Principal AI Engineer, Special Programs
$220,000–$350,000 year
On-siteWashington, United States
Job Summary
Design and optimize integrations between frontier AI models and government systems, platforms, and data environments. Collaborate on custom SDKs, APIs, and developer tools tailored for enterprise users while partnering with stakeholders to prototype solutions and iterate rapidly. Ship production-grade code with a focus on speed, simplicity, and measurable impact, balancing technical execution with safety, transparency, and ethical standards. This role supports SpaceX's Special Programs team, which deploys AI capabilities for U.S. federal agencies. Success requires obtaining and maintaining a Top Secret Security Clearance, working extended hours and weekends as needed, and potentially traveling 20% to government sites.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or another STEM discipline
- 2+ years of professional experience in software development in lieu of a degree
- 6+ years of hands-on software engineering experience building scalable systems, APIs, or AI/ML applications
- strong Python proficiency
- Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed
- 20% travel may be required to government sites
- Must be willing to obtain and maintain a Top Secret Security Clearance
- U.S. citizen or national
- U.S. lawful, permanent resident (green card holder)
- Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157
- Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158
- eligibility to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State
Desired Qualifications
- Experience working with large language models, generative AI, or agentic systems—either in research, production, or applied engineering
- Familiarity with government or public sector technology environments (federal civilian agencies, state/local gov, or regulated industries like healthcare, finance, or infrastructure)
- Strong product sensibility: ability to translate ambiguous stakeholder needs into concrete technical solutions
- Demonstrated ability to write clean, maintainable, high-performance code under tight timelines
- Exceptional problem-solving skills and intellectual curiosity—you thrive on hard, ambiguous challenges
- Excellent communication skills; you can explain complex technical concepts to non-technical partners clearly and concisely
- Prior work on AI safety, governance, red-teaming, or responsible AI deployment
- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), or API orchestration
- Background in policy-adjacent technical roles, civic tech, or public-interest technology
- Contributions to open-source AI projects or developer tools
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