OT Systems Engineer (Physical Infrastructure)

Description

SpaceXAI’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 employees are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

SpaceXAI is looking for a highly skilled and versatile OT (Operational Technology) Systems Engineer to implement and support the backend infrastructure for our next-generation controls and industrial software platforms for our physical infrastructure. This role is embedded within the mission IT organization to provide support to dedicated controls engineering organizations while leveraging adjacent IT expertise, tooling, and technologies. This role will balance support of legacy controls support systems with modernization and continuous improvement initiatives. The ideal candidate thrives in high stakes settings, brings a strong sense of urgency balanced with operational excellence, and combines deep OT expertise with IT technologies such as virtualization, VDI, GitOps, network level redundancy and edge compute solutions to create streamlined and secure ICS environments.

Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and augment next-generation OT environments that support plant and launch systems across multiple sites.
• Install, configure, maintain, and support industry standard controls software platforms as well as internally developed HMIs.
• Integrate established and emergent IT technologies to simplify management, improve security, and create scalable plant environments.
• Deploy and maintain development, test, and staging environments to enable controlled, systematic change introduction.
• Provide direct support during launch, test, and production campaigns.
• Perform systems/software upgrades and maintenance between critical operations (including evenings and weekends as needed).
• Proactively monitor services and respond rapidly to incidents to maintain high availability and performance.
• Leverage automation tools and contribute to infrastructure-as-code and broader DevOps initiatives with a focus on ICS environments.
• Work with internal controls engineers to iterate on simulation and emulation environment to enhance test coverage and augment change control processes.
• Write and maintain standards, architectures, best practices, and documentation (including system overviews, design drawings, and operational procedures), with emphasis on highly reliable and secure industrial environments, especially at data boundaries.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (IT, security, controls, and operations) as well as external customers and integrators to design robust OT architectures and resolve technical issues.
• Ensure OT systems are configured and maintained in compliance with industry and cybersecurity standards (e.g., Purdue Model, IEC 62443).
• BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
• 3+ years of experience in OT systems engineering or industrial control systems administration.
• Hands-on experience with multiple industry standard controls software platforms and tools.
• Significant experience designing, deploying, supporting, and troubleshooting OT environments in high-reliability settings.
• PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
• Experience supporting real-time systems, industrial control networks, or operational technology (OT) environments in aerospace, defense, energy, or similar high-reliability industries.
• Experience designing architectures that incorporate hyperconverged, rugged industrial edge, and distributed compute technologies.
• Working knowledge of industrial protocols, controls networks, and OT cybersecurity best practices.
• Proficiency in scripting (Bash/PowerShell/Python) and automation frameworks (Puppet, Terraform, Ansible, etc.).
• Experience with configuration management, provisioning, infrastructure as code, and DevOps concepts/tools.
• Familiarity with Active Directory, multi-platform authentication, and identity environments in OT contexts.
• System administration experience managing Windows and Linux servers, rudimentary database administration exposure, and storage/backup experience.
• Network administration experience and understanding of the OSI model, especially Layer 1/2/3 considerations as they apply to industrial and controls networks.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to communicate with internal/external customers, vendors, and management in both formal and informal situations.
• ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
• Willingness to participate in an after-hours on-call rotation and work extended hours or weekends as necessary.
• Willingness to travel (up to 20%, including flying to other sites worldwide) and potential time at sea supporting marine systems.
• Ability to lift 30 lbs.
• Ability to work at heights.
• Ability to drive (active valid driver's license).