---
title: 'Full-Stack Data Scientist, Hardware Reliability (Starlink) at SpaceX'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/full-stack-data-scientist-hardware-reliability-starlink-spacex-bastrop-61f8q142jjae'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Full-Stack Data Scientist, Hardware Reliability (Starlink) at SpaceX

- **Company:** SpaceX
- **Location:** Bastrop, TX
- **Posted:** 2026-09-03
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://boards.greenhouse.io/spacex/jobs/8782080002?gh_jid=8782080002

## 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 enabling human life on Mars.

## FULL-STACK DATA SCIENTIST, HARDWARE RELIABILITY (STARLINK)

SpaceX is leveraging our experience building rockets and spacecraft to deploy Starlink, the world’s largest satellite constellation and most advanced broadband internet system. We provide reliable and fast internet to millions of users worldwide, including populations with little or no connectivity, rural communities, aircraft, watercraft, and places where existing services are unreliable, too expensive, or disconnected by natural disasters. We design, build, test, and operate all parts of the system, thousands of satellites and millions of consumer antennae that allow users to connect within minutes of unboxing. The Starlink team is seeking out the best-in-class professionals to maximize Starlink’s potential for communities and businesses around the globe.

As a Full-stack Data Scientist on the Starlink Reliability team, you will build the data pipelines, models, and production scoring systems that improve the reliability of Starlink customer hardware (dishes, routers, power supplies, cables). You will work from telemetry, manufacturing, inventory, field-return, and unstructured support data (tickets, chats, images) through production pipelines and deployed models, put scores into the workflows that drive replacements and support decisions, and build LLM-backed tools — retrieval, tool calling, and agentic workflows — that engineers and operators run. You will measure whether those systems reduce failures as we launch new products and scale the network. The team is based in Bastrop, on site with the factory that builds this hardware.

## RESPONSIBILITIES:

- Build and maintain data pipelines, infrastructure, and software to objectively increase the reliability of Starlink customer hardware
- Design and operate the feature, label, and scoring data that reliability models train and serve on, including backfills, late-arriving data, and data quality
- Train, validate, and iterate models for hardware failure prediction both in production line and field
- Deploy and operate models in production, including scheduled scoring, versioning, monitoring, and iteration based on live results
- Contribute to critical Starlink software repositories, working in core internal and customer-facing codebases
- Build internal analytics tools, APIs, and applications used by hardware, production, quality, supply chain, and customer experience teams
- Collaborate across engineering, production, test, inventory, quality, supply chain, and customer experience to turn analyses and predictions into design, process, and support changes
- Identify customer needs, gather requirements, and execute independently in a dynamic environment with changing constraints and tight deadlines

## BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, data science, mathematics, electrical engineering, or other STEM discipline
- 4+ years of professional experience in data science, machine learning, or software engineering
- Strong proficiency in Python and SQL
- Experience building production data pipelines
- Experience deploying machine learning models in production

## PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

- Master’s degree in computer science, data science, mathematics, or other STEM discipline (or PhD with 3+ years of relevant experience)
- Strong understanding of software engineering fundamentals including data structures, algorithms, system design, concurrency, and writing high-performance, maintainable code
- Experience with relational databases, data pipeline orchestration, and large-scale data processing
- Experience deploying, versioning, and monitoring machine learning models in production, including scheduled scoring jobs whose outputs are consumed by other systems
- Experience building APIs or internal tools that deliver model outputs to engineering users
- Experience shipping large language models in production, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), tool calling, and agentic workflows
- Experience extracting signal from unstructured data (support tickets, chat, call transcripts, images) alongside structured telemetry and field-return data
- Strong analytical skills: statistical analysis, data visualization, quantitative reasoning, and reliability methods (survival analysis, calibration, experimental design)
- Familiar with at least one additional programming language (e.g. Go, Java, C++, C#)
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to make presentations to engineers, team members, internal customers, and management

## ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

- This position is based in Bastrop, TX (Austin area) and requires being on-site; hybrid or remote work not considered
- Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed
- Must be willing to travel up to 10%

## ITAR REQUIREMENTS:

- To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR [here](https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/?id=ddtc_kb_article_page&sys_id=24d528fddbfc930044f9ff621f961987).

SpaceX is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with SpaceX is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Applicants wishing to view a copy of SpaceX’s Affirmative Action Plan for veterans and individuals with disabilities, or applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should reach out to EEOCompliance@spacex.com.

