Sr. Network Engineer
xAI is hiring a Sr. Network Engineer in Palo Alto, United States. It pays $180k-$330k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on xAI.
Level's read on this job
- Little AI ●○○○ is how Level rates this role: aI is not part of the work.
- Level classifies it as a senior role.
- Level lists 302 other open roles at xAI.
AI in this 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. NETWORK ENGINEER
SpaceXSI is building and operating large-scale networks that underpin training and inference infrastructure, including high-performance / supercompute fabrics that connect GPU clusters, plus the core, edge, and datacenter networks that keep that infrastructure reachable and reliable.
We need a Network Engineer who is strong on fundamentals and comfortable owning production network design, deployment, and operations end to end. This is a hands-on engineering seat — not a NOC technician role and not a network-software (telemetry/ZTP platform) SWE role. You will design and build networks, qualify platforms, ship changes safely, and keep availability and performance high as we scale.
Travel to Memphis (and other build sites) may be required for capacity build-outs. You will participate in a team on-call rotation.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Design, deploy, and operate production datacenter and campus/core networks at scale
- Own routing and switching configuration standards (BGP and at least one IGP such as OSPF or IS-IS), including change design, peer reviews, and execution
- Qualify new network platforms, optics, and topologies; contribute to architecture and capacity planning
- Build and improve monitoring, alerting, and operational documentation so issues are caught and fixed quickly
- Troubleshoot Layer 2/Layer 3 incidents end to end — from link flaps and optics through routing and traffic engineering — and drive root cause and lasting fixes
- Automate repetitive network tasks with Python, Ansible, or similar tooling where it reduces toil
- Partner with compute, facilities, and software teams during cluster build-outs and maintenance windows
- Support high-performance / supercompute network environments (Ethernet AI/HPC fabrics, RoCE/RDMA-capable designs) as part of the broader network estate
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, or engineering discipline
- 5+ years of experience designing and/or operating production networks in a datacenter, ISP, cloud, or large enterprise environment
PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
- Experience troubleshooting live production network incidents and participating in on-call
- Experience with BGP and at least one interior routing protocol
- Strong written and verbal communication; clear change docs and incident notes
- Working knowledge of TCP/IP, VLANs, EVPN/VXLAN or equivalent datacenter overlays, and optics / high-speed Ethernet
- Experience with modern datacenter vendors (e.g. Arista, Cisco, Juniper, Nvidia/Mellanox)
- Familiarity with high-performance or supercompute networking (RoCEv2, congestion control, GPU cluster fabrics) — useful context for our environment, not a hard filter
- Network automation (Python, Ansible, Terraform, or similar) used in production
- Experience with EVPN, leaf-spine, and large-scale Ethernet fabrics
- Prior work supporting rapid datacenter or cluster capacity build-outs
- Deep specialist RoCE/NCCL ownership is a plus, not the bar for this seat
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
- Willing to work onsite in Palo Alto
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.
How we rate this
Sr. Network Engineer at xAI rates 22 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Little AI. AI is not part of the work.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
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