Senior Systems Architect - Infrastructure

Open Innovation AI; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 450,000 - 700,000; Full time

Job summary

Open Innovation AI in Abu Dhabi seeks a Senior Systems Architect - Infrastructure to own end-to-end AI infrastructure designs, from pre-sales discovery through validated design packages.

You will size GPU compute, networking, and storage, produce HLDs/LLDs/BoQs, and collaborate across Delivery and Operations, with frequent on-site workshops across the UAE.

Qualifications

• 7–10 years in infrastructure or solutions architecture with customer end-to-end ownership.
• Proven enterprise and AI/HPC infra design experience with HLDs/LLDs/BoQs.
• Solid Linux and data center hardware knowledge across compute, storage, networking.
• Hands-on Kubernetes expertise with integrated compute, network, storage.
• Ability to balance technical design with delivery realities and commercial constraints.

Responsibilities

• Own customer infrastructure solutions end-to-end from pre-sales to validated design.
• Produce full design packages including HLDs, LLDs, sizing models, BoQ, LOA.
• Architect and size GPU compute, networking up to 800GbE, and enterprise storage.
• Act as trusted advisor, explain trade-offs to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Hold final technical sign-off on solution design and BoQ.
• Define reusable reference architectures and baseline BoQs for consistency.
• Travel to UAE customer sites for workshops; collaborate with teams.

Skills

Infrastructure architecture

Solutions architecture

Senior systems engineering

Kubernetes

Linux

F5 BIG-IP

Tools

Kubernetes

F5 BIG-IP

Job description

Open Innovation AI is a global technology company that specializes in developing advanced solutions for managing AI workloads. Its flagship product, the Open Innovation Cluster Manager (OICM), orchestrates complex AI tasks efficiently across diverse infrastructures. The platform is hardware-agnostic, optimized for various GPUs and accelerators hardware, and facilitates seamless integration and scalability for enterprise AI applications. Open Innovation AI focuses on optimizing and simplifying AI workload management and making AI technologies accessible to organizations of all sizes. With its innovative solutions, companies can reduce operational costs, accelerate time to value, and maximize their return on investment, ensuring that their AI strategies contribute directly to enhanced business outcomes.

Role Overview:

The Senior Systems Architect - Infrastructure is the technical authority for the infrastructure solutions we put in front of customers and the person who owns each solution end-to-end through its design. You take an opportunity from the first technical conversation in pre-sales, through design workshops with the customer once a deal is signed to a complete, validated design package that Delivery and Operations can execute against. You design the solution, you size it, you own the Bill of Materials (BoQ), and you produce the HLDs, LLDs, and as-built (LOA) documentation, so the context you build with the customer in pre-sales carries straight through the design.

The stack you architect is current-generation AI infrastructure: GPU-accelerated compute (NVIDIA HGX H200 and B300-class systems), high-speed Ethernet fabrics up to 800GbE with RoCE for GPU-to-GPU traffic, and enterprise and AI-optimized storage (Pure Storage, NetApp, VAST Data, DDN) , all designed around the Open Innovation Cluster Manager (OICM) and air-gapped Kubernetes. Solutions range from compact environments to large-scale GPU clusters, and your job is to make each one coherent, deliverable, and commercially sound.

This is a senior individual-contributor role, where your authority comes from your technical credibility and your ownership of the solution. You are the trusted technical advisor in the room: you steer customers through architectural decisions, present trade-offs honestly, and hold the final call on the design and the BOQ for the opportunities you own. Much of the work happens over Teams, with on-site workshops and key meetings at customer sites across the UAE.

The infrastructure architecture team is being built out, and this is an early and senior seat on it. As the team grows, so does your scope: the reference architectures and standards you define become what the team designs against, and there will be room to help shape and lead how the function is organized.

Key Responsibilities

• Own customer infrastructure solutions end-to-end through the design phase: lead technical discovery with sales and the customer in pre-sales, run design workshops after a deal is signed, and carry the solution through to a complete, validated design.
• Produce the full design package for each opportunity HLDs, LLDs, sizing models, and the final Bill of Materials (BoQ) and the as-built (LOA) documentation that Delivery and Operations inherit.
• Architect and size GPU compute, high-speed networking (up to 800GbE, RoCE-based fabrics), and enterprise storage (Pure Storage, NetApp, VAST, DDN) into solutions built around OICM and air-gapped Kubernetes; incorporate load balancing (F5 BIG-IP) where the design calls for it.
• Act as the trusted technical advisor to the customer steering architectural decisions, explaining trade-offs clearly to technical and non technical stakeholders, and managing expectations on scope, timing, and risk.
• Hold final technical sign-off on the solution design and BoQ for the opportunities you own.
• Define and maintain reusable reference architectures, sizing models, and baseline BoQs so proposals across the team are consistent, sound, and quick to produce.
• Establish and evolve infrastructure design principles, reference models, and design guardrails; own the design review process and review other architects' designs as the team grows.
• Validate that every proposed solution is genuinely deliverable partnering with Delivery Engineering and Platform Engineering on feasibility and with Operations on supportability.
• Engage with technology partners to validate reference architectures and assumptions, and to stay current on the platforms you design with.
• Travel to customer sites across the UAE for in-person design workshops and key meetings, working primarily over Teams between visits.

Required Qualifications

Both the architecture bar and the customer facing bar below are expectations, not preferences. We are looking for someone who is genuinely strong on both sides.

• 7–10 years in infrastructure architecture, solutions architecture, or senior systems engineering, including ownership of customer facing designs end-to-end.
• Strong track record designing enterprise and AI/HPC infrastructure across compute, storage, and networking, and producing HLDs, LLDs, sizing models, and Bills of Materials for customer proposals.
• A solid working understanding of Linux and of datacenter hardware across compute, storage, and networking enough breadth to architect and size confidently across all three domains.
• Deep, hands on Kubernetes expertise including how compute, network, and storage come together into a running cluster with the judgment to make sound design decisions at that level.
• Ability to balance technical design against commercial and delivery realities, and to make and defend final architecture decisions in complex, multi stakeholder environments.

Customer-facing bar

• The maturity and credibility to be the trusted technical advisor in front of senior customer stakeholders steering decisions rather than taking orders and earning that trust through sound judgment.
• Excellent communication and documentation skills: you explain complex designs clearly and concisely, in writing and live, to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Comfortable managing customer expectations on scope, timing, and risk, and holding a careful technical conversation when a request would put the outcome at risk.

Other requirements

• Fluent written and spoken English.
• Willingness to travel to customer sites across the UAE for in-person workshops and meetings, including sensitive environments where required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing and sizing GPU infrastructure for AI/HPC workloads.
• Hands-on experience with enterprise storage platforms such as Pure Storage, NetApp, VAST, or DDN.
• Experience with air-gapped Kubernetes and cluster management platforms comparable to OICM.
• Relevant vendor or architecture certifications (advantageous, not mandatory).
• Arabic language ability is a plus (not required).

What Success Looks Like in the First 90 Days

• You have owned at least one customer opportunity end-to-end from pre-sales technical discovery through to a signed-off design and Bill of Materials.
• Sales engages you early in new opportunities, treating you as the technical authority who shapes the solution from the start.
• A first set of reusable reference architectures, sizing models, and baseline BoQs is in circulation and is being used across the team.
• Delivery Engineering can take one of your completed design packages and execute it as specified.
• Customers on at least one active opportunity treat you as their trusted technical advisor for the design