---
title: 'OT Systems Engineer (Physical Infrastructure) at xAI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/ot-systems-engineer-physical-infrastructure-xai-southaven-qzd61f3q6z9j'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-19'
---

# OT Systems Engineer (Physical Infrastructure) at xAI

- **Company:** xAI
- **Location:** Southaven, MS / Memphis, TN
- **Posted:** 2026-09-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-19
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/xai/jobs/5229363007

## 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.

## ABOUT THE ROLE:

SpaceXSI is looking for a highly skilled and versatile OT (Operational Technology) Systems Engineer to implement and support the backend infrastructure for our next-generation controls and industrial software platforms for our physical infrastructure. This role is embedded within the mission IT organization to provide support to dedicated controls engineering organizations while leveraging adjacent IT expertise, tooling, and technologies. This role will balance support of legacy controls support systems with modernization and continuous improvement initiatives. The ideal candidate thrives in high stakes settings, brings a strong sense of urgency balanced with operational excellence, and combines deep OT expertise with IT technologies such as virtualization, VDI, GitOps, network level redundancy and edge compute solutions to create streamlined and secure ICS environments.

## RESPONSIBILITIES:

- Design, deploy, and augment next-generation OT environments that support plant and launch systems across multiple sites.
- Install, configure, maintain, and support industry standard controls software platforms as well as internally developed HMIs.
- Integrate established and emergent IT technologies to simplify management, improve security, and create scalable plant environments.
- Deploy and maintain development, test, and staging environments to enable controlled, systematic change introduction.
- Provide direct support during launch, test, and production campaigns.
- Perform systems/software upgrades and maintenance between critical operations (including evenings and weekends as needed).
- Proactively monitor services and respond rapidly to incidents to maintain high availability and performance.
- Leverage automation tools and contribute to infrastructure-as-code and broader DevOps initiatives with a focus on ICS environments.
- Work with internal controls engineers to iterate on simulation and emulation environment to enhance test coverage and augment change control processes.
- Write and maintain standards, architectures, best practices, and documentation (including system overviews, design drawings, and operational procedures), with emphasis on highly reliable and secure industrial environments, especially at data boundaries.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams (IT, security, controls, and operations) as well as external customers and integrators to design robust OT architectures and resolve technical issues.
- Ensure OT systems are configured and maintained in compliance with industry and cybersecurity standards (e.g., Purdue Model, IEC 62443).

## BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

- 3+ years of experience in OT systems engineering or industrial control systems administration.
- Hands-on experience with multiple industry standard controls software platforms and tools.
- Significant experience designing, deploying, supporting, and troubleshooting OT environments in high-reliability settings.

## PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

- Experience supporting real-time systems, industrial control networks, or operational technology (OT) environments in aerospace, defense, energy, or similar high-reliability industries.
- Experience designing architectures that incorporate hyperconverged, rugged industrial edge, and distributed compute technologies.
- Working knowledge of industrial protocols, controls networks, and OT cybersecurity best practices.
- Proficiency in scripting (Bash/PowerShell/Python) and automation frameworks (Puppet, Terraform, Ansible, etc.).
- Experience with configuration management, provisioning, infrastructure as code, and DevOps concepts/tools.
- Familiarity with Active Directory, multi-platform authentication, and identity environments in OT contexts.
- System administration experience managing Windows and Linux servers, rudimentary database administration exposure, and storage/backup experience.
- Network administration experience and understanding of the OSI model, especially Layer 1/2/3 considerations as they apply to industrial and controls networks.
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to communicate with internal/external customers, vendors, and management in both formal and informal situations.

## ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

- Willingness to participate in an after-hours on-call rotation and work extended hours or weekends as necessary.
- Willingness to travel (up to 20%, including flying to other sites worldwide) and potential time at sea supporting marine systems.
- Ability to lift 30 lbs.
- Ability to work at heights.
- Ability to drive (active valid driver's license).

SpaceXSI is an equal opportunity employer. For details on data processing, view our [Recruitment Privacy Notice](https://x.ai/legal/recruitment-privacy-notice).

## About xAI

## Company Overview
- **One‑liner**: xAI builds artificial intelligence systems to accelerate human scientific discovery and “understand the universe,” with products spanning frontier reasoning models, real‑time voice, and generative media.
- **Entity Type**: Private (last funding round: Series E, January 2026; acquired by SpaceX in February 2026)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, USA (additional offices in Seattle, WA; Memphis, TN; London, UK)
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Elon Musk

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI research, large language models, voice AI, generative media)
- Target customers: B2B (developers via API), B2C (consumers via Grok on 𝕏, SuperGrok subscriptions), Enterprise & Government (xAI for Government)
- Mission: “To understand the universe” – building AI that extends what humanity can know and do.

