{"id":1960,"url":"https://alion.io/job/xai-software-engineer-network-c","title":"Software Engineer - Network (C++)","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":88,"open_postings":100,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.47,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":59,"computed_at":"2026-10-16T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"junior","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","Seattle, 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":2,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"TCP/IP","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-02T20:21:53Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-24","last_verified_at":"2026-10-16T06:26:38Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":105,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":[],"days_open":105},"description":"SpaceXAI’s mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity. We operate with a flat organizational structure. All employees are expected to be hands-on and to contribute directly to the company’s mission. Leadership is given to those who show initiative and consistently deliver excellence. Work ethic and strong prioritization skills are important. All employees are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.\nABOUT THE ROLE:\nAt SpaceXAI, we design, build, and operate Colossus from the ground up. This includes the massive GPU clusters, high-speed interconnect fabric, and the software that makes it all work at unprecedented scale. Colossus powers Grok and our frontier AI models with a custom, high-performance datacenter network that delivers ultra-low latency and massive bandwidth across hundreds of thousands of GPUs.\nAs a Software Engineer on the Colossus Networking team, you will develop the core networking software that maximizes the performance and reliability of our datacenter fabric. Your work will directly impact training efficiency, model convergence, and the speed at which we can push the frontier of AI.\nOur engineers own the full lifecycle of their software - from design and implementation to deployment, monitoring, and iteration based on real-world performance at scale. You will solve hard problems in distributed systems, high-performance networking, and real-time control of one of the largest AI supercomputers on Earth.\nRESPONSIBILITIES:\nDevelop routing and traffic-engineering algorithms for the Colossus high-performance datacenter network.\nDevelop highly reliable, real-time software designed to run on the switches that form the backbone of our low-latency, high-bandwidth AI training fabric.\nParticipate in and lead architecture, design, and code reviews.\nDevelop prototypes and run experiments to validate key design decisions at both small and full-cluster scale.\nBuild tools for software development, deployment, data analysis, visualization, and testing across virtualized environments, hardware-in-the-loop setups, and live production clusters.\nDeploy reliable software updates through continuous integration and release systems with rigorous testing and monitoring.\nBASIC QUALIFICATIONS:\nBachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, math, or a related technical discipline; OR 2+ years of professional software development experience in lieu of a degree.\nStrong development experience in C or C++.\nPREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:\nStrong professional experience writing high-performance C/C++ in production environments.\nExperience developing, debugging, and deploying software that runs at scale in real-world systems.\nDeep knowledge of networking protocols (UDP, TCP/IP, RDMA, etc.), distributed systems, and large-scale datacenter fabrics.\nBackground in real-time systems, high-performance computing, low-latency networking, or resource-constrained environments.\nCreative problem-solving ability with exceptional analytical skills and strong engineering fundamentals.\nExcellent written and verbal communication skills.\nAbility to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with evolving requirements.\nExperience with security considerations in large-scale distributed systems.\nCOMPENSATION AND BENEFITS\n$180,000 - $440,000 USD\nBase salary is just one part of our total rewards package at SpaceXAI, 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.\nSpaceXAI is an equal opportunity employer. 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