Software Engineer - Sandbox Service

About xAI

xAI’s mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity. 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. All engineers are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.

About the team

The sandbox execution team at xAI develops and maintains a system for rapidly running untrusted software in a controlled and secure environment. The system is used both in training and production. When training a model using reinforcement learning, the infrastructure is used to host software environments so the model can interactively learn to use tools such as compilers. In production, we rely on our sandboxing infrastructure so that Grok can generate and evaluate code when answering questions.

About the role

The work in this role is highly technical as we need to maintain rigid security standards while allowing our users to rapidly iterate without sacrificing reliability. An ideal candidate meets at least the following requirements:

• Expert knowledge of Rust, C++ or Go
• Familiarity with Python
• Solid understanding of Linux or Window. Having experience with both is a plus
• Familiarity with virtualization techniques and implementations
• Good knowledge of networking stack

Interview process

After submitting your application, the team reviews your statement of exceptional work and CV. If your application passes this stage, you will be invited to a 15 minute interview (“phone interview”) during which a member of our team will ask some basic technical questions. If you clear the initial phone interview, you will enter the main process, which consists of at least two technical interviews:

$180,000 - $440,000

Base salary is just one part of our total rewards package at xAI, which also includes equity, comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short & long-term disability insurance, life insurance, and various other discounts and perks.

xAI is an equal opportunity employer.

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