xAI · 22 hours ago
Network Development Engineer, ML Infrastructure (High-Speed Interconnects)
Palo Alto, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$180K/yr - $440K/yr
8+ years expxAI is focused on creating AI systems that enhance humanity's understanding of the universe. They are seeking a Network Development Engineer to design, build, and optimize high-speed interconnect technologies for large-scale AI training and inference clusters.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)Foundational AIGenerative AIInformation TechnologyMachine Learning
Responsibilities
Design, validate, and productize high-speed copper and optical connectivity solutions for AI clusters (100k+ GPU scale)
Own vendor due diligence and onboarding for new 1.6T products including AEC and pluggable optical transceivers (DR4/8, FR4) including rigorous bring-up & characterization
Investigate the opportunity for LPO and LRO in our network
Evaluate early co-packaged and near-packaged engines for switches and GPUs
Pathfinding for new interconnect modalities including VCSEL, microLED, THz radio-based solutions to improve network economics and reliability
Work closely with vendors (transceiver, cable, SerDes, DSP, silicon photonics foundries) to influence roadmaps and ensure timely delivery of next-gen solutions
Collaborate with ML training teams to translate workload communication patterns into concrete interconnect topology and optical reconfigurability requirements
Perform system-level simulation of end-to-end fabric performance
Drive failure analysis, root cause, and corrective actions for interconnect-related issues in production clusters through fleet-level metrics gathering and analysis
Contribute to internal tooling and automation for interconnect health monitoring, telemetry, diagnostics, remediation and automated qualification pipelines
Stay current with industry standards (OIF CMIS, IEEE) and emerging technologies (multi-core/hollow-core fiber, 448G SerDes, TFLN, ring resonators)
Qualification
Required
At least 8+ years of hands-on experience in designing, deploying and operating high-speed copper and optical interconnects, preferably in a module design role or in a hyperscale datacenter environment
Master's or PhD degree in Electrical Engineering, Photonics or Physics
Deep knowledge of PAM4 SerDes performance, equalization, jitter, crosstalk
Solid operational understanding of FEC, Retimers, TIAs and Drivers
Deep knowledge of optical link budget analysis and performance metrics including TDECQ, OMA, Tcode, stressed receiver sensitivity and associated diagnostics
Expertise in transceiver components including CW lasers, SiPh PICs, EML, DSP, passive subassemblies, their failure modes and characterization
Knowledge of thermal, mechanical, power, signal integrity constraints in dense hardware
Knowledge of SiPh design process, yield improvement and reliability testing
Familiarity with CPO technologies and challenges/risk areas
Familiarity with subcomponent supply chains and global manufacturers, ODMs and CMs
Strong problem-solving skills and ability to thrive in a fast-paced, ambiguous setting
Preferred
Experience designing hyper scale network infrastructure or large-scale GPU clusters and automating their entire deployment process
Proven track record in leading on-call rotations, incident response, and team development in high-stakes environments
A working understanding of RoCEv2
Benefits
Equity
Comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage
Access to a 401(k) retirement plan
Short & long-term disability insurance
Life insurance
Various other discounts and perks
Company
xAI
XAI is an artificial intelligence startup that develops AI solutions and tools to enhance reasoning and search capabilities.
1001-5000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
xAI has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (1)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
$42.73BKey Investors
Valor Equity PartnersNeptune Digital AssetsSpaceX
2026-02-02Acquired
2026-01-06Series E· $20B
2025-12-11Secondary Market· $0.3M
Leadership Team
Greg Yang
Co-Founder
Yuhuai Wu
Co-Founder
Recent News
2026-02-05
2026-02-05
Portugal News
2026-02-05
Company data provided by crunchbase