Kairan Quazi: the 14-year-old software engineer at Elon Musk’s SpaceX

New Delhi: A 14-year-old boy, Kairan Quazi, is all set to work as a new software engineer at billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Based in San Francisco Quazi received his degree from the School of Engineering at Santa Clara University (SCU). Quazi announced his employment with SpaceX’s Starlink team in a post on Linkedin.

“Next stop: SpaceX!” Quazi said, who passed the ‘most transparent, technically challenging, and fun interview process’.

“I will be joining the coolest company on the planet as a Software Engineer on the Starlink engineering team. One of the rare companies that did not use my age as an arbitrary and outdated proxy for maturity and ability,” he added.

The genius has practical expertise with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) thanks to a multi-year co-op at a Fortune 100 technology business and a summer job at a VC-backed cyber intelligence start-up, claims his LinkedIn bio.

Quazi began attending Las Positas Community College when she was just nine years old. Quazi received the highest honors for her Associate of Science (Mathematics) degree.

“When I first started (at Santa Clara University), people were really intrigued,” he said. “But after a few days, I think the novelty wore off and I think a lot of them realised that I’m a pretty normal person.”

Quazi was a STEM tutor at Las Positas and ‘one of the most in-demand members of the tutoring staff.’

“I went from being a third grade mutineer to really feeling validated intellectually,” Quazi said.

Quazi claimed that his ‘career trajectory’ was altered by working on generative AI with Lama Nachman, Director of the Intelligent Systems Research Lab at Intel Labs.

“In a sea of so many no’s by Silicon Valley’s most vaunted companies, that one leader saying yes…one door opening…changed everything,” he wrote in the post.

According to media reports, Quazi’s parents claimed that at age two, he was speaking in complete sentences.

“During third grade, it became very obvious to my teachers, my parents, and my paediatrician that mainstream education wasn’t the right path for my accelerated learning ability,” Quazi was quoted as saying.

“I think there is a conventional mindset that I’m missing out on in childhood, but I don’t think that’s true. I think again that mindset would have me graduating middle school now and I don’t think it makes sense for someone that’s able to take rigorous graduate electives work in a prestigious co-op – I am joining SpaceX as a software engineer. I don’t think it makes sense I would be trapped or that anyone whose abilities are beyond that to be trapped,” he added.

Quazi expressed gratitude to the mentors that helped him see beyond his age, especially those from SCU and Intel.

“I am forever grateful that you recognised my value, trusted my abilities, and invested in my growth. I am excited to carry these cultural lessons into my career,” Quazi said. “I am packing my rain boots and ready for July!”