Software Engineer, xAI
Sandbox Service
More information about location
5 days a week in office
Building artificial intelligence
Be an early applicant
Building artificial intelligence
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
More information about location
5 days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To build AI systems that can help humanity understand the world better.
Role
Who you are
- Expert knowledge of Rust, C++ or Go
- Familiarity with Python
- Deep experience with either Linux or Windows systems (familiarity with both is a strong plus)
- Experience with virtualisation and containerisation technologies (e.g., cgroups, KVM, gVisor, QEMU)
- Solid knowledge of the networking stack
- Candidates must be willing to attend late meetings at least once a week to coordinate with the rest of our team in Palo Alto
What the job involves
- The Sandbox service team at xAI builds and maintains a secure, scalable system that gives our models safe, controlled access to computational environments
- This infrastructure powers critical workloads across training and product, enabling models to run code, build software, interact with tools, and even control applications with user interfaces
- We provision containers and virtual machines on large-scale clusters, granting models interactive control over these remote environments
- Our work spans the full stack: from orchestrating massive jobs and resource scheduling at the cluster level, to fine-tuning filesystem performance on nodes
- The Sandbox service enables Grok to safely run and test code in real-time for user queries, and supports reinforcement learning in training, where models interactively explore tools ranging from compilers to productivity apps
Application process
- After submitting your application, the team reviews your statement of exceptional work and CV. If your application passes this stage, the interview process is as follows:
- Initial technical screening during which a member of our team will ask some basic technical questions (15 minutes)
- Coding interview in either Rust / C++ / Go / Python (45 minutes)
- Distributed systems design (45 minutes)
- Final stage with founding engineer Toby Pohlen (30 minutes)
- All interviews will be conducted via Google meet
Salary benchmarks
Our take
xAI is Elon Musk's venture into the world of artificial intelligence, and like all things Musk, it's going big. Its setting out to build AI that helps humanity understand the universe and its starting with Grok, its conversational AI chatbot already integrated into X (formerly Twitter). With access to real-time data and a powerful ecosystem of Musk-led companies, xAI is certainly pushing towards artificial general intelligence at serious scale.
Like all bold ventures, xAI has faced its share of controversy, from questions about regulation to the overlap across Musk's businesses. But fans are still seeing the bigger picture: an interconnected tech ecosystem where AI, social media, and space exploration feed into one another.
Recently, the company made headlines with its massive "Colossus" supercomputer project, powered by tens of thousands of Nvidia GPUs. While the data center's temporary power setup has faced environmental scrutiny, the scale of ambition is certainly undeniable. From launching tap-to-pay features on X to building one of the most powerful AI training systems on Earth, xAI is moving fast.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Jul 2025
$5bn
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Dec 2024
$6bn
SERIES C
Total funding: $17.1bn
Company benefits
- Health and wellness: Comprehensive health insurance including medical, dental, vision, and disability coverage
- Life and family: Life and AD&D insurance and fertility benefits to ensure our team’s well-being and peace of mind
- Flexible vacation: We work hard but avoid burn out. Take time off when you need it
- Visa sponsorship: We support international talent with visa sponsorship to join our team
- 401(k) plan: Retirement savings plan to secure your financial future
Company HQ
Downtown, Burlingame, CA
Leadership
Elon Musk
(Founder)Founder, Chairman, CEO, and CTO of SpaceX. CEO and Product Architect of Tesla. Chairman and CTO of X Corp, founder of the Boring Company, co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI, and president of the Musk Foundation.
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