{"id":27525,"url":"https://alion.io/job/xai-software-engineer-data-platform","title":"Software Engineer, Data Platform","company":{"id":28,"name":"xAI","domain":"x.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/xai","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":85,"open_postings":101,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.614,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":54,"computed_at":"2026-10-21T05:46:15Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":null,"employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Palo Alto, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":440000,"max":null,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":440000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Apache Kafka","optional":false},{"name":"Flink","optional":false},{"name":"Hadoop","optional":false},{"name":"Rust","optional":false},{"name":"Scala","optional":false},{"name":"Spark","optional":false},{"name":"Trino","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2025-07-29T22:05:33Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-14","last_verified_at":"2026-10-22T03:20:44Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":449,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":448},"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.\nSpaceXSI 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.\nABOUT THE ROLE:\nThe Data Platform team builds and operates the infrastructure responsible for all large-scale data transport and processing across the company. We own and manage core systems including Apache Kafka, HDFS, Spark, Flink, and Trino, enabling real-time ML pipelines, feed ranking, experimentation, analytics, and observability at petabyte scale. Our team deals with latency-critical workloads, high-throughput streaming, and distributed compute systems that require fault tolerance, performance, and absolute reliability.\nAs a software engineer on the Data Platform team, you will design, build, and operate the distributed systems powering SpaceXSI's data movement and compute. You will take ownership of infrastructure components that process trillions of events daily, driving the scalability, performance, and reliability of the systems that power product and ML workloads across the company.\nRESPONSIBILITIES:\nDesign and implement high-throughput, low-latency data ingestion and transport systems.\nScale and optimize multi-tenant Kafka infrastructure supporting real-time workloads.\nExtend and tune Spark, Flink, and Trino for demanding production pipelines.\nBuild interfaces, APIs, and pipelines enabling teams to query, process, and move data at petabyte scale.\nDebug and optimize distributed systems, with a focus on reliability and performance under load.\nCollaborate with ML, product, and infrastructure teams to unblock critical data workflows.\nBASIC QUALIFICATIONS:\nProven expertise in distributed systems, stream processing, or large-scale data platforms.\nProficiency in Rust, Go, Scala or similar systems languages.\nHands-on experience with Kafka, Flink, Spark, Trino, or Hadoop*in production.\nStrong debugging, profiling, and performance optimization skills.\nTrack record of shipping and maintaining critical infrastructure.\nComfortable working in fast-moving, high-stakes environments with minimal guardrails.\nCOMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:\n$180,000 - $440,000 USD\nBase 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.\nSpaceXSI is an equal opportunity employer. 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