Director, Compute Platform

Merlinlabs; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Catered on-site lunches

Snacks & beverages

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Life insurance

Unlimited vacation

401k with match

Job summary

Merlin Labs is seeking a senior platform leader to own the compute foundation for autonomous flight. You will design and operate the platform spanning cloud ML training, high-fidelity simulation, and edge/onboard systems, partnering with autonomy, perception, controls, and flight software leaders.

You will define long-term technical direction while remaining hands-on in complex systems, scaling compute infrastructure as the fleet grows and ensuring safety and performance in real‑world

Qualifications

• 10+ years building large-scale distributed or high-performance compute systems.
• Ownership of production infrastructure for autonomous or ML-heavy platforms.
• Experience bridging cloud and edge/embedded compute environments.

Responsibilities

• End-to-end compute architecture across cloud, simulation, and edge/onboard systems.
• Support large-scale training, high-fidelity simulation, and autonomy validation workflows.
• GPU/accelerator orchestration and workload scheduling for compute-intensive tasks.
• Make design decisions balancing determinism, latency, safety, scalability, and cost.
• Maintain platform reliability for flight-critical software.
• Shape long-term roadmap as fleet size and ML workloads grow.
• Mentor and raise the bar across platform and infrastructure teams.

Skills

Distributed systems

Cloud/edge compute

C++/Go/Python

Performance optimization

Mentorship

Autonomy in startups

Aviation safety domain

Tools

CUDA

Kubernetes

NVIDIA GPUs

SLURM

Job description

About Merlin

Merlin is a venture backed aerospace startup building a non-human pilot to enable both reduced crew and uncrewed flight. Backed by some of the world’s leading investors, Merlin is scaling alongside our customers to begin leveraging autonomy today to solve some of aviation’s biggest challenges.

About You

You are a senior platform leader who understands that autonomous flight demands uncompromising reliability, real-time performance, and scalable infrastructure.

You have built and owned compute platforms that power complex, mission-critical systems — spanning cloud ML training, high-fidelity simulation, and edge or embedded environments. You think holistically about architecture, balancing determinism, latency, scalability, safety, and cost.

You are not looking to maintain infrastructure — you want to define it. You operate as a technical authority, partnering closely with autonomy, perception, controls, and flight software leaders to ensure the compute foundation enables rapid development and safe, scalable deployment.

You thrive in environments where the platform you design directly impacts real-world performance. You are comfortable setting long‑term technical direction while remaining hands‑on in the most complex systems challenges.

Responsibilities

• End-to-end compute architecture spanning cloud ML training, simulation clusters, data pipelines, and edge/onboard systems.
• Infrastructure that supports large-scale distributed training, high-fidelity simulation (SIL/HIL), and autonomy validation workflows.
• GPU/accelerator orchestration, workload scheduling, and performance optimization for compute-intensive autonomy systems.
• Design decisions that balance determinism, latency, safety, scalability, and cost.
• Platform reliability standards for systems that ultimately support flight‑critical software.
• Long-term roadmap for scaling compute infrastructure as fleet size, simulation fidelity, and ML workloads grow.
• Technical mentorship and bar‑raising across platform and infrastructure engineering.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience building large-scale distributed or high-performance compute systems.
• Proven ownership of production infrastructure supporting autonomous systems, robotics, aerospace, or ML-heavy platforms.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems design, networking, and systems performance optimization.
• Experience architecting infrastructure for GPU-based training, simulation, or real-time compute workloads.
• Strong programming background in C++, Go, or Python, with comfort operating close to systems layers.
• Experience bridging cloud infrastructure and edge/embedded compute environments.
• Track record of leading complex cross-functional technical initiatives.
• Ability to operate with autonomy in a fast‑scaling, high‑ambiguity startup environment.
• Experience working in Aviation or another safety‑critical, regulated industry.

This position is based on‑site at Merlin HQ in Boston, MA.

Once you’re here, you’ll enjoy a variety of on-site perks designed to make your workday enjoyable and convenient. These include catered lunches featuring a rotating menu of delicious options, an assortment of snacks to keep you fueled throughout the day, and a selection of beverages, including coffee, tea, and other drinks, to keep you refreshed.

Our goal is to create an environment where you can thrive both professionally and personally. Merlin Labs offers an innovative, entrepreneurial, and team-focused startup environment. We also offer a top‑notch benefits package (health, dental, life, unlimited vacation, and 401k with match) and work/life integration. Being part of the Merlin team allows you to become part of a small team that supports professional development while working together to achieve our mission.

Merlin Labs is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy), gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, military service or obligation or disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law. All job offers are contingent upon the candidate passing background and reference checks.

At this time, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship or consider candidates who require visa transfers. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for visa sponsorship now or in the future.

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire.

If you require reasonable accommodation in completing an application, interviewing, completing any pre‑employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please direct your inquiries to: [e-mail]