# Software Engineer, Compute Infra

**Company:** [Cursor](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/cursor)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Work mode:** On-site
**Employment type:** Full Time
**Salary:** USD 140K–225K/yr
**Category:** Engineering
**Department:** Engineering
**Listed:** 2026-11-10

[View and apply on Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/cursor/software-engineer-compute-infra-bb1e7f02-d30c-49fa-8d67-9a35ecc59462)

## What you'll do

- Rearchitect the control plane and scheduler to support 1 million concurrent VMs per cluster
- Build a ublk block device that can dedupe, lazy load, and efficiently snapshot VM data
- Design an egress proxy and network isolation to securely filter, monitor, and route agent traffic
- Design resilient systems that can operate across cloud and on-premise datacenters

## What you need

- Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, math, or scientific discipline
- 2+ yrs of professional software development experience
- Experience with Kubernetes or Mesos compute orchestration
- Experience with Linux kernel and virtualization technologies
- Experience building and operating large fleets of VMs or sandboxes

## Job description

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today, SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of making life multiplanetary and expanding consciousness to the stars.  
  
SpaceXSI is building Super Intelligence to help humanity understand the universe. Our teams are building the full Super Intelligence stack: from our Colossus supercomputers, to Grok models, to our suite of applications, including Grok Bot, Grok Build, Grok Imagine, Grok Voice, and X. We're creating a powerful flywheel where more compute trains better models, better models power more useful products, and what we learn from people using those products shapes what we build next.

**SOFTWARE ENGINEER, COMPUTE INFRA**

As a Software Engineer on Compute Infra at SpaceXSI, you'll build the sandbox infrastructure that gives every agent its own VM. These VMs power coding agents, Grok Bot, reinforcement learning, and more. We operate one of the largest sets of sandbox clusters in the world, at millions of CPU cores, across third- and first-party datacenters. You'll own developing a cloud for agents, including the virtualization layer (Firecracker and Cloud Hypervisor microVMs), control plane scaling, and the networking/connectivity layer on top.

  

**RESPONSIBILITIES:**

-   Rearchitect the control plane and scheduler to support 1 million concurrent VMs per cluster
    
-   Build a ublk block device that can dedupe, lazy load, and efficiently snapshot VM data
    
-   Design an egress proxy and network isolation to securely filter, monitor, and route agent traffic
    
-   Design resilient systems that can operate across a mixture of cloud and on-premise datacenters
    
      
    

**BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:**

-   Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, math, or scientific discipline; OR 2+ years of professional experience building software in lieu of a degree
    
      
    

**PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:**

-   Experience building compute orchestration (e.g. Kubernetes, Mesos)
    
-   Experience building and operating large fleets of VMs or isolated sandboxes
    
-   Experience with the Linux kernel and virtualization technologies
    
-   Interest in the infrastructure primitives that future agents will require
    
      
    

**ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:**

-   Onsite role: must be able to work in person at the San Francisco or New York office
    
      
    

**COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:**

The annual compensation range for this role is listed below.

**Annual Salary:**

$140,000 - $225,000 USD

Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience.

Base salary is just one part of our total rewards package at SpaceXSI, 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.

## Other open roles at Cursor

- [Sr. Model Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/cursor/sr-model-engineer-dc69aeae-9cc4-4c57-aeab-560a8bc62d97) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Software Engineer, Services Platform](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/cursor/software-engineer-services-platform-cebcf532-f723-4b14-a366-765d04b80d4c) — San Francisco, CA
- [Software Engineer, Security](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/cursor/software-engineer-security-6f67c0c9-717c-4eb2-919b-5ab7d54e9a8b) — San Francisco, CA
- [Software Engineer, Research Tooling](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/cursor/software-engineer-research-tooling-06675830-9b99-4347-8436-8110ca9c99a4) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Software Engineer, Storage](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/cursor/software-engineer-storage-b236a81e-6c5b-45ce-8b4a-0810ae82ca82) — San Francisco, CA

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*Source: [Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com), the job board for space, defense, AI, robotics and frontier-tech companies.*