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).
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.
As a multimodal engineer on the Imagine Model Team, you will develop cutting-edge AI experiences beyond text, with a strong focus on enabling high-fidelity understanding and generation across image and video modalities, while also incorporating audio where it enhances visual content (e.g., synchronized audio for video). Responsibilities span data curation, modeling, training, inference serving, and product integration, covering both pretraining and post-training phases. You will collaborate closely with product teams to push model frontiers and deliver exceptional end-to-end user experiences.
$180,000 - $440,000 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 15, 2026, last verified Oct 25, 2026.
Open roles: 298, up 6 (+2%) over the last 30 days.