## About SpaceX

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: SpaceX designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft while building a global satellite broadband network and AI infrastructure to enable interplanetary life.
- **Entity Type**: Public (Nasdaq: SPCX) – IPO priced at $135/share on June 12, 2026
- **Headquarters**: Starbase, Texas (primary); Hawthorne, California (historical headquarters)
- **Founded**: 2002
- **Founders**: Elon Musk

## Core Business
- **Industries**: Aerospace & Defense, Spaceflight, Satellite Telecommunications, Artificial Intelligence
- **Target Customers**: Government (NASA, U.S. Armed Forces, international agencies), Commercial satellite operators, Broadband consumers (Starlink), Defense/intelligence (Starshield)
- **Mission**: To make humanity multiplanetary by building the integrated hardware and software infrastructure of the future across space, connectivity, and AI.

## Products & Services
- **Falcon 9**: Reusable two-stage rocket – the world’s most launched orbital rocket, with over 630 successful first-stage reflights.
- **Falcon Heavy**: Heavy-lift launch vehicle composed of three Falcon 9 cores; capable of lifting nearly 64 metric tons to orbit.
- **Starship**: Fully reusable super-heavy launch vehicle and spacecraft (largest ever built) designed for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
- **Dragon 2**: Crew and cargo spacecraft used for NASA Commercial Crew and private missions to the ISS and beyond.
- **Starlink**: Low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation providing high-speed, low-latency broadband internet to over 10.3 million people globally.
- **Starshield**: Military-grade satellite services for national security and defense customers.
- **SpaceXAI**: Division focused on AI compute infrastructure, frontier models, and real-time data processing (including AI compute satellites).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Conflicting reports – Internal share offer in 2025 valued SpaceX at **$800 billion**; IPO pricing (June 2026) implied a market capitalization of approximately **$75 billion** for the shares offered.
- **Key Metric**: Annual revenue of **$15.0 billion** (2025); total funding raised **$15.2 billion** across 56 rounds.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Google (led $1B Series G), Intesa Sanpaolo, NASA, U.S. Space Force, and numerous institutional investors.
- **Growth Signals**: Employee headcount of **11,387** (monthly growth +2.5%); **1,671 active job postings**; Falcon 9 launch cadence of 1–3 per week; Starlink subscriber base covering ~10.3 million people; recent acquisition of xAI (February 2026).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Full reusability**: Only company with a fleet of reusable orbital rockets (Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy), dramatically lowering per-launch cost.
- **Vertical integration**: Designs, manufactures, and operates its own rockets, spacecraft, satellite constellation, and AI platform – enabling rapid iteration and cost control.
- **Scale and reliability**: More orbital launches per year than any other provider (public or private); proven track record with NASA and DoD.
- **First-mover in commercial spaceflight**: Established crew transport, satellite internet, and now AI compute in orbit.

## Strategic Focus
- **Starship development**: Complete testing and operational deployment of the fully reusable Starship system for lunar (Artemis) and Mars missions.
- **Starlink expansion**: Grow subscriber base, launch V3 satellites, and extend mobile and direct-to-cell services.
- **AI integration**: Leverage SpaceXAI for on-orbit compute and real-time data analytics; build AI compute satellites.
- **Interplanetary infrastructure**: Develop technologies for sustained human presence on the Moon and Mars.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven culture**: Employees directly contribute to making life multiplanetary – “hard work and innovative solutions result in big gains.”
- **Impactful projects**: Work on reusable rockets, crewed spacecraft, global broadband, and AI systems that are actively changing the space industry.
- **Compensation**: Competitive salaries, comprehensive health benefits, and equity packages.
- **Work locations**: Primary campuses in Hawthorne, CA and Starbase, TX (with additional sites in Cape Canaveral, FL and Vandenberg, CA). Roles span engineering, software, manufacturing, and support.
- **Engineering culture**: Merit-based, fast-paced, with high ownership; top talent sourced from Tesla, Boeing, NASA JPL, and other aerospace leaders.
- **Open roles**: Over 1,600 active positions across software, AI, avionics, propulsion, supply chain, and more – including internships.

## Sources
1. [SpaceX Careers Page](https://www.spacex.com/careers)
2. [LinkedIn – SpaceX Company Profile](https://www.linkedin.com/company/spacex)
3. [SpaceX IPO Factsheet (PDF)](https://content.spacex.com/cms-assets/FINAL_Documents%20and%20Updates/SpaceX%20IPO_Factsheet.pdf)
4. [SpaceX IPO Pricing Press Release](https://ir.spacex.com/updates/releases-details/2026/Space-Exploration-Technologies-Corp--Announces-Pricing-of-Initial-Public-Offering/default.aspx)
5. [SpaceX Jobs Board (Greenhouse)](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/spacex)

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