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xAI › Engineering

Software Engineer - Evals

xAI · Palo Alto

Pay
$175K–$275K
From the posting
Posted
Jul 22, 2026
Tracked open for 96 days
Team
Engineering
Full-time
xAI hiring
298 open roles
116 in engineering
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Typical software engineer pay at startups: $221K median, middle half $188K–$256K (2,406 posted ranges).

Typical engineering pay at xAI: $180K–$440K — median of 52 listed ranges.

Across all startups we track: $170K–$242K for engineering roles (8,053 listed ranges).

About the role

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.


You will own and elevate our mission-critical research platform that directly accelerates SpaceXAI's frontier work.

The evals team creates and executes instruments for measuring model capabilities and behaviors. These instruments are used to clean datasets, provide feedback for experiments, and track growth throughout training. The evals team also diagnoses why agents fail and how to make improvements both short and long term. We manage the execution infrastructure, design data sets and grading schemes.

You will design, build, and ship delightful and bulletproof systems that engineers love to use every day. This role values a strong attention to details, first principles reasoning, and great taste.  

We are open to all levels from new grads to senior engineers.

Requirements

  • Software engineering proficiency and 3+ years of experience actively writing code.
  • A track record of shipping high quality projects and a strong sense of urgency.
  • Exceptional product taste -  you have a sharp sense for what “good” looks like in outputs, and you can translate fuzzy notions of quality, helpfulness, truthfulness, and safety into concrete, measurable criteria.
  • Strong attention to detail.

Bonus Points

  • Previously founded a startup or joined a fast-growing early-stage startup.
  • Familiarity with AI/ML workflows, annotation tools, or evals.
  • Experience creating and maintaining component libraries, design systems, or internal tools.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

$175,000 - $275,000 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.

From xAI's careers page. First seen Jul 23, 2026, last verified Oct 25, 2026.

xAI hiring momentum

Open roles: 298, up 6 (+2%) over the last 30 days.

Jul 15, 2026 · 210Oct 25, 2026 · 298

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