Job Summary:
SpaceX is actively developing technologies to enable human life on Mars. They are seeking a Senior Software Engineer specializing in Computer Vision to lead the development and deployment of AI-driven solutions for manufacturing processes, focusing on real-time inspection and automated defect recognition.
Responsibilities:
• Lead computer vision model development and deployment for real-time inspection and automated defect recognition in production-scale manufacturing
• Architect and implement pipelines for scalable model training, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and retraining using industry-standard tools like Ray Train/Serve, Kubeflow, Airflow, or equivalent
• Develop software to integrate hardware, sensors, and tooling (including sensor fusion) with AI-driven process monitoring systems
• Build and optimize data pipelines from production lines, incorporating real-time stream processing and inference
• Collaborate with part/process engineers, NDE engineers, and materials scientists to link advanced models and outputs to manufacturing
• Lead design and code reviews, technology evaluations, and enforce best practices (e.g., style, CI/CD, accuracy, testability, efficiency, and standards)
Qualifications:
Required:
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, math, physics, or related STEM discipline; OR 8+ years of professional experience building and deploying AI software/Machine Learning in lieu of a degree
• 5+ years of software development experience
• 3+ years deploying AI models to production environments
• 3+ years of software engineering experience
• 3+ years of experience leveraging Python for data analysis
• Ability to work extended hours and weekends as necessary
• Ability to travel to other SpaceX sites as needed (up to 20%)
• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Preferred:
• Proven track record as a technical leader in software projects involving AI/ML
• Hands-on experience deploying computer vision models for real-time manufacturing inspection and defect detection
• Strong development experience in Python and C++ (or similar), with expertise in ML frameworks like PyTorch or JAX
• Hands-on experience with computer vision libraries (e.g., OpenCV)
• Experience fine tuning and adapting state-of-the-art models, such as transformers and vision transformers, to production environments
• Experience fine-tuning LLMs or vision-language models and building agentic tools
• Experience deploying applications at scale with Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud/edge inference for factory automation
• Expertise in machine learning/LLM operations including model versioning, A/B testing, drift detection, and orchestration with Kubeflow, Ray, MLFlow, or similar
• Stream processing with Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ, or equivalent
• Database expertise in PostgreSQL or similar and data tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Jupyter)
• Strong linux experience
• Experience applying AI to physics or simulation domains, using physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) or surrogate modeling
Company:
SpaceX develops and operates rockets, satellite networks, and AI infrastructure including launch, connectivity, and cloud services. Founded in 2002, the company is headquartered in Hawthorne, USA, with a team of 1001-5000 employees. The company is currently Late Stage.