Rack Design Engineer (Data Center) at xAI

<div class="content-intro"><p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">SpaceXAI’s mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We operate with a flat organizational structure. All employees are expected to be hands-on and to contribute directly to the company’s mission. Leadership is given to those who show initiative and consistently deliver excellence. Work ethic and strong prioritization skills are important. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">All employees are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.</span></p></div><h3><strong>ABOUT THE ROLE:</strong></h3> <p>The Data Center Engineering team designs training and inference compute clusters from first principles, pushing thermal, electrical, and optical systems to the limit of physics. We operate as a highly cross disciplinary team comprised of mechanical, electrical, optical, and software engineers, all working to maximize the efficiency, reliability, and deployment speed of terrestrial computing to serve rapidly scaling demand.</p> <p>This team owns compute architecture, datacenter network design, rack builds, connectivity, in-house design of our own computers, and the manufacturing line that builds that compute. As a Rack Design Engineer, you will own the rack as a product: structure, power, cooling, service paths, and the physical integration of servers, switches, optics, and liquid cooling from first sketch through production rate.</p> <h3><strong>RESPONSIBILITIES:</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Own mechanical, structural, and integration design of high-density AI compute racks and associated chassis, frames, busbars, manifolds, and cable/fiber raceways</li> <li>Integrate compute, networking, power distribution, and liquid cooling into a buildable, serviceable, high-yield rack architecture</li> <li>Design for the in-house manufacturing line: DFM/DFA, fixtures, work instructions, incoming inspection, first article, and production ramp</li> <li>Close thermal, structural, and power constraints with cooling, electrical, optical, and network counterparts at the cluster level (CDUs, cold plates, quick disconnects, PDUs/busbars, high-current distribution, tray and bend-radius limits)</li> <li>Drive vendor and in-house parts from concept to qualified production, including sheet metal, extrusions, busbar, manifolds, cable management, and rack accessories</li> <li>Stand on the floor during prototype and production builds: debug fit, leak, cable dress, airflow/liquid balance, and service time; fold issues into the next revision the same day</li> <li>Produce and maintain CAD, BOMs, drawings, and build documentation that a line can run at volume</li> <li>Support cluster deployment of the racks you design, including first-site bring-up and feedback into the next hardware generation</li> <li>Partner with network, optical, electrical, and firmware teams to deploy custom compute for inference and training across SpaceX programs</li> </ul> <h3><strong>BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related engineering discipline</li> <li>2+ years of professional experience designing electromechanical hardware that was built and shipped (internship and project experience counts toward this if the hardware was physically produced)</li> </ul> <h3><strong>PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Ownership of rack, chassis, or similarly dense electromechanical products through prototype and production</li> <li>Experience or background in ethernet switching, networking, interconnects, and high power distribution</li> <li>CAD fluency in SolidWorks, Creo, or NX, with released drawings a shop and a factory can build from</li> <li>AI / HPC / GPU rack design: NVIDIA HGX/GB-class, custom OCP, or equivalent high-power liquid-cooled compute</li> <li>Liquid cooling design: cold plates, manifolds, CDUs, quick disconnects, leak detection, and coolant compatibility</li> <li>High-power rack electrical integration: busbar, PDU, 48V, high-current 3-phase, grounding, and service safety</li> <li>Cable and fiber physical design inside the rack (MPO/OSFP dress, bend radius, service loops) in partnership with optical and network engineers</li> <li>Experience taking a rack from NPI onto an in-house manufacturing line (fixtures, cycle time, poka-yoke, rework loops)</li> <li>Thermal and structural analysis (CFD, FEA) used to make a design decision</li> <li>Time at a high-velocity hardware organization: AI/GPU cloud, custom compute, or an OEM/ODM team that owned the product end to end</li> <li>Comfort in a factory or datacenter build environment, including first articles, yield, and hardware debug on the floor</li> </ul> <h3><strong>ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed to support design releases, line bring-up, and cluster deployments</li> <li>Must be willing to travel to manufacturing and datacenter sites</li> <li>Ability to lift up to 25 lbs. unassisted and work around active factory and datacenter hardware</li> </ul><div class="content-conclusion"><p><em>SpaceXAI is an equal opportunity employer. For details on data processing, view our </em><em><a href="https://x.ai/legal/recruitment-privacy-notice" target="_blank">Recruitment Privacy Notice</a>.</em></p></div>