New Graduate Engineer, Security Software

About the Role

Starshield leverages SpaceX’s Starlink technology and launch capability to support national security efforts. Starshield is designed for government use, with an initial focus on earth observation, communications, and hosted payloads. The Starshield team is building highly reliable in-space mesh networks, designing secure systems to guarantee access to space, designing next-gen communication and sensing software, and more.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and build security infrastructure for Starshield, including cryptographic services and other security-critical services.
• Develop security features for Starshield systems, including our router, dish, gateways, and satellites.
• Design security into factory processes and provide network services in support of this.
• Maintain existing production systems and improve security posture via both direct implementation and recommendations to other teams.
• Build prototypes and help identify, design, and test security improvements.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or another STEM discipline.
• Experience with one or more software development languages (i.e. Python, C++, Golang).
• Experience designing and implementing security solutions for operating systems, distributed systems, or other enterprise/large-scale infrastructure.
• Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee, or be eligible to obtain necessary U.S. Department of State authorizations.

Qualifications

• Broad understanding of the security design of today’s Internet, including the cryptographic primitives involved.
• Ability to see the big picture, prioritize accordingly, and work at different levels of abstraction.
• Notable skills in one or more of the following:
• Software engineering
• Applied cryptography
• Network security
• Operating system security
• Secure/authenticated boot
• Incident response and adversary detection
• Vulnerability research
• Being flexible, communicating clearly, and establishing and maintaining productive working relationships with other engineering teams are paramount to success.
• Passionate about building quality products, love the challenges of outsmarting adversaries, and want to make an impact on an inter-planetary scale.

Preferred Skills And Experience

• Experience contributing security improvements to complex systems.
• Experience working with special purpose security hardware such as trusted platform modules (TPMs) and hardware security modules (HSMs).
• Fundamental understanding of network protocols; including the TCP/IP stack as well as UDP based protocols.
• Experienced in navigating large, complex, interactive systems.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Ability to work both independently and in a team.
• Demonstrated ability to deal with ambiguity and to learn new technologies quickly.
• Advanced degree in a technical or engineering discipline.
• Active Top Secret, Top Secret SCI, or DOE Level Q clearance.

Additional Requirements

• This position requires successfully obtaining and maintaining a Top Secret Security Clearance as a condition of employment.
• SpaceX reserves the right to modify or terminate employment if a required security clearance cannot be obtained.

New Graduate Engineer, Security Software - '26/'27 (Starshield)