Network Engineer

Xai
Palo Alto, CA
On-site

Who this role is best for

Strong fit for hands-on network engineers who design and operate large-scale infrastructure and thrive in a flat, mission-driven organization.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with experience in datacenter network design and deployment at scale
    — “Design, deploy, and operate production datacenter and campus/core networks at scale”
  • Individuals who value flat organizational structures and take initiative in leadership
    — “Leadership is given to those who show initiative and consistently deliver excellence”
  • Engineers with strong communication skills and ability to document changes clearly
    — “Strong written and verbal communication; clear change docs and incident notes”

Things to consider

  • Travel to Memphis and other build sites may be required for capacity expansions
    — “Travel to Memphis (and other build sites) may be required for capacity build-outs”
  • On-call rotation is expected, with no mention of flexibility or reduction in frequency
    — “You will participate in a team on-call rotation”

How to stand out

  • Emphasize your ability to design and implement routing protocols like BGP and OSPF
    — “Own routing and switching configuration standards (BGP and at least one IGP such as OSPF or IS-IS)”
  • Showcase your experience with high-speed Ethernet and optics in production environments
    — “Working knowledge of TCP/IP, VLANs, EVPN/VXLAN or equivalent datacenter overlays, and optics / high-speed Ethernet”
  • Highlight your experience with network automation using Python or Ansible
    — “Automate repetitive network tasks with Python, Ansible, or similar tooling where it reduces toil”
  • Demonstrate your ability to troubleshoot Layer 2/Layer 3 issues and drive lasting fixes
    — “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”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · MediumAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • design and deploy large-scale networks
  • troubleshoot network incidents
  • automate network tasks
Typical background
network engineeringnetwork operations

Skills & requirements

Required

Network DesignNetwork DeploymentNetwork OperationsRouting And SwitchingNetwork AutomationTroubleshootingNetwork MonitoringNetwork Security

Preferred

High-performance NetworkingSupercompute NetworkingRoce/nccl

Stack & domain

BGPOSPFIs-isPythonAnsibleEvpn/vxlanRoce/rdmaNCCLAristaCiscoJuniperNvidia/mellanoxCommunicationNetwork EngineeringDatacenter NetworksHigh-performance Computing

About the role

Original posting from Xai via Greenhouse

SpaceXAI’s mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity. 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. All employees are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

SpacexAI 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 — deep specialist RoCE/NCCL ownership is a plus, not the bar for this seat

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

 Several years designing and/or operating production networks in a datacenter, ISP, cloud, or large enterprise environment

 Solid hands-on experience with BGP and at least one interior routing protocol

Working knowledge of TCP/IP, VLANs, EVPN/VXLAN or equivalent datacenter overlays, and optics / high-speed Ethernet

Experience troubleshooting live production network incidents and participating in on-call

Strong written and verbal communication; clear change docs and incident notes

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

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

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

Willing to work onsite in Palo Alto

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

$150,000 - $250,000 USD

Base salary is just one part of our total rewards package at SpaceXAI, 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.

SpaceXAI is an equal opportunity employer. For details on data processing, view our Recruitment Privacy Notice.

Source: Xai careers (Greenhouse)

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