Software Engineer (Data Platform)

TL;DR

Software Engineer (Data Platform): Design, build, and operate distributed data systems for large-scale data transport and compute with an accent on high-throughput, low-latency data ingestion, and fault-tolerant streaming infrastructure. Focus on scaling and optimizing Kafka, Spark, Flink, and Trino pipelines, ensuring reliability and performance under heavy load.

Location: Hybrid in Palo Alto and San Francisco, CA, USA; must be in office 5 days a week with some work-from-home flexibility; San Francisco candidates must commute to Palo Alto at least twice a week

Salary: $180,000 - $440,000 USD annually

Company

xAI is a mission-driven AI company focused on building systems that understand the universe and support humanity's pursuit of knowledge, emphasizing engineering excellence and a flat organizational structure.

What you will do

• Design and implement high-throughput, low-latency data ingestion and transport systems.
• Scale and optimize multi-tenant Kafka infrastructure for real-time workloads.
• Extend and tune Spark, Flink, and Trino for demanding production pipelines.
• Build APIs and pipelines for querying and processing petabyte-scale data.
• Debug and optimize distributed systems focusing on reliability and performance.
• Collaborate with ML, product, and infrastructure teams to unblock critical data workflows.

Requirements

• Location: Must be based in Palo Alto or San Francisco, CA, USA with hybrid work requirements
• Proven expertise in distributed systems, stream processing, or large-scale data platforms.
• Proficiency in Rust, Go, Scala, or similar systems languages.
• Hands-on experience with Kafka, Flink, Spark, Trino, or Hadoop in production.
• Strong debugging, profiling, and performance optimization skills.
• Ability to work in fast-moving, high-stakes environments with minimal guardrails.

Culture & Benefits

• Equity and comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage.
• Access to 401(k) retirement plan and various insurance options.
• Discounts and perks supporting employee well-being.
• Flat organizational structure encouraging initiative and leadership.
• Focus on engineering excellence and strong communication skills.

Hiring process

• Initial 15-minute phone interview with basic questions.
• Two technical interviews including practical coding and systems design assessments.
• Project deep-dive presentation and Q&A about exceptional work.
• Final in-person interviews and meet-and-greet with the wider team.