Principal Operations Engineer (Application Software)

Hawthorne · USD 180,000-275,000 · 5+ years experience · Posted Oct 13, 2026

At a glance

As the Principal Operations Engineer for Application Software at SpaceX, you will directly support the ASW executive team through growth strategy, AOP and capital planning, and site activation.
This role involves balancing tactical planning that unblocks fast-paced software delivery while informing long-term, robust strategies for organizational growth across multiple corporate and technical functions.
You will tackle poorly scoped, future-looking questions and drive them to a concrete point of view, plan, owner, and accountability of seeing the plan through.

Run the Application Software (ASW) operating cadence with the director and leadership team, including weekly/monthly rhythm, decision log, and staff planning.
Own the ASW AOP (headcount, opex, capex, vendors) from bottoms-up inputs through Finance review, in-year change control, and AOP-vs-actuals.
Own the M&A playbook and execute integrations covering diligence on people, software, vendors, and data, along with cutovers and organization placement.
Own site activation for ASW including coverage models, local intake/support, hiring, and go-live plans aligned to first hardware, first shift, or first customer.
Own compute and hardware capacity forecasts for CPU, GPU, and storage, alongside server-rack layout, power, cooling, and floor space with IT and facilities.
Redesign intake, prioritization, and SLAs so work enters ASW through a unified process rather than disparate paths.
Tackle nebulous, multi-org problems with no playbook yet, pulling a future-looking ASW growth strategy out of ambiguity and driving it to a decision.
Get hands-on where it unblocks the plan by writing software, landing integrations, racking and cabling hardware, bringing up server rows, or joining hardware builds.
Lead a team of 2-3 engineers and analysts, holding a short metric set and using it to change behavior.

Bachelor’s degree in operations, engineering, computer science, mathematics, physics, or a related technical field.
7+ years of experience or education in management science and engineering, operations engineering, operations research, industrial engineering, or equivalent quantitative operations work.
5+ years of experience in operations, strategy, program management, or technical leadership in a high-rate engineering or software environment.
Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed.
Must be willing to travel frequently to SpaceX sites.
Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. lawful permanent resident, Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Master’s degree in management science & engineering, operations research, industrial engineering, or similar.
Track record of owning or heavily contributing to an AOP / annual budget for a technical org.
Experience forecasting and standing up compute capacity including servers, GPUs, storage, server racks, power/cooling, hardware BOM, and vendor lead times.
Experience standing up operations at new sites and/or running M&A diligence and post-merger integration for software, IT, or technical teams.
Proven ability to take an undefined, cross-functional problem and produce a durable strategy.
Ability to contribute directly to software and/or hardware builds rather than only coordinating them.
Comfort with ambiguous executive problems with strong quantitative chops without over-instrumenting.
Ability to influence without authority across engineering, recruiting, finance, IT, facilities, and site leadership.