Software Engineer, Storage

Cursor; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Medical, Vision, and Dental Insurance

401(k) retirement plan

Disability insurance

Life insurance

Discounts and perks

Job summary

SpaceXSI is seeking a Software Engineer on the Storage team in San Francisco to own the data layer powering every product surface—databases, caches, and the strategy for provisioning, querying, and scaling data stores.

You will design a multi-database topology and define guardrails for queries, enabling teams to choose the right engine, move fast, and ship reliably at scale.

Qualifications

• Experience with relational databases at scale (Postgres, MySQL, or similar OLTP systems).
• Understanding of database performance, reliability, and caching.

Responsibilities

• Design the next-generation data architecture: evolving our storage layer into a partitioned, resilient topology that keeps pace with SpaceXSI's rapid growth
• Build query attribution and guardrails: instrumenting every database query by service, catching bad patterns before they hit production, and making it impossible to ship problematic queries without review
• Define the "when to use what" strategy for data stores: creating clear guidance and golden pathways so every team picks the right engine for their workload without second-guessing
• Own cache infrastructure end-to-end: reliability, capacity planning, and patterns that let product teams move fast without worrying about cache correctness

Skills

Relational databases at scale (Postgre

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 making life multiplanetary and expanding consciousness to the stars.

SpaceXSI is building Super Intelligence to help humanity understand the universe. Our teams are building the full Super Intelligence stack: from our Colossus supercomputers, to Grok models, to our suite of applications, including Grok Bot, Grok Build, Grok Imagine, Grok Voice, and X. We're creating a powerful flywheel where more compute trains better models, better models power more useful products, and what we learn from people using those products shapes what we build next.

SOFTWARE ENGINEER, STORAGE

As a Software Engineer on the Storage team at SpaceXSI, you'll own the data layer that underpins every product surface: the databases, caches, and the strategy for how teams provision, query, and scale their data stores. Millions of developers depend on Cursor every day, and the future of our storage architecture is one of the highest-leverage problems at the company: get it right, and every team ships faster, every product surface gets more reliable, and SpaceXSI can scale to meet explosive demand. You'll design and execute the path to a robust, multi-database topology built for that growth.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Design the next-generation data architecture: evolving our storage layer into a partitioned, resilient topology that keeps pace with SpaceXSI's rapid growth
• Build query attribution and guardrails: instrumenting every database query by service, catching bad patterns before they hit production, and making it impossible to ship problematic queries without review
• Define the "when to use what" strategy for data stores: creating clear guidance and golden pathways so every team picks the right engine for their workload without second-guessing
• Own cache infrastructure end-to-end: reliability, capacity planning, and patterns that let product teams move fast without worrying about cache correctness

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience with relational databases at scale (e.g., Postgres, MySQL, or similar OLTP systems). Experience building and scaling databases or data infrastructure. Understanding of database performance, reliability, and caching.

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Experience tackling database sharding, migration, or decomposition problems in production environments
• Understand the tradeoffs between different storage engines and can help teams make the right choices for their workloads
• Care about operational excellence: backups, monitoring, query performance, and capacity planning are things you think about proactively
• Strong software engineering fundamentals and enjoying building systems that other engineers depend on

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• If there appears to be a fit, we'll reach out to schedule 2-3 short technicals. After, we'll schedule an onsite in our office, where you'll work on a small project, discuss ideas, and meet the team

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

The annual compensation range for this role is listed below.

Annual Salary:

$140,000 - $225,000 USD

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.

Base salary is just one part of our total rewards package at SpaceXSI, 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.

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 making life multiplanetary and expanding consciousness to the stars.

SpaceXSI is building Super Intelligence to help humanity understand the universe. Our teams are building the full Super Intelligence stack: from our Colossus supercomputers, to Grok models, to our suite of applications, including Grok Bot, Grok Build, Grok Imagine, Grok Voice, and X. We're creating a powerful flywheel where more compute trains better models, better models power more useful products, and what we learn from people using those products shapes what we build next.

SOFTWARE ENGINEER, STORAGE

As a Software Engineer on the Storage team at SpaceXSI, you'll own the data layer that underpins every product surface: the databases, caches, and the strategy for how teams provision, query, and scale their data stores. Millions of developers depend on Cursor every day, and the future of our storage architecture is one of the highest-leverage problems at the company: get it right, and every team ships faster, every product surface gets more reliable, and SpaceXSI can scale to meet explosive demand. You'll design and execute the path to a robust, multi-database topology built for that growth.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Design the next-generation data architecture: evolving our storage layer into a partitioned, resilient topology that keeps pace with SpaceXSI's rapid growth
• Build query attribution and guardrails: instrumenting every database query by service, catching bad patterns before they hit production, and making it impossible to ship problematic queries without review
• Define the "when to use what" strategy for data stores: creating clear guidance and golden pathways so every team picks the right engine for their workload without second-guessing
• Own cache infrastructure end-to-end: reliability, capacity planning, and patterns that let product teams move fast without worrying about cache correctness

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience with relational databases at scale (e.g., Postgres, MySQL, or similar OLTP systems). Experience building and scaling databases or data infrastructure. Understanding of database performance, reliability, and caching.

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Experience tackling database sharding, migration, or decomposition problems in production environments
• Understand the tradeoffs between different storage engines and can help teams make the right choices for their workloads
• Care about operational excellence: backups, monitoring, query performance, and capacity planning are things you think about proactively
• Strong software engineering fundamentals and enjoying building systems that other engineers depend on

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• If there appears to be a fit, we'll reach out to schedule 2-3 short technicals. After, we'll schedule an onsite in our office, where you'll work on a small project, discuss ideas, and meet the team

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

The annual compensation range for this role is listed below.

Annual Salary:

$140,000 - $225,000 USD

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.

Base salary is just one part of our total rewards package at SpaceXSI, 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.