Operations Engineer - Human Engineer

SpaceXAI; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 144,000 - 270,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Medical Insurance

Vision & Dental

401(k)

Disability Insurance

Life Insurance

Employee Discounts

Job summary

SpaceXAI is seeking an Engineering Data Operations Lead to bridge engineering and data science, delivering high-value data projects for training and evaluation.

You will partner with model teams, design data workflows, ensure data quality, and scale data operations across sites while upholding rigorous governance and documentation.

Qualifications

• Collaborate across engineering, research, product, or operations groups.
• Analyze datasets to identify trends, anomalies, quality issues, or integrity problems.

Responsibilities

• Partner with model and engineering teams to translate needs into high-value data projects.
• Own end-to-end delivery of data and evaluation projects supporting model development.
• Build tools to measure data yield and model eval lift and run evaluations.
• Maintain data integrity and validation for factual accuracy.
• Research and implement data collection, annotation, generation, and multimodal integration.
• Shape model behavior through targeted data work.
• Design and improve annotation workflows and labeling interfaces.
• Coordinate with Human Data Ops and stakeholders to share learnings and forecast demand.

Skills

Cross-functional collaboration

Data analysis

Strong communication

Attention to detail

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, CS, or related STEM

4+ years of experience in lieu of degree

Master’s degree

Tools

Python

SQL

Job description

SpaceXAI’s mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity. We operate with a flat organizational structure. All employees are expected to be hands-on and to contribute directly to the company’s mission. Leadership is given to those who show initiative and consistently deliver excellence. Work ethic and strong prioritization skills are important. All employees are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

SpaceXAI’s mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity. We operate with a flat organizational structure. All employees are expected to be hands-on and to contribute directly to the company’s mission. Leadership is given to those who show initiative and consistently deliver excellence. Work ethic and strong prioritization skills are important. All employees are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

You will ensure engineering teams get the right data they need—high-quality tasks and evaluations—by crafting and executing high-value Human Data projects. You sit at the intersection of engineering and data operations: partnering with model teams, designing projects that capture meaningful signals, and driving data yield and eval lift. This is a hands-on technical role for engineers who deeply understand training and evaluation and want to influence data strategy.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Partner with model and engineering teams to understand needs and translate them into high-value data projects and evaluation strategies.
• Own end-to-end delivery of critical data and eval projects that capture meaningful training signals and support rapid model development.
• Build tools and systems to measure data effectiveness (data yield, eval lift, usage), and run evaluations yourself to continuously improve quality.
• Maintain rigorous data integrity and truthfulness, including validation processes for factual accuracy; prioritize quality over quantity.
• Research, implement, and evaluate techniques for data collection, annotation, generation, and multi-modal integration.
• Shape Grok’s behavior and domain performance through targeted data work.
• Design and improve annotation workflows, labeling interfaces, and related tools with a focus on data quality and integrity.
• Act as a liaison between engineering, technical staff, and tutoring / Human Data teams to drive alignment and knowledge sharing.
• Collaborate with Human Data Ops and stakeholders to scale projects, share learnings, and contribute to demand forecasting; report status, insights, and blockers for rapid decisions.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, or a related STEM discipline, or 4+ years of experience in lieu of a degree
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams (engineering, research, product, or annotation/operations groups)
• Demonstrated experience analyzing datasets to identify trends, anomalies, quality issues, or integrity problems

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Master’s degree or higher in a relevant technical field
• Direct experience curating, evaluating, or improving training or evaluation datasets for large language models or other AI/ML systems
• Experience designing, supporting, or optimizing annotation tools, labeling interfaces, or data workflows that prioritize factual accuracy and data integrity
• Familiarity with multimodal data (text + images, code, or other modalities) or domain-specific data (science, mathematics, programming, recent events, etc.)
• Experience conducting model or dataset evaluations focused on quality, truthfulness, or alignment with product goals
• Experience in a scripting language like Python
• Experience in SQL or other data analysis tools

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Weekend work may be required.
• Travel to other SpaceXAI sites may be required.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

$144,000 - $270,000 USD

Base salary is just one part of our total rewards package at SpaceXAI, which also includes equity, comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short & long-term disability insurance, life insurance, and various other discounts and perks.

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