-as-judge, automated benchmarks, online evaluation) and production observability/monitoring for AI quality, safety, latency, and cost.
• Stay at the frontier of LLM techniques and rapidly incorporate emerging best practices into production systems across SpaceX programs.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, math, or a scientific discipline; OR 2+ years of professional software development experience in lieu of a degree.
• 1+ years of experience in full stack development.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Hands-on experience evaluating, deploying, and integrating AI models into production systems.
• Proven track record of delivering end-to-end AI products or production AI-powered features from prototype through production deployment and iteration.
• Deep hands-on experience with modern LLM techniques: agentic systems, tool-use/function calling, multi-agent orchestration, advanced retrieval architectures, fine-tuning, and structured outputs.
• Experience building production evaluation systems (LLM-as-judge, automated eval harnesses, A/B testing, red-teaming) and AI observability/monitoring (tracing, quality metrics, safety, cost).
• Experience designing and implementing production architecture for AI-powered applications with an emphasis on reliability, safety, and responsible deployment.
• Strong software engineering foundation with expertise in designing production systems and writing clean, maintainable code.
• Programming experience in Python, C#.NET, Go, Scala, Java, or similar.
• Production experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and modern data streaming (e.g., Kafka).
• Front-end experience (e.g., Angular, React) and database experience (e.g., PostgreSQL, SQL Server).
• Demonstrated ability to stay current with rapidly evolving AI technologies and best practices.
• Ability to work under pressure and deliver results across multiple parallel priorities in a fast-paced environment.

Additional Requirements

• Must be available to work extended hours and weekends depending on launch cadence.
• This role requires working onsite in Hawthorne, CA; remote and hybrid options will not be considered.
• ITAR Requirements: Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee, or eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.