Job brief: Principal DFT Engineer (Silicon Engineering)

What JoRoute checked · Checked by JoRoute

• Listed on SpaceX's own job board. JoRoute does not take listings from job ads or recruiters.
• First seen by JoRoute 2026-11-04 (3 days ago); last confirmed on the board 2026-11-07.
• The apply link opens boards.greenhouse.io, the address SpaceX's board gives for this job.
• No other listing with this title and place on this board in the last 90 days.
• No layoff notices (WARN) under this name in the state files JoRoute reads.

What the listing says · Employer's own words, not checked

• Pay: $220,000 to $355,000 a year
• Job type: Not stated
• Where: Palo Alto, CA · Austin, TX · Irvine, CA
• Posted: 2026-07-30 · over 60 days ago

What the job asks · Employer's own words, not checked

Level: Lead / staff. The title says "Principal".

Must have

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering or computer science
• 10+ years of experience working with ASICs
• 10+ years of experience in scan insertion and DFT setup, integration and validation
• Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S.
• § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S.

Conditions

• Ability to work extended hours and weekends as needed to meet critical milestones
• You may also accrue 3 weeks of paid vacation and will be eligible for 10 or more paid holidays per year.
• 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/…

Main duties

• Lead implementation and optimization of DFT architectures, including scan insertion, compression/decompression logic, memory BIST, and logic BIST, leveraging…
• Own ATPG tools and methodologies, including generating patterns for stuck-at, transition, and path delay fault models, while focusing on pattern compression,…
• Responsible for evaluating design readiness for scan insertion through RTL and physical design Scan Design Rule Check (DRC) tools
• Integration and verification of Design for Test (DFT) fabrics and IP within Subsystems
• Run and debug non-timing and SDF annotated gate level simulations

Lines copied from the posting, not rewritten. "Preferred" or "nice to have" items are not listed as must-haves.

How it compares · Compared by JoRoute from listings

• Typical listed pay for engineer jobs in Austin, TX: $174k a year (130 listings, 14 employers). This listing is 65% higher.
• Across SpaceX's 2,896 open listings, 59% of those with a posting date were first posted more than 60 days ago. How SpaceX hires

What nobody outside the employer knows · Not known

• Whether the role is already filled or on hold: employers often leave listings up.
• How many people applied, and who reads the applications.
• Where in the published range an offer would land.

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1. Is this role still open, and when do you hope to fill it?
2. Which of the listed places is this role based in?
3. What are the interview steps, and when should I expect to hear back?

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