Sr. Model Engineer, Post-Training & RL

SpaceXSI

Palo Alto, CAJob$180–600K/yrPosted 1 day agoStill listed today

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At a glance

Compensation
$180–600K/yr
Location
Palo Alto, CA
Work Authorization
Not specified

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Job overview

SpaceXSI is building a Super Intelligence stack spanning compute, models, and applications. The Senior Model Engineer, Post-Training & RL will work on critical post-training and reinforcement learning challenges, including reward modeling, preference optimization, and reinforcement learning to improve reasoning, truthfulness, and real-world capabilities.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

PythonPyTorchJAXRustC++Large Model TrainingTruth-Seeking AIPost-TrainingReinforcement LearningAlignment MethodsTaking Pride in WorkThriving in Meritocratic Environments

Qualifications

Production-Quality Code Experience1B+ Parameter Model TrainingPost-Training or RLHF ExperienceModels Used by Millions

Benefits

Medical Insurance
Vision Insurance
Dental Insurance
401(k) Match

Full job description

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today, SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of making life multiplanetary and expanding consciousness to the stars.

SpaceXSI is building Super Intelligence to help humanity understand the universe. Our teams are building the full Super Intelligence stack: from our Colossus supercomputers, to Grok models, to our suite of applications, including Grok Bot, Grok Build, Grok Imagine, Grok Voice, and X. We're creating a powerful flywheel where more compute trains better models, better models power more useful products, and what we learn from people using those products shapes what we build next.

SR. MODEL ENGINEER, POST-TRAINING & RL

You will work on the most critical post-training and reinforcement learning challenges at any given time — including reward modeling, preference optimization (RLHF/DPO), and RL for improving reasoning, truthfulness, and real-world capabilities.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

  • Experience writing production-quality code in Python, PyTorch, JAX, Rust, or C++

  • Experience training large models (e.g., pre-training, post-training, fine-tuning, or RL training of neural networks with 1B+ parameters)

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

  • You believe truth-seeking AI is the most important and challenging problem

  • You are obsessed about building incredibly useful models through post-training and RL techniques

  • You are a power user of AI models and eager to push the boundaries of what’s possible with reinforcement learning and alignment methods

  • If you previously worked on post-training, RLHF, or trained models used by millions of people it’s a big plus, but relevant experience is not required

  • You take pride in your work and thrive in meritocratic environments

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

$180,000 - $600,000 USD

Base salary is just one part of our total rewards package at SpaceXSI, 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. SpaceXSI is an equal opportunity employer. For details on data processing, view our Recruitment Privacy Notice.

How this job compares

Set against the 6,099 open Machine Learning Engineer jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 3, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$180–600K/yr
  • California median$176–261K/yr1,350 salary ranges
  • US median$148–245K/yr4,859 salary ranges

This range's midpoint, $390K, is 76% above the California median midpoint ($222K) — in the top quarter of Machine Learning Engineer salary ranges in California.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 1,824 open Machine Learning Engineer jobs in California and 6,099 across the US. 8% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Hiring the most in California
Experience
Machine Learning Engineer postings that state a minimum ask for 5 years of experience at the median; the middle half ask for 3 to 7 years (4,881 postings).
Education
2,296 of the 6,099 open Machine Learning Engineer jobs (38%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 3, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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