Principal AI Engineer, Government Programs

SpaceX; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 220,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Discretionary bonuses

Comprehensive medical, vision, dental

Job summary

SpaceX seeks a Principal AI Engineer for Special Programs to lead the design and deployment of AI capabilities for federal missions. You will partner with product, research, and governance teams to deliver production-grade AI solutions while upholding safety and ethics.

You will work on integrating frontier models, SDKs, APIs, and tools for government systems, translating complex stakeholder needs into scalable engineering solutions with speed and reliability. Role requires eligible for U.S.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or STEM; or 2+ years of software development experience in lieu of a degree.
• 6+ years of hands-on software engineering experience building scalable systems, APIs, or AI/ML apps; strong Python proficiency.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and optimize integrations between AI frontier models and government systems.
• Collaborate on SDKs, APIs, developer tools, and documentation for government and enterprise developers.
• Partner with agency stakeholders to understand requirements and iterate rapidly based on feedback.
• Ship production-grade code with a bias toward speed and measurable impact.

Skills

Communication skills

Problem solving

Translating needs to solutions

Strong product sensibility

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or STEM or 2+ years experience

Tools

Python

Docker/Kubernetes

APIs

Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)

Job description

SpaceX seeks a Principal AI Engineer for Special Programs to lead the design and deployment of AI capabilities for federal missions. You will partner with product, research, and governance teams to deliver production-grade AI solutions while upholding safety and ethics.

You will work on integrating frontier models, SDKs, APIs, and tools for government systems, translating complex stakeholder needs into scalable engineering solutions with speed and reliability. Role requires eligible for U.S.