SpaceX Redmond Jobs in 2026: Starlink Satellites and Silicon Engineering
SpaceX Redmond jobs in 2026: Starlink satellites and silicon engineering
SpaceX's Redmond, Washington campus is the company's satellite development headquarters — where Starlink satellites are designed, the silicon chips inside them are engineered, and the Direct to Cell technology that connects phones to satellites is built. With 251 open positions, Redmond is SpaceX's second-largest hiring site after Hawthorne, CA, and the one that looks least like a rocket company.
What happens in Redmond
Redmond is not about rockets. The campus houses three distinct technical organizations:
Starlink satellite development — Design and engineering of the flat-panel Starlink satellites. Each satellite weighs roughly 300 kg, carries phased-array antennas, and operates in low Earth orbit at 550 km altitude. The Redmond team handles satellite bus design, antenna systems, RF engineering, and orbital mechanics. SpaceX has launched over 6,000 Starlink satellites — the largest constellation in history — and the next generation (Starlink V2 Mini) is designed here.
Silicon engineering — SpaceX designs custom ASICs and chips for Starlink. Rather than buying off-the-shelf components, the company builds its own silicon for satellite communications, beamforming, and signal processing. This is one of the few places in aerospace where chip design expertise is in demand, and it pays accordingly — ASIC design engineers are among the highest-paid roles at SpaceX.
Direct to Cell — Starlink's cellular connectivity service, which allows standard smartphones to connect to Starlink satellites without modified hardware. This team works on the satellite-side systems that make this possible, including beam planning, signal processing, and network management. Direct to Cell launched commercially in partnership with T-Mobile and is expanding globally.
Salary ranges
From our database of Redmond positions with salary data:
The silicon engineering roles command the highest base pay at SpaceX Redmond — Principal ASIC Design Engineers earn $200K-$270K base, which with equity pushes total compensation well past $400K. These salaries compete directly with custom silicon teams at Apple, Google, and Amazon, all of which have Puget Sound offices.
Redmond vs. other SpaceX sites
| Site | Positions | Focus | Vibe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawthorne, CA | 559 | Falcon 9, Dragon, HQ | Rocket factory, intense |
| Redmond, WA | 251 | Starlink, silicon, D2C | Tech campus, more structured |
| Bastrop, TX | 270 | Starlink manufacturing | Factory floor, growing fast |
| Brownsville, TX | 236 | Starship, launch ops | Frontier R&D, experimental |
Redmond feels more like a tech company than a rocket company. The campus is in the Seattle metro, surrounded by Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Google offices. Engineers commute from Bellevue, Kirkland, and Seattle proper. The pace is still SpaceX-intense (50-60 hour weeks), but the work is more software and hardware design than hands-on manufacturing.
SpaceX Redmond competes directly with Big Tech for software, RF, and silicon engineers. A principal engineer considering SpaceX is comparing it against similar roles at Amazon (10 minutes away), Microsoft (in Redmond itself), and Google (Kirkland). SpaceX's base salary is competitive, and the equity upside is significant with the company's rising valuation — but the hours are substantially longer than Big Tech norms. The pitch is mission, not work-life balance.
Who should target Redmond
Redmond is ideal for engineers who want to work on satellite systems, RF engineering, or chip design in a space context, while living in a major metro area with access to the broader tech job market. The satellite and silicon work is unique to SpaceX — no other employer in the Seattle area is designing constellation satellites or custom space-rated ASICs.
The technician-level roles here skew toward manufacturing and maintenance at SpaceX's Woodinville satellite factory (10 miles north of Redmond), where Starlink satellites are assembled. Maintenance technicians at Level 4/5 earn $38-$50/hour.
Browse all SpaceX positions on Zero G Talent. For salary details, see our SpaceX salary guide. For other SpaceX locations, see SpaceX Bastrop or SpaceX Brownsville.
