SpaceXAI Has 144 Open Jobs Around Memphis, From Electricians to a $200,000 Energy Lawyer

The AI company SpaceXAI is hiring for at least 144 positions across its Memphis and Southaven campuses. The live openings run from engineers and construction superintendents to electricians, drivers, a cook and a barista. The harder question is how long the jobs will last, and the company has not answered it. At Metaintro we went past the headline count and read the live postings themselves, because that is where the pay, the licence rules, the travel demands and the eligibility limits actually sit. Here is what they say and how to judge whether one of these roles is worth chasing.

What Is SpaceXAI Hiring for Around Memphis?

About a third of the Memphis area postings are for engineering roles, with plenty of construction and electrician jobs alongside them and a single opening for a turbine technician.

A separate count of the careers site found 127 open jobs, including construction managers and superintendents, electrical, mechanical, civil and software engineers, facilities maintenance assistants, a cook, an executive chef and a hospitality supervisor. The live board now tags several Memphis listings as new, among them a construction rigger and a CDL driver.

Reading the list, the work falls into five groups.

• Construction and electrical trades, from construction electricians and riggers to superintendents, commissioning technicians and an industrial welder.
• Power generation, including an electrical technician and controls and electrical engineers tagged for power generation, a director of power plant operations and the turbine technician.
• Data center operations, where technicians rack servers, troubleshoot fiber and keep the machines running.
• Facilities and logistics, covering chiller and facilities technicians, maintenance assistants, document control staff and drivers.
• Hospitality and support, meaning an executive chef and sous chef, a cook, a barista, a porter, an AV administrator and an IT services technician.

The listings sit on one SpaceXAI careers board, and most of the Memphis listings we saw carry a location tag of Southaven, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee together. Check which site a role is based at before you apply.

What Do the Postings Actually Pay?

Not all of them say. None of the trades postings we opened, from the journeyman electrician to the turbine technician, the CDL driver and the industrial welder, lists a wage. The roles that do show pay give a useful picture of the range.

• The Energy and Infrastructure Counsel role lists $200,000 - $230,000 USD in base pay, plus equity, and asks for 5+ years of legal experience, a JD and active bar membership in at least one state, and five days a week in the office.
• The Executive Chef posting sets a starting base salary of $120,000 USD.
• The Hospitality Supervisor posting starts at $100,000 USD and wants 6+ years of food service experience with 2+ years leading a team.
• The IT Services Technician posting lists $61,200 - $91,800 USD for someone with 2-4 years in IT, helpdesk or a related technical role.
• The Barista posting starts at $20.50 USD hourly.
• The Porter posting starts at $20 USD hourly.

The lawyer's job explains a lot about what the company is building. The counsel will negotiate power contracts, including interconnection agreements, gas supply and water rights, and construction contracts for facilities involving insane amounts of power. The same role is expected to contribute to broader initiatives as, in the posting's own words, the data center footprint grows.

These roles also come with benefits on paper. The chef, supervisor, porter and barista postings all list medical, vision and dental coverage, a 401(k) plan, disability and life insurance.

The barista role starts at $20.50 an hour while the energy lawyer starts at $200,000 a year, and the trades postings we opened list no pay at all.

What Does It Take to Land One of the Electrician Jobs?

A licence, experience on heavy gear, and a suitcase. The Journeyman Electrician posting asks for a current state journeyman licence, with Tennessee or Mississippi preferred, and 5+ years of industrial or data center electrical construction installing 480 V gear such as switchboards, busway, PDUs and UPS systems.

The detail most readers will miss is that this is not a desk in Memphis. The same posting calls it a traveling role in which you move with the work as new facilities come online, with 80% or more travel on a rotation and daily allowances or housing provided while on site. It is hourly with overtime and expects nights, weekends and extended shifts during construction and energization.

It is also strictly a build role. The listing rules it out as a facilities-maintenance or operating-plant job, which means the work is tied to construction phases. The safety bar is high too, with NEC, NFPA 70E, lockout and arc flash rules named in the duties. If you are weighing the licence path, our guide to what a journeyman electrician does covers the steps.

Welders face the same pattern. The Industrial Welder posting asks for 3+ years welding large industrial piping or structural steel, or a completed welding apprenticeship, and describes significant travel to data center sites.

Power plant skills are wanted as well. The Turbine Technician posting asks for a high school diploma and 3+ years of hands-on work on gas turbines, rotating equipment, or industrial mechanical, electrical or control systems. The job runs gas turbine generator packages at a power generation facility, involves rotating shifts, and requires a willingness to travel up to 25%, with extended periods at other company sites possible.

Which Roles Suit Someone Without a Degree or Years of Experience?

A few, and they are worth singling out because the engineering roles get most of the attention.

The clearest entry point is the Facilities Maintenance Assistant role, which the company itself calls entry-level. The role asks for a high school diploma and 1+ years in maintenance, facilities or another hands-on job, plus basic knowledge of mechanical, electrical or plumbing systems. The work covers door repairs, landscaping and building upkeep, plus, as directed, limited maintenance on offline critical equipment such as a single chiller or a CDU filter changeout.

The Barista posting needs a high school diploma and 1+ years as a barista, or 2+ years in food service customer work. A state food handlers card is required, but the company provides the training when needed. Expect to stand for up to 8-12 hours a day, along with weekend and holiday work.

The Porter posting is open to people with 1+ year of restaurant, warehouse or customer service experience and a high school diploma. It pays from $20 USD hourly, and new hires must get a food handler card within 30 days.

