Who Is The 14-Year-Old Hired At Elon Musk’s SpaceX?

Elon Musk’s SpaceX designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft, and has recently hired a 14-year-old, Kairan Quazi.

Quazi is set to become the youngest person to graduate from Santa Clara University and has been employed as a software engineer for the company’s Starlink division. Starlink is a network of satellites that promises to provide high-speed, low-cost internet access across the globe.

Business Insider reported that after studying computer science and engineering at 11, the young teenager passed the technically challenging interview process for Musk’s company.

Too Young For LinkedIn But Not SpaceX

Quazi has recently reported on Instagram that his LinkedIn account was deleted because he wasn’t yet 16.

He stated, “I can be qualified enough to land one of the most coveted engineering jobs in the world but not qualified enough to have access to a professional social media platform?”

Before his account was deleted, Quazi posted on LinkedIn that he would be joining the coolest company on the planet, as it was one of the rare companies that did not use his age as an arbitrary and outdated proxy for maturity and ability.

Who Is Kairan Quazi?

The Seattle Times reported that Quazi is to become the youngest person to graduate from Santa Clara University and, with his mother, will move from California to Washington for his new venture. 

With both parents from Bangladesh, the Bangladeshi-American teen’s journey started at only age two when he was reported to be able to speak in complete sentences. 

By kindergarten, according to the Los Angeles Times, he told other kids and teachers about news stories he’d heard on the radio.

Finding his schoolwork wasn’t challenging; his parents enrolled him at a community college in California at nine years old. 

A few months later, he got an internship as an AI research fellow at Intel Labs, and age 11, he transferred to Santa Clara University, studying computer science and engineering. 

According to his LinkedIn profile, he spent four months last year as a machine-learning intern at the cyber-intelligence firm Blackbird AI before his account was deleted.

Quazi told ABC7 News, “I think there’s a conventional mindset that I’m missing out on childhood, but I don’t think that’s true.”

“I think, again, that mindset would have me graduating middle school now.”

Featured image credit: Lisa Robinson, Santa Clara University