Sr. Site Reliability Engineer - Top Secret Clearance (Starlink)

InvestedintheMission; Hawthorne (CA); On-site; USD 165,000 - 265,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Medical, vision, dental

401(k)

Paid parental leave

Paid vacation and holidays

Job summary

SpaceX is seeking a Sr. Site Reliability Engineer for the Starlink program in Hawthorne. You will own and optimize distributed systems, ensure secure access, and drive deployment, monitoring, and performance improvements across multi-region infrastructure.

Active TS/SCI clearance is required; space and network hardware challenges, on-call duties, and collaboration with cross‑functional teams are key parts of the role. Competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits are offered.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in CS/engineering/math/science.
• Experience building software with site reliability or DevOps.
• Active Top-Secret or TS/SCI clearance.

Responsibilities

• Upgrade distributed systems to be sharded and geo-redundant across data centers.
• Advance deployment, monitoring, and alerting for multi-region setups.
• Manage petabyte-scale bare metal clusters.
• Collaborate with engineers to deliver scalable, operable products.
• Engage from inception to deployment and refinement of services.
• Address performance bottlenecks and optimization strategies.

Skills

DevOps / Site Reliability

Linux experience

Clearance TS/SCI

Performance optimization

Collaboration across teams

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Kubernetes

Istio

Apache Kafka

Spark

HBase

HDFS

Flink

Python

Java

Go

Git / CI tooling

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.

SR. SITE RELIABILITY ENGINEER - TOP SECRET CLEARANCE (STARLINK)

At SpaceX we’re leveraging our experience in building rockets and spacecraft to deploy Starlink, the world’s most advanced broadband internet system. Starlink is the world’s largest satellite constellation and is providing fast, reliable internet to 9M+ users worldwide. We design, build, test, and operate all parts of the system – thousands of satellites, consumer receivers that allow users to connect within minutes of unboxing, and the software that brings it all together. We’ve only begun to scratch the surface of Starlink’s potential global impact and are looking for the world’s best engineers to help maximize Starlink’s utility for communities and businesses around the globe.

As a Sr. Site Reliability Engineer on the Starlink program, you will be solving challenges that improve our ability to fully utilize the hardware we have deployed. Our goal is to provide customers with the best possible satellite internet experience, often providing under-served communities with affordable, life-changing broadband internet access.

Aerospace experience is not required for success here - rather, we look for smart, motivated, and collaborative site reliability engineers who love solving problems and want to make an impact on a truly inspiring mission. You will have full ownership of challenging problems, working with a team of enthusiastic engineers to design and produce solutions that enable SpaceX to move towards our goals at a rapid pace. The success of the missions at SpaceX depends on the software that you and your team produce.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Upgrade existing distributed systems to become sharded and geo-redundant in multiple data centers
• Advance existing deployment, monitoring, and alerting infrastructure to support a multi-region environment
• Manage petabyte scale bare metal compute clusters
• Closely collaborate with engineers across all programs to create highly operable, scalable, and maintainable products
• Engage throughout the whole software development lifecycle of services -- from inception to design, deployment, operation, and iterative refinement
• Focus on performance bottlenecks and performance improvement techniques

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, math, or scientific discipline and 5 years of software development experience; OR 7+ years of professional experience building software with site reliability or DevOps in lieu of a degree
• Experience with Linux operating systems
• Active Top-Secret or Top-Secret SCI

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• 5+ years of rigorous experience with site reliability or DevOps
• Experience with Kubernetes and Istio for on-premise deployment
• Experience with in-stream, data processing and analytics using open source platforms such as Apache Kafka, Spark, HBase, HDFS, Flink
• Experience troubleshooting hardware and network-layer issues
• Programming experience in Python, C#, Java, Scala, Go or similar languages
• Good understanding of version control, testing, continuous integration, build, deployment and monitoring

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Willing to work extended hours and weekends when needed
• Active Top Secret or TS/SCI. Note that an active clearance may provide the opportunity for you to work on sensitive SpaceX missions. If so, you will be subject to pre-employment drug and random drug and alcohol testing

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

Pay Range: Level 3: $165,000.00 - $265,000.00

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 your total rewards package at SpaceX. You may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of company stock 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. You will also receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, paid parental leave, and various other discounts and perks. You may also accrue 3 weeks of paid vacation and will be eligible 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]