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xAI · 5 months ago

Software Engineer - Data Platform

Palo Alto, CA

Full-time

Onsite

Mid Level

$180K/yr - $440K/yr

xAI is dedicated to creating AI systems that enhance human understanding and knowledge. The Software Engineer on the Data Platform team will design, build, and operate distributed systems that manage data movement and processing at a massive scale, ensuring reliability and performance for product and machine learning workloads.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)Foundational AIGenerative AIInformation TechnologyMachine Learning

Growth Opportunities

H1B Sponsor Likely

Responsibilities

Design and implement high-throughput, low-latency data ingestion and transport systems

Scale and optimize 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 optimize distributed systems, with a focus on reliability and performance under load

Collaborate with ML, product, and infrastructure teams to unblock critical data workflows

Qualification

Distributed systemsStream processingKafkaSparkRustGoScalaFlinkTrinoHadoopDebuggingPerformance optimizationCollaborationCommunication skills

Required

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 optimization skills

Track record of shipping and maintaining critical infrastructure

Comfortable working in fast-moving, high-stakes environments with minimal guardrails

Company

xAI

XAI is an artificial intelligence startup that develops AI solutions and tools to enhance reasoning and search capabilities.

Founded in 2023

Palo Alto, California, USA

11-50 employees

https://x.ai

H1B Sponsorship

xAI has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)

Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship

Represents job field similar to this job

Trends of Total Sponsorships

2025 (1)

Funding

Current Stage

Late Stage

Total Funding

$42.73B

Key Investors

Neptune Digital AssetsSpaceXMorgan Stanley

2026-01-06Series E· $20B

2025-12-11Secondary Market· $0.3M

2025-07-13Corporate Round· $5.32B

Leadership Team

Yuhuai Wu

Co-Founder

Toby Pohlen

Founding Member

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Company data provided by crunchbase