Elon Musk’s SpaceX is hiring a trader to build and lead a natural gas trading team to support the space flight company’s growing fuel and power needs.
Job postings for the role, which “focuses on physical and financial natural gas trading,” further underscores the importance of the power-plant and manufacturing fuel to support the company’s ambitions in chipmaking and space exploration.
SpaceX earlier this month said it plans to build its own gas-fired power plants to support the electricity requirements of the massive semiconductor manufacturing facility it’s developing in Texas with Tesla Inc. Surging power demand from data centers and new factories has driven demand for new gas plants, and Musk has long been a fan of vertical integration.
Read More: SpaceX to Build Natural Gas Power Plants for Texas Chip Factory
SpaceX also plans to build its own gas pipelines, and is even looking to drill for natural gas, the company’s president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell told CNBC in June. These represent “huge investments to develop our own propellant and bring it to the rocket,” she said.
SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket uses super-chilled methane — the primary ingredient in natural gas — combined with liquid oxygen as propellant.
Other prominent technology companies, including Meta and OpenAI, have recently indicated plans to foray into power trading as their energy needs expand.
Read More: OpenAI Is Hiring a Power-Trading Lead for Data Center Portfolio
Postings for the SpaceX gas trading role say that it is either based in Cape Canaveral, Florida, or Starbase, Texas — not the traditional gas-trading hubs of Houston, Calgary or Stamford, Connecticut. Remote work won’t be considered, the postings say.
SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.