Production Engineer, Site Reliability (Application Software)

SpaceX; Hawthorne (CA); On-site; USD 125,000 - 195,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Discretionary bonuses

Medical, vision, and dental coverage

Paid vacation & holidays

Job summary

SpaceX is seeking a Production Engineer, Site Reliability (Application Software) in Hawthorne, CA. You will build and scale mission‑critical tools supporting Falcon 9, Starship, Dragon, and Starlink software delivery and operations.

A strong SRE mindset, safety focus, and ownership of challenging problems are essential. Responsibilities include deploying and maintaining tools, collaborating with engineers, and driving the end‑to‑end lifecycle from design through incident response.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, or engineering, OR 3+ years of SRE/DevOps experience.
• 1+ years of Python development experience.
• Experience with Linux operating systems.

Responsibilities

• Deploy, upgrade, operate, maintain, and scale our suite of mission‑critical products and services.
• Manage infrastructure as code and use observability tools to monitor application health.
• Collaborate with software engineers to design highly operable, maintainable systems.
• Engage in the full software development lifecycle from design to deployment and refinement.
• Conduct blameless postmortems and sustainable incident response.
• Provide high‑quality end‑user support to vehicle software engineers.
• Participate in on‑call rotations and identify performance bottlenecks.

Skills

Python

Linux

SRE

DevOps

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/IS/Engineering

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

vSphere

QEMU

KVM

Postgres

MySQL

ClickHouse

Terraform

Ansible

Puppet

Job description

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars.

PRODUCTION ENGINEER, SITE RELIABILITY (APPLICATION SOFTWARE)

The application software team is the central nervous system of SpaceX. We build mission‑critical platforms that accelerate vehicle software delivery, testing, and operations for every Falcon 9, Starship, and Dragon mission all while powering Starlink's global growth.

This position will have a meaningful impact on Starship by significantly reducing safety‑critical build and test times for vehicle software. We are looking for a Site Reliability Engineer who brings a strong SRE mindset, cares deeply about safety, quality, and attention to detail, and possesses the ability to understand the big picture before writing code. The ideal candidate fully understands what they are building, enjoys hard problem solving, thinks strategically, and is decisive, organized, and self‑critical.

SpaceX relies on our vehicle software being built quickly and correctly, tested rigorously, and rapidly iterated on. You will build and maintain the tools that make this possible. Every time a Falcon 9 or Starship launches, a Dragon capsule docks with the ISS, or a Starlink satellite connects a new community, the software responsible for it was created with the tools you design, improve, and scale.

Aerospace experience is not required. We value smart, motivated, collaborative engineers who treat teammates with fairness, respect, and support, and who want to take full ownership of challenging problems to help make humanity multi‑planetary.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Deploy, upgrade, operate, maintain, and scale our suite of mission‑critical products and services
• Manage our underlying infrastructure as code and use modern observability tools to provide a complete picture of application health
• Closely collaborate with software engineers to design and build highly operable, maintainable, and testable systems
• Engage in and improve the entire software development lifecycle - from inception and design through deployment, operation, and continuous refinement
• Practice sustainable incident response and blameless postmortems
• Provide high‑quality end‑user support to vehicle software engineers
• Participate in the team's on‑call rotation
• Identify and eliminate performance bottlenecks using measurement and creative engineering

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, or an engineering discipline; OR 3+ years of professional experience in SRE or DevOps in lieu of a degree
• 1+ years of experience with Python and Python‑based development frameworks
• Experience with Linux operating systems

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Experience with build systems (Bazel, Buck, Make, etc.)
• Experience with both container and virtualization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes, vSphere, QEMU, KVM, etc.)
• Experience with databases and data modeling (Postgres, MySQL, ClickHouse, etc.)
• Experience with infrastructure as code (IaC) tools for managing fleets of servers
• Experience with Terraform, Ansible, Puppet, or similar automation frameworks
• Knowledge of the technologies that predate and underpin modern cloud infrastructure, with the ability to translate high‑level developer experiences into specific implementations from first principles
• Ability to work with mission‑critical and sensitive systems with appropriate urgency and care
• Ability to communicate effectively with customers, peers, and management in both formal and informal settings
• Experience with full‑stack development (the team primarily uses Python, JavaScript, and C#; end users primarily use C++)

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Must be able to work extended hours and weekends as needed

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

Pay Range:

Level I: $125,000.00 - $160,000.00 per year

Level II: $145,000.00 - $195,000.00 per year

Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case‑by‑case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job‑related knowledge and skills, education, and experience.

• Long‑term incentives, in the form of company stock, stock options, or long‑term cash awards, as well as potential discretionary bonuses and the ability to purchase additional stock at a discount through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
• Access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short & long‑term disability insurance, life insurance, paid parental leave, and various other discounts and perks.
• Accruing 3 weeks of paid vacation & eligibility for 10 or more paid holidays per year.
• Employees accrue paid sick leave pursuant to Company policy which satisfies or exceeds the accrual, carryover, and use requirements of the law.

ITAR REQUIREMENTS

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. * 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. * 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

SpaceX is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with SpaceX is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Applicants wishing to view a copy of SpaceX's affirmative action plan for veterans and individuals with disabilities, or applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should reach out to [e-mail]