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SpaceX salaries

What companies building the future pay, straight from their own job postings.

1,209 openings with posted pay · Updated Nov 15, 2026

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SpaceX

1,209 matching openings with posted pay
1
Principal Software Engineer, CDN (Starlink)

SpaceX · Palo Alto, CA · Staff / Principal

$270k–$355k / year
2
Principal Security Software Engineer (Starlink)

SpaceX · Palo Alto, CA · Staff / Principal

$235k–$355k / year
3
Principal DFT Engineer (Silicon Engineering)

SpaceX · Palo Alto, CA · Staff / Principal

$220k–$355k / year
4
Principal Software Engineer, CDN (Starlink)

SpaceX · Redmond, WA · Staff / Principal

$260k–$345k / year
5
Principal Security Software Engineer (Starlink)

SpaceX · Redmond, WA · Staff / Principal

$225k–$345k / year
6
Principal Software Engineer, Power Optimization (Starlink)

SpaceX · Redmond, WA · Staff / Principal

$210k–$345k / year
7
Director of Legal, Government Contracts

SpaceX · Hawthorne, CA · Director

$275k–$340k / year
8
Director of Legal, Government Contracts

SpaceX · Washington, D.C. · Director

$275k–$340k / year

Median base salary

$145k

1,209 openings with posted pay

Typical range

$120k–$173k

25th to 75th percentile

Across all 26,542 openings with posted pay, the median is $175k. Annual base salary. Equity and bonus excluded. Methodology

SpaceX by role

Bar shows 25th to 75th percentile

Electrical & Firmware130 openings
Typical range $140k–$198k
$168k
Software & Data166 openings
Typical range $155k–$208k
$163k
Infrastructure, IT, & Security181 openings
Typical range $150k–$215k
$163k
AI & Autonomy22 openings
Typical range $160k–$163k
$161k
Finance, Legal, & Compliance61 openings
Typical range $131k–$228k
$160k
Business Development & Customer Ops104 openings
Typical range $130k–$178k
$148k
Marketing & Design8 openings
Typical range $138k–$145k
$145k
Product, Programs, & Systems19 openings
Typical range $130k–$205k
$135k
Supply Chain & Procurement114 openings
Typical range $110k–$148k
$130k
Mechanical & Physical Systems91 openings
Typical range $130k–$155k
$130k
Test, Quality, & Reliability104 openings
Typical range $88k–$140k
$128k
Business & People Operations62 openings
Typical range $56k–$133k
$109k
Manufacturing & Production147 openings
Typical range $63k–$130k
$108k

Top-paying companies

All openings · Median pay · 8+ openings each

1MatX34 roles$394k
2Aaru19 roles$353k
3Anthropic571 roles$345k
4Thinking Machines Lab40 roles$340k
5OpenAI663 roles$308k
6Goodfire17 roles$300k
7World Labs8 roles$288k
8Periodic Labs23 roles$288k
9Wispr Flow29 roles$285k
10Wayve70 roles$285k
11Lambda94 roles$283k
12Simile12 roles$275k
13Oxide18 roles$275k
14Generalist AI17 roles$275k
15Suno61 roles$270k

More company salaries: Anduril Industries · Bending Spoons · Blue Origin · Character.AI · CoreWeave · Databricks · Epic Games · Flock Safety · Mercor · Midjourney · Nebius · Neuralink · Nvidia · Palantir · Perplexity · Polymarket · Rivian · Rocket Lab · Scale AI · SpaceX · SpaceXAI · Stripe · Waymo

Methodology

All figures come from salary ranges companies publish on their own job postings, pulled from their applicant tracking systems hourly. Nothing is self-reported or estimated.

Pay in other currencies is converted at fixed recent exchange rates. Hourly, weekly, and monthly pay is annualized. Everything is base salary only. Equity and bonus are excluded because postings rarely quantify them.

Stats are medians and quartiles of each posting's range midpoint, weighted by open roles. Groups with fewer than 30 openings (8 for a single company) are not shown.

Numbers reflect currently open roles, not historical offers. About 57% of tracked openings post pay. US pay-transparency laws drive most disclosure, so coverage skews to US roles. Explore hiring patterns in the hiring report.

Frequently asked questions

What is the median salary at companies building the future?
The median posted base salary is $175k per year, across 26,542 live openings at 536 companies. The middle half of postings falls between $133k and $225k.
Which startup roles pay the most?
AI & Autonomy roles lead at a $231k median, followed by Software & Data ($215k) and Infrastructure, IT, & Security ($203k), based on the ranges companies post on live openings.
Which companies building the future pay the highest salaries?
MatX tops the list with a $394k median posted base salary, ahead of Aaru ($353k) and Anthropic ($345k), among companies with eight or more openings that post pay.
Do startup job postings include salary?
About 57% of the openings BuildList tracks post a pay range. Disclosure is highest at US companies covered by pay-transparency laws, so coverage skews to US roles.
Where does this salary data come from?
From the pay ranges companies publish on their own job postings, pulled hourly from their applicant tracking systems and normalized to annual base salary. Equity and bonus are excluded. Nothing is self-reported or estimated.

These numbers come from 26,542 live openings. Browse the roles behind them.

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