Software Engineer - Search Infrastructure

xAI|06 Aug 2026

fulltimeonsite

Before you apply

Listed location: Palo Alto, CA

Work arrangement: onsite. A remote label does not confirm worldwide eligibility or visa sponsorship.

Read the employer’s description for qualifications, compensation and work eligibility. Confirm the position is still open on the application page.

Job description supplied by xAI; category and skill labels may be inferred. How our listings work · Report a problem

Job Description

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:

As a backend engineer, you’ll design and build scalable, high-performance systems that power subscriptions infrastructure, new monetized products, user growth, and creator monetization. You’ll work on mission-critical infrastructure that processes millions of transactions, optimizes user acquisition and retention, and enables creators to earn a living through their content. This is a unique opportunity to make a large-scale revenue impact while creating products that users and businesses love.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Design and build large scale search infrastructure (real-time indexing, serving, and data pipelines) that handles massive write and query loads with strict latency and reliability requirements
Go deep into search internals (indexing, query execution, and relevance) and help shape the technical direction of the core search infrastructure
Operate production services end to end, including monitoring, debugging, incident response, and performance optimization
Lead and drive incident responses and recovery with your peers. Review and contribute to incident postmortems and hold a high bar for the same

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

5+ years developing large-scale infrastructure, distributed systems or experience with storage or hardware architecture.
Proficient in high performance Rust, C++ or JVM-based languages
Hands-on experience with search and indexing technologies (Elasticsearch, Lucene, or similar) and an understanding of how they work and why
Experience with operating system internals, filesystems, networking, or database storage engines
Obsessed performance, reliability, scalability and quality
Ability to take full ownership of problems and learn whatever is needed to solve them
Comfortable moving quickly in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities and tight deadlines

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

Contributions to open-source search or infrastructure projects

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

$150,000 - $400,000 USD

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

Skills mentioned

GoRustC++Distributed Systems

Frequently asked questions

Is the Software Engineer - Search Infrastructure position at xAI remote?

The Software Engineer - Search Infrastructure role at xAI does not have a confirmed remote arrangement in our data. Check the employer description for its work location.

What type of employment is the Software Engineer - Search Infrastructure role?

xAI is hiring for a full-time Software Engineer - Search Infrastructure position.

Which skills are mentioned for the Software Engineer - Search Infrastructure job at xAI?

Detected skill labels include Go, Rust, C++, Distributed Systems. Check the employer description to distinguish required skills from preferred experience.