The Data Center Operations Technician role is a step up and needs 2+ years working with server and network hardware. It is the job closest to the computers themselves, covering racking servers, fiber cable labeling and troubleshooting, and repairs, and it expects you to report to the job site during initial construction.

For drivers, the CDL Driver posting wants a Class A licence and 3+ years of commercial driving, moving servers, power systems and cooling gear between warehouses and data centers.

Who Is Eligible to Apply?

Check this before you spend an evening on an application. Several postings carry an ITAR clause written to conform to US government export regulations. The Barista posting and the Executive Chef posting both require applicants to be a US citizen or national, a lawful permanent resident, a refugee or an asylee, or to be eligible for the required authorization from the State Department.

That clause appears even on kitchen jobs. It does not appear on every posting we opened, and the Journeyman Electrician posting carries no such section, so read the bottom of each listing before you apply.

Background checks apply to at least one technical role. The Data Center Operations Technician posting makes the job subject to pre-employment and annual background checks, as well as pre-employment and random drug and alcohol testing.

Most of the application forms we opened ask what exceptional work you have done, answered in 100 words or less. Prepare a short, concrete answer before you start rather than writing it in the form.

Will These Jobs Last?

This is the question the local debate keeps returning to, and there is no clean answer yet.

The company did not respond when asked whether the positions are temporary or permanent. SpaceXAI lost $6.4 billion last year even as it kept expanding in Memphis. Luther Mercer, chief executive of the Community LIFT organisation, put his view bluntly with the line "I don't believe those jobs are here to stay at all."

The postings point in two directions. Construction trades such as the journeyman electrician role are built to move from site to site as new facilities come online. Operations, facilities and kitchen postings describe work at a running site, such as upkeep of the Memphis data center facilities or daily meals for employees and visitors, rather than moving with a build.

The official promises were made in broad terms. When the Southaven project was announced in January, the Office of Governor Tate Reeves promised that an investment of more than $20 billion would create hundreds of permanent jobs throughout DeSoto County. Reporting earlier this year put the new MACROHARDRR data center on track to initially employ 145 people in a former GXO Logistics warehouse, where dozens of employees lost their jobs after the purchase.

The Southaven data center was set to initially employ 145 people, while the state had promised hundreds of permanent jobs across DeSoto County.

Why Are Memphis Neighbors and Council Members Pushing Back?

KeShaun Pearson of Memphis Community Against Pollution called the hiring numbers infinitesimally small. SpaceXAI now runs three data centers in the Memphis area, and its arrival in South Memphis set off long running fights over air pollution, noise and water use.

Pearson also pointed out that 40,000 people live in the 38109 zip code alone, and asked why the company is not hiring a water specialist to bring the wastewater treatment plant to Memphis. Across the state line, Southaven residents have complained about constant turbine noise, and earlier this year the company planned to more than double its turbines there to 41 in total.

The Memphis City Council pushed its vote on a temporary moratorium to October 6, along with a debate over how SpaceXAI's tax revenue should be shared. It also asked the Shelby County Health Department to present pollution data on the same date. The council members proposing the moratorium say they need more answers first, and the pause would buy them time to get them.

The jobs angle sits at the center of that fight. Council chair Jana Swearengen-Washington has called for community benefit arrangements, training pipelines and hiring commitments, while the Greater Memphis Chamber urged a no vote, warning that a pause would make the city less competitive. The advocacy group Protect Our Aquifer backed the pause while saying it would not close or reverse existing facilities.

What This Means for Job Seekers, and What Should You Do Next?

Our take is simple. These are real jobs at real pay where pay is shown, but they are not one thing, and you should treat them differently depending on which group you are in.

If you are a licensed electrician, the construction roles are the most direct route in, but go in knowing they travel 80% or more of the time and move with the work as new facilities come online. Ask directly how long the rotation lasts, what the daily allowance covers, and whether there is a path into the operations side once the site is running. For a sense of what other data center builders offer, our look at hiring perks for electricians and welders is a useful benchmark before you negotiate.

If you want something steady, aim for the operations and facilities side. Roles such as the facilities maintenance assistant and data center technician are tied to keeping a site running, and the duties cover chiller and CDU upkeep, server racking and power cabling.

If you are applying for a kitchen or hospitality role, compare the posted rate with local restaurant pay and weigh the medical, dental and retirement benefits listed in the posting. Ask about schedule, since the kitchen postings require weekend and holiday availability.

Whatever the role, confirm your eligibility against the ITAR clause first, prepare a short answer on exceptional work, and ask the recruiter one plain question, which is whether the role is permanent. The company did not answer that question from FOX13, so make sure you get the answer before you accept.

Finally, watch the council vote set for October 6. Supporters such as Protect Our Aquifer say a moratorium would not close the existing sites, but a pause on permits for new data centers could shape how many new ones follow, and with them how many future openings there are in Memphis.

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People Also Asked

Q: How many jobs is SpaceXAI hiring for in Memphis?

A: The company is hiring for at least 144 positions across its Memphis and Southaven campuses, and about a third are engineering roles.

Q: How much does SpaceXAI pay in Memphis?

A: The trades postings we opened list no wage. Among those that do, the energy counsel role pays $200,000 - $230,000 USD, while the barista role starts at $20.50 USD hourly.

Q: Are the SpaceXAI Memphis jobs permanent?

A: The company has not said. It did not respond when asked whether the positions are temporary or permanent, and the construction electrician roles are built to travel from site to site as new facilities come online.

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