## Products & Services
- **Grok (base models)** : A conversational AI assistant modeled after *The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy*, available on the 𝕏 platform and via API.
- **Grok 4 / Grok 4 Heavy**: The most intelligent reasoning models, featuring native tool use and real‑time search integration (SuperGrok and Premium+ tiers).
- **Grok Voice Agent API / Voice Agent Builder**: Create custom voice agents in under two minutes (no‑code) – includes speech‑to‑text, text‑to‑speech, custom voice cloning, and multilingual support.
- **Grok Imagine API**: State‑of‑the‑art video generation API (quality, cost, latency).
- **Grok‑1.5 / Grok‑2 / Grok‑2 mini**: Earlier model releases with improved reasoning and 128K context length.
- **PromptIDE**: An integrated development environment for prompt engineering and interpretability research.
- **xAI for Government**: A suite of frontier AI products tailored for U.S. government customers.
- **Colossus Supercomputer**: 200,000‑GPU cluster built in 122 days, used for training xAI models; now also leased to Anthropic (Colossus 1 agreement).

All products are delivered as SaaS, API, and model weights (open‑source release of Grok‑1).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Funding**: 
  - Series B (May 2024): $6 B 
  - Series C (Dec 2024): $6 B (led by A16Z, BlackRock, Fidelity, Kingdom Holdings, Lightspeed, MGX, Morgan Stanley, OIA, QIA, Sequoia, Valor, Vy Capital, others)
  - Series E (Jan 2026): $20 B
  - Acquisition by SpaceX announced Feb 2, 2026 (terms not disclosed).
- **Key Metric**: Total disclosed funding ~$32 B; annual revenue not publicly available.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: A16Z, BlackRock, Fidelity, Sequoia Capital, Morgan Stanley, Kingdom Holdings, Lightspeed, MGX, Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Anthropic (Colossus deal), U.S. Department of War (selected Dec 2025).
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Rapid scaling from founding to 200K‑GPU cluster in 122 days.
  - Over 214 open roles listed on Greenhouse as of mid‑2026.
  - #1 on Big Bench Audio (Grok 4 audio performance).
  - Expanded into voice agents, video generation, and government verticals within 3 years.
  - Acquisition by SpaceX signals deep integration with space‑tech resources.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Compute infrastructure**: Colossus supercomputer – one of the largest GPU clusters in existence, enabling faster training and larger models.
- **Model performance**: Grok 4 claims “most intelligent model in the world” with top benchmarks (Big Bench Audio #1).
- **Vertical integration**: Tight coupling with 𝕏 platform for data, distribution, and real‑time world knowledge.
- **Speed of execution**: “Move quickly and fix things” culture; built Colossus in 122 days.
- **Government contracts**: Early access to public‑sector AI markets (U.S. Department of War).
- **Talent density**: Small, focused team of researchers and engineers; in‑person work accelerates iteration.

## Strategic Focus
- **Continue advancing frontier reasoning** (Grok 4 Heavy, next‑gen models).
- **Expand voice and multimodal APIs** for developers (Voice Agent Builder, Custom Voices Library).
- **Deepen government / defense partnerships** (xAI for Government, Department of War).
- **Scale infrastructure** post‑acquisition via SpaceX resources.
- **Remain “open” where strategic** (open‑source release of Grok‑1 weights).

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: “Ambitious goals, fast execution” – rejects consensus in favor of first‑principles reasoning. In‑person work prioritized (Palo Alto, Seattle, Memphis, London).
- **Benefits**: 
  - Competitive cash + equity compensation.
  - Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, disability, life insurance.
  - 401(k) plan, fertility benefits, flexible vacation.
  - Visa sponsorship offered.
- **Engineering culture**: No recruiters for assessments – applications reviewed directly by technical team. Interview process: application → screening → technical interviews → offer.
- **Mission‑driven**: Opportunity to work on frontier AI models that aim to “advance humanity.”
- **Perks**: In‑person collaboration, fast‑paced environment, ownership of meaningful projects.

## Sources
1. [x.ai/company](https://x.ai/company)
2. [x.ai/careers](https://x.ai/careers)
3. [job-boards.greenhouse.io/xai](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/xai)
4. [x.ai/news](https://x.ai/news)
5. [x.ai/careers/open-roles](https://x.ai/careers/open-roles)

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