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Ever wanted a job that will advance the course of human history while also let you drive a John Deere tractor? Then SpaceX has the perfect opening for you.

The private space company founded by Elon Musk, the co-founder of PayPal, is advertising to fill a rather unusual role - a farmer with some rather lofty ambitions.

In a job advert that conjures up images of Matthew McConaughey's farming space explorer in the film Interstellar, SpaceX says it is looking for a farmer with a rare mix of 'drive, passion, scrappiness, intelligence and curiosity to seek what's beyond the stars'.

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SpaceX's farmer will need to organise crop production on its 900 acre rocket research base in MacGregor, Texas around the hectic schedule of tests on rockets like the Grasshopper that hovers above the site

However, candidates should not get their hopes up too much.

Rather than taking a key role producing food on the first colony on Mars, they will instead be harvesting crops on the land around the company's 900 acre rocket base in MacGregor, Texas.

SpaceX insists, however, that the successful candidate will play a 'direct role in advancing the course of human history' and will join a team whose aim is to 'pave the way to Mars'.

Headed with the title 'Engineer the Future', the job advert says candidates will need at least 10 years of experience of crop farming and have detailed knowledge John Deere machinery.

The job description also warns that anyone who is successful will be need to work 'extremely flexible' hours and will be exposed to environments that involve dirt, odours, noise and weather extremes 'or similar elements' through most of their working day.

Applicants will also need to be able to climb ladders, work in tight spaces and lift objects of up to 50lbs.

The advert says: 'This is SpaceX. We are not like most companies. Our goal is to do what has never before been done - enabling mankind to live on other planets.

'We push the boundaries of what is currently possible, and understand it takes rare individuals to help us make this happen.

Matthew McConaughey plays a farmer who dreams of leaving Earth for space in Christopher Nolan's bleak film on the future of our planet Interstellar, but the SpaceX role is unlikely to involve much spaceflight

'We celebrate our successes, and each other. We seek future colleagues with a rare mix of drive, passion, scrappiness, intelligence, and curiosity to seek what's beyond the stars.

'Playing a direct role in advancing the course of human history is no small endeavor. Join us, and find your place in the SpaceX legacy.'

SpaceX was founded in 2002 by Musk to build private rockets and spacecraft. In 2008 it put the first privately funded rocket into orbit and then in 2012 its Dragon spacecraft became the first private mission to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.

Nasa, which has seen its own launch capacity dented by budget cuts, has turned to SpaceX to help supplies to the space station.

It has also awarded SpaceX a share of a contract with Boeing to develop a 'space taxi' that will carry US astronauts into orbit.

SpaceX now employs more than 3,000 people in its headquarters in Hawthorne, California, and facilities in Florida, Texas and Washington, DC.

While most people involved in the space industry tend to be scientists and engineers, SpaceX is now seeking employees with more earth based experience.

They want farmers with a minimum of 10 years of row crop farming experience in the central Texas area and a working knowledge of 'every process required for crop production in the region'.

Candidates also need experience in repairing and maintaining John Deere agricultural equipment.

Their responsibilities will include planning farm production, increasing the quality of crop yields, making contingency plans for variable weather conditions and using electronic spreadsheets.

But they warn that the farmer will be required to work around test launch schedules at the MacGregor facility, where SpaceX carries out research and development on its Falcon 9 rockets.

SpaceX pulls away from the International Space Station (sped up)

The advert says: 'This position will be required to work around test schedules as necessary to ensure the successful crop production does not interfere with testing progress.'

This may be no small task - recent tests of SpaceX's Grasshoppper rocket saw the 106 feet tall rocket 'hop' 330 feet to the side. 

However, SpaceX is not the first space organisation to dabble in agriculture.

Nasa has been developing technologies to allow astronauts to grow food on the ISS and in the space shuttle.

In April this year Nasa sent its Vegetable Production System (VEGGIE) to the ISS on board SpaceX's Dragon cargo vessel. 

It will be used in an experiment, called Veg01, to see how red romaine lettuce grows in the low gravity environment of space.

SpaceX carried Nasa's VEGGIE experiment to the International Space Station in April where it is being used to grow red romaine lettuce inside the bellows of a specially designed prototype 'flight pillow'