Software Engineer - Platform Core (C++, C)

<div class="content-intro"><p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">SpaceXAI’s mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">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. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">All employees are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.</span></p></div><h3><strong>RESPONSIBILITIES:</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Build and maintain the lean, high-reliability Linux-based operating system that underpins our supercomputer network fabric.</li> <li>Write (or rewrite) high-performance device drivers to extract the maximum physical capability from our network and compute hardware.</li> <li>Manage deployment, operation, and debugging of our platform in production, including:</li> <ul> <li>Rigorous resolution and root-causing of anomalies to ensure the system is constantly improving in reliability.</li> <li>Developing and constantly improving our tools for observability and configuration management.</li> </ul> <li>Collaborate with our hardware teams and external partners to design the next generation of supercomputer hardware – and then bring up our OS and software stack on it.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Hands-on systems programming experience in C or C++.</li> <li>Strong operating systems fundamentals (scheduling, memory management, I/O) — you must be able to articulate in extreme detail how a computer works, from the hardware all the way up to high-level applications.</li> <li>Understanding of computer networking, both in the host (OS stack) as well as common network devices like switches and routers.</li> <li>Excellent written and verbal communication skills.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Deep knowledge of the Linux kernel and its networking stack — transferable experience with another production-grade kernel is okay, too!</li> <li>Proficiency with debugging tools spanning kernel, network, and userspace (e.g., ftrace, perf, Wireshark/tcpdump, eBPF, gdb, and more).</li> <li>Experience bringing up new hardware from scratch — you have flashed bare-metal software on a microcontroller with JTAG, or bootstrapped a Linux kernel and rootfs on new hardware.</li> <li>Demonstrated track record of developing and optimizing device/peripheral drivers — ideally for high-speed interfaces, or with advanced considerations like DMA and cache coherency.</li> <li>Understanding of major peripheral hardware interface standards (Ethernet, PCIe, I2C, SPI, etc.) — you can critically review a schematic, and debug these interfaces if needed.</li> <li>Experience with product security, OS/system hardening, and secure boot schemes.</li> </ul> <h3><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:</strong></span></h3> <p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">$180,000 - $440,000 USD</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Base salary is just one part of our total rewards package at xAI, which also includes equity, comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short &amp; long-term disability insurance, life insurance, and various other discounts and perks.</span></p><div class="content-conclusion"><p><em>SpaceXAI is an equal opportunity employer. For details on data processing, view our </em><em><a href="https://x.ai/legal/recruitment-privacy-notice" target="_blank">Recruitment Privacy Notice</a>.</em></p></div>