Member of Technical Staff - Data Platform

About the Role

The Data Platform team at xAI builds and operates the infrastructure responsible for all large-scale data transport and processing across the company.

As a software engineer on the Data Platform team, you will design, build, and operate the distributed systems powering X's data movement and compute.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement high-throughput, low-latency data ingestion and transport systems.
• Scale and optimise multi-tenant Kafka infrastructure supporting real-time workloads.
• Extend and tune Spark, Flink, and Trino for demanding production pipelines.
• Build interfaces, APIs, and pipelines enabling teams to query, process, and move data at petabyte scale.
• Debug and optimise distributed systems, with a focus on reliability and performance under load.
• Collaborate with ML, product, and infrastructure teams to unblock critical data workflows.

Basic Qualifications

• 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 optimisation skills.
• Track record of shipping and maintaining critical infrastructure.
• Comfortable working in fast-moving, high-stakes environments with minimal guardrails.

Compensation and Benefits

$180,000 - $440,000 USD

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