xAI is hiring for jobs that should have been filled already

Independent outlets have covered the Megapacks as hardware and the turbine issues – but I have not found anyone that has written about the battery safety, fire-oversight gap – except me. I’ll circle back soon and explain the whole thing again for anyone who is just now learning about all of this.

The xAI files

Every essay in this series is pinned to a question on the board at rachelandthecity.com/the-xai-files.

The short version is I’ve been investigating the Megapacks in Memphis for over a month. Who inspected them, who signed off, and who’s responsible if one of them ever catches fire or if there is an earthquake. Some of these are directly over the Memphis Aquifer.

I was just doing some research and saw that on August 18 a job listing went up for someone to oversee the exact thing I’ve been asking about.

That Tuesday, SpaceXAI’s Greenhouse board posted a Lead Engineer role for battery storage in Memphis.

The listing puts the fire and life-safety case on that person’s desk – UL 9540 and 9540A, thermal runaway propagation, deflagration venting, water supply, the emergency response plan, and engagement with the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ).

The authority having jurisdiction is the Memphis Fire Department.

So I had three questions. Is anybody overseeing these right now? Is this a new job? And did they post it because somebody noticed I’ve been filing record requests?

Well, LinkedIn shows an Asset Manager, Energy Storage in Memphis/Southaven, was filled July 2026. So, another recent hire.

But the other jobs all seem to be brand new – nothing that xAI has ever hired for before. When I looked on August 28 their board had 252 open jobs and this title exists nowhere but Memphis – and I could not find a similar position at another data center.

They’d had a generic electrical engineer listing since May 12 that named battery storage as one of three possible focus areas. This seems to be that job getting split up.

They’re also building a fire lane separately. A fire protection engineer posting went up August 3, and a fire protection technician went up August 28.

But go read that fire protection engineer listing. It’s a SpaceX template somebody pasted over. It still talks about designing for launch facilities. It doesn’t mention Megapacks, or UL 9540A, or NFPA 855. The battery lead is the posting that owns the battery pack fire case and talks to the fire department.

The thing is – this all just gets more convoluted when you add the fact that they also own a power plant now. Utility-scale storage developers hire exactly this way – NFPA 855, UL 9540 and 9540A, fire marshal coordination, hazard mitigation analysis. What I couldn’t find is a data center company doing it. Not Microsoft, not Google, not Amazon, not Meta. They use outside entities to fill these positions.

So this is a power plant safety job on a data center campus, which I guess tracks, because that’s what got built out there.

Four permit records on file name the Megapacks. In the permit text that can be searched, none uses the words energy storage or ESS, and NFPA 855 appears nowhere. The city’s Fire Prevention Bureau did review the plans – it approved the first phase’s plans with conditions on February 25, 2026, for the foundation only. But as of August 4, the portal showed no Fire – Structure records at 3231 Paul R. Lowry, 5414 Tulane or 5420 Tulane.

But the batteries are already built and running. Supposedly the Tulane Road site is the biggest megapark battery site in the country. And they are just now trying to hire someone to oversee them (Rupaul’s voice: “Officially.”)

More to come.

#ratcclips

If you like facts-first info on all this, consider leaving a tip on Venmo or PayPal – this stuff takes a lot of time to put together. And check out everything I’ve written with citations and receipts at the xAI Files.

Sources

Everything I have written about AI is in one place at rachelandthecity.com/the-ai-files.

The xAI files

Sources

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