{"id":1970439,"url":"https://alion.io/job/cowboyspace-space-datacenter-networking-engineer","title":"Space Datacenter Networking Engineer","company":{"id":8929,"name":"Cowboyspace","domain":"cowboyspace.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/cowboyspace","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"C","score":66,"open_postings":8,"ghost_share":0.25,"stale_share":0.625,"repost_share":0.25,"time_to_fill_p50_days":35,"computed_at":"2026-10-08T05:49:30Z"}},"role":"DevOps","role_family":"DevOps","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Carlos, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":196720,"max":236484,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":236484},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"HPC","optional":false},{"name":"InfiniBand","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-06T17:04:33Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-06","last_verified_at":"2026-10-09T01:46:33Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"Space Datacenter Networking Engineer | Job Description\nCowboy Space Corp. is building the infrastructure to power and connect the orbital economy. Our satellites operate in low Earth orbit to collect sunlight and enable a new class of capabilities-from powering on-orbit compute and transmitting energy via infrared lasers to delivering secure, high-bandwidth optical data. By rethinking how energy and data are generated and distributed in space, we are unlocking entirely new ways to operate in orbit and on Earth.\nFounded in 2024 by Baiju Bhatt (co-founder of Robinhood), Cowboy Space Corp. is backed by leading investors and built by a team from top aerospace and defense organizations. We are moving quickly to solve complex technical challenges and build a new category of space infrastructure.\nThe Role\nAs a Space Datacenter Networking Engineer, you will design the high-performance fabric that allows accelerators in orbit to operate as a cluster. You will own the compute, storage, management, and diagnostic networks inside the payload and their interfaces to spacecraft communications and ground systems.\nA degraded link cannot require a technician. You will design performance, telemetry, failure isolation, and recovery into the network, then prove that behavior with representative workloads and injected faults. This architecture and lab role is based in San Carlos, California.\nResponsibilities\nOwn topology, protocols, addressing, routing, performance targets, and failure domains for Space Datacenter networks.\nSelect and integrate switches, adapters, interconnects, cabling, and management components.\nModel and measure collective performance, congestion, latency, availability, and workload sensitivity.\nDefine management and diagnostic paths that remain available through compute-fabric failures.\nBuild telemetry that identifies marginal links and components before they fail.\nDevelop isolation, rerouting, and graceful-degradation behavior with firmware and software teams.\nBuild representative test fabrics, automate validation, inject faults, and lead root-cause analysis.\nDefine spacecraft and ground interfaces and qualify critical components for the mission environment.\nBasic Qualifications\n5+ years designing or operating high-performance AI, HPC, storage, or low-latency networks.\nDeep experience with InfiniBand, RoCE, high-performance Ethernet, or a comparable compute fabric.\nStrong understanding of topology, congestion control, collective communication, failure domains, and telemetry.\nHands-on experience configuring, benchmarking, and debugging network hardware.\nProficiency in Python or another language used for test automation and telemetry analysis.\nBachelor's degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.\nPreferred Qualifications\nRail-optimized network design for distributed training or inference.\nEmbedded, remote, power-constrained, or radiation-exposed networking experience.\nSwitch or adapter firmware, FPGA, kernel-driver, or low-level network-software experience.\nAutomated fault injection, health scoring, adaptive routing, or link isolation.\nSpacecraft communications, optical inter-satellite links, or ground-link interface experience.\nWhat You Will Accomplish\nIn your first year, you will:\nEstablish the baseline Space Datacenter network topology, interfaces, and performance model.\nDemonstrate representative collective-workload performance on an integrated test fabric.\nProve detection, isolation, and recovery for the network failure modes that matter in flight.\nCompensation and Benefits\nThe salary range for this position is $196,720 - $236,484 annually. The actual base salary offered will depend on factors such as job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and internal equity.\nEquity in Cowboy Space Corp.\nEmployees and their eligible dependents may enroll in medical, dental, and vision insurance.\n401(k) retirement savings plan.\nPaid time off and 10 paid holidays per calendar year.\nPaid parental leave.\nRelocation assistance, if applicable.\nDaily lunch in the office and a fully stocked kitchen with beverages and snacks.\nITAR Requirements\nExport Control Requirement: To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), applicants must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about ITAR here.\nDisclaimer\nThis job description is a summary of the primary duties and responsibilities of the job and position. It is not intended to be a comprehensive or all-inclusive listing of duties and responsibilities. Contents are subject to change at Cowboy Space Corp.'s discretion.\nCowboy Space Corp. is an equal employment opportunity employer. We consider individuals for employment or promotion according to their skills, abilities, and experience. Cowboy Space Corp. is committed to complying with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religious creed, age, national origin, ancestry, physical, mental or developmental disability, sex (which includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and medical conditions relating to pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding), veteran status, military status, marital or registered domestic partnership status, medical condition (including cancer or genetic characteristics), genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, as well as any other category protected by federal, state, or local laws.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5700,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Parental leave","Relocation assistance","Retirement plans","Vision insurance"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Satellite Manufacturing","Space Services","AI Compute & Inference"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-06T19:06:52Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":1,"expected_fill_days":35,"reasons":["conf:0","velocity","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-08T05:49:30Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":236484,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/cowboyspace-space-datacenter-networking-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/cowboyspace-space-datacenter-networking-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-09T02:33:52Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":644,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":4356,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-10-10T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":8929},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=8929"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fcowboyspace-space-datacenter-networking-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fcowboyspace-space-datacenter-networking-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fcowboyspace-space-datacenter-networking-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/cowboyspace-space-datacenter-networking-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcowboyspace-space-datacenter-networking-engineer"}]}