Sr. Software Engineer, Training/Inference (C++)

SpaceXSI

Palo Alto, CA · Seattle, WAFull-time$200,000–$375,000Posted Nov 4, 2026

About the role

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, TRAINING/INFERENCE (C++)

At SpaceXSI we are building the high-performance inference platform that serves Grok to millions of users every day. As a Software Engineer, Training/Inference (C++), you will design and optimize large-scale model serving systems end-to-end. You will own everything from distributed infrastructure – global KV cache, continuous batching, load balancing, auto-scaling – to deep low-level optimizations, including GPU kernels, quantization, speculative decoding, and tail latency. This is a high-impact role where your work directly determines how fast and reliably users interact with Grok at massive scale.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Architect and implement scalable distributed infrastructure for model serving (load balancing, auto-scaling, batch scheduling, global KV cache)

Optimize latency and throughput of model inference under real production workloads

Build and operate high-concurrency serving systems with excellent tail latency and high reliability at the scale required to serve millions of users

Benchmark, fine-tune, and accelerate inference engines (including low-level GPU kernel work and code generation)

Develop custom tools to trace, replay, and fix issues across the full stack — from orchestration down to GPU kernels

Create robust CI/CD infrastructure for seamless endpoint deployment, image publishing, and inference engine updates

Accelerate research on scaling test-time compute, RL rollout, and model-hardware co-design for next-generation systems

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, or science discipline

5+ years of experience with low-level system programming experience in C/C++ or Rust

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

Experience with large-scale, high-concurrent production serving

Experience with GPU inference engines (e.g., vLLM, SGLang, Triton, TensorRT-LLM)

Strong background in system optimizations: batching, caching, load balancing, parallelism

Low-level inference optimizations: GPU kernels, code generation

Algorithmic inference optimizations: quantization, speculative decoding, distillation, low-precision numerics

Experience with testing, benchmarking, and reliability of inference services

Experience designing and implementing CI/CD infrastructure for inference

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

$200,000 - $375,000 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.

Responsibilities

  • Architect and implement scalable distributed model-serving infrastructure.
  • Optimize inference latency and throughput under production workloads.
  • Build and operate high-concurrency serving systems with high reliability.
  • Benchmark and accelerate inference engines, including GPU kernel work.
  • Develop tools to trace, replay, and resolve issues across the serving stack.
  • Create CI/CD infrastructure for endpoint deployment and inference engine updates.
  • Accelerate research on test-time compute, RL rollout, and model-hardware co-design.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, or a science discipline.
  • 5+ years of low-level systems programming experience in C, C++, or Rust.
  • Experience with large-scale, high-concurrency production serving.
  • Experience with GPU inference engines such as vLLM, SGLang, Triton, or TensorRT-LLM.
  • Background in system optimization, GPU kernels, code generation, or algorithmic inference optimization.
  • Experience testing, benchmarking, and improving inference service reliability.
  • Experience designing and implementing CI/CD infrastructure for inference.

Benefits

  • Equity
  • Medical, vision, and dental coverage
  • 401(k) retirement plan
  • Short- and long-term disability insurance
  • Life insurance
  • Discounts and other perks

Skills mentioned

C++Distributed SystemsSystem DesignPerformance OptimizationCUDAConcurrencyModel ServingCI/CDPerformance TestingKubernetes

About SpaceXSI

Understand the Universe. We are a team of AI technologists and business leaders on a mission to build AI systems that can help humanity understand the world better. https://x.ai/careers

Technology1,001-5,000 employees