Job brief: Sr. AI Engineer, Special Programs - Top Secret Clearance

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 $350,000 a year
• Job type: Not stated
• Where: Washington, DC · Palo Alto, CA
• Posted: 2026-05-21 · over 60 days ago

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

Level: Senior. The title says "Sr".

Must have

• SR. AI ENGINEER, SPECIAL PROGRAMS - TOP SECRET CLEARANCE
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, mathematics, computer engineering, physics, or data science.
• 5+ years of hands-on software engineering experience building scalable systems, APIs, or AI/ML applications.
• Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed.
• 20% travel may be required to government sites.
• Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S.

Conditions

• 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

• Design, build, and optimize integrations between AI frontier models (e.g., Grok family) and government systems, platforms, and data environments.
• Identify pain points, scoping product specifications, and designing and building AI-powered software for government or enterprise use cases.
• Benchmark models and develop evaluation frameworks to assess performance and address weaknesses, ensuring compliance with customer standards.
• Enhancing model performance through system prompt tuning or fine-tuning, with an eye toward secure and scalable deployment.
• Analyze request logs, prompt data, or system outputs to ensure reliability and audibility.

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 Washington, DC: $154k a year (286 listings, 34 employers). This listing is 85% higher.
• Across SpaceX's 2,898 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.

Ask before you apply

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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Next steps

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