Sr. Software Engineer, Data Engineering (X)
Company websitex.ai (xAI, opens in new tab)
Base salary $180K to $330K
Employer-published annual base salary, USD. Advertised base range in Palo Alto, CA
You apply on the employer's own site. Six Figure Work does not handle applications.
- LocationPalo Alto, CA
- WorkplaceWorkplace not stated
- Status at last checkSource accepting applications when checked
- Last checked (36 min ago) · observed since
About this job
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.
SpaceXSI 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.
SR. SOFTWARE ENGINEER, DATA ENGINEERING (X)
As a Data Engineer in X product engineering team, you will play a key role in providing comprehensive data solutions that own or serve a wide range of stakeholders, including our end-users and internal teams such as Product engineering, Algorithm, Legal, Finance and Sales. Our work utilizes AI, distributed computing and hybrid storage technologies, but extends beyond purely data-centric solutions, encompassing non-data-related challenges, ultimately maximizing the potential of data for the benefit of our diverse user base.
You'll help build and operate a distributed data platform that powers hundreds of realtime and batch pipelines processing billions of events per day. The team runs like an internal startup — we own problems end to end, from raw event streams to the datasets, tooling, and metrics that product, growth, safety, and business teams depend on daily.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Design, build, and operate production-grade realtime and batch pipelines that ingest, process, validate, and deliver data powering user-behavior insights and product decisions
- Create shared datasets, fact tables, and internal data products that let other teams analyze, debug, and improve product performance
- Prototype and build tooling that automates and accelerates internal data workflows — backfills, dashboards, report generation, and self-serve access to data
- Own data correctness end to end: validate with output invariants, denominator reconciliation, and independent recomputation, and lead root-cause investigations when key metrics move unexpectedly
- Move fluidly across query engines and frameworks (e.g., BigQuery, Trino, Clickhouse for analytics; Flink, Kafka, Spark/Scalding for streaming and batch), choosing the right tool and adapting quickly to new infrastructure and environments
- Partner across product and business teams to surface where data gaps exist and prioritize the highest-impact opportunities for new data acquisition and improvement
- Iterate quickly on feedback, shipping the smallest useful increment with a strong bias toward efficient, accurate, and reliable solutions
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
- 5+ years of professional software engineering experience
- Experience with Python, Rust, Scala, Go or Java, and data pipeline toolings and distributed systems
PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
- Software engineering experience in data engineering or distributed systems
- Knowledge of realtime and batch data processing tools such as Spark/Kafka/Flink/SQL and various storage systems in RMDBs/NoSQL
- Experience solving large scale problems and comfortable doing incremental quality work while building brand new systems to enable future quality improvements
- Proven records of interpreting product requirements into engineering implementation plans, and effectively communicating with different groups (AI, product, marketing/sales and engineering)
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:
$180,000 - $330,000 USD
Base 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.
SpaceXSI is an equal opportunity employer. For details on data processing, view our Recruitment Privacy Notice.
Source: xAI on Greenhouse · View original posting (opens in new tab)
Pay in context
This role's base floor ($180,000) is above 50% of the 4,251 Software Engineering roles in California listed on this site; 174 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $176,500; the middle half runs from $149,725 to $204,000.
Only jobs on this site count, and each one publishes a base salary of $100,000 or more, so this compares six-figure jobs with each other, not with the whole market. Computed Nov 6, 2026.
This listingSr. Software Engineer, Data Engineering (X)$180K to $330K
Sr. Software Engineer, Real-Time Storage$180K to $330K
Sr. Software Engineer, Consumer Subscriptions$180K to $330K
Sr. Web Engineer (X)$180K to $330K
Sr. Software Engineer, Observability$180K to $330K
Sr. Software Engineer, Platform Infrastructure$180K to $330K
Sr. Maching Learning Engineer, Search Ranking$180K to $330K
Chart as a table
| Role | Published base |
|---|---|
| Sr. Software Engineer, Data Engineering (X) (this listing) | $180K - $330K |
| Sr. Software Engineer, Real-Time Storage | $180K - $330K |
| Sr. Software Engineer, Consumer Subscriptions | $180K - $330K |
| Sr. Web Engineer (X) | $180K - $330K |
| Sr. Software Engineer, Observability | $180K - $330K |
| Sr. Software Engineer, Platform Infrastructure | $180K - $330K |
| Sr. Maching Learning Engineer, Search Ranking | $180K - $330K |
Observed changes
- Began meeting the published-salary criteria
- First observed on the employer's board
- Observed since
- Employer-stated posting date
- 2026-11-06
Where this pay comes from
Location as the employer wrote it: Palo Alto, CA
$180,000 - $330,000 USD
- Method
- Employer text, read with fixed rules and re-verified
- Checked
- Rule set
- us-base-v2
The pay passage appears in the employer's own job text. Fixed, deterministic rules located it, and the passage below was checked against the stored copy of the posting.
What we verified
- The pay figures come from the employer's own listing, quoted exactly above.
- The pay is an annual base salary in US dollars with a minimum of at least $100,000.
- The role was publicly listed on the employer's job board when last checked.
We do not verify what the employer will actually offer, whether the employer is still recruiting for the role, or anything beyond what the employer published. Full methodology.
