Director of Engineering, Flex Compute

Crusoe; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 285,000 - 335,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Restricted Stock Units

Health, dental & vision insurance

Paid time off & holidays

401(k) with company match

Tuition reimbursement

Commuter benefits

Job summary

Crusoe is building an energy-first AI infrastructure stack, owning from electrons to tokens. This role directs a ground-up control system interfacing with data centers, cloud orchestration, and energy programs to enable safe, scalable AI workloads.

You’ll define architecture, ship the production system, and recruit a team to sustain growth from zero to scaling deployments. Strong leadership and domain expertise are essential.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in software engineering, with 5+ years leading engineering teams.
• Experience with distributed control planes, orchestration, or fleet automation.
• Track record in safety-critical or physically-actuating systems.
• Knowledge of data-center power systems and GPU power management.
• Experience with energy markets or grid programs is a plus.
• Strong build-vs-buy judgment and hiring senior engineers.

Responsibilities

• Own curtailment orchestration and decision layer across grid signals and power capping.
• Land a utility-validated pilot with high-fidelity telemetry and test harness.
• Deliver dynamic power management for oversubscription with no customer-visible impact.
• Develop workload-aware GPU power estimation using fleet telemetry.
• Design for safety with authenticated signals, fail-safes, and hardening measures.
• Lead cross-functional collaboration with Data Center Engineering and Energy teams.
• Integrate with cloud control plane across Kubernetes and Slurm fleets.
• Hire and lead the team from the ground up with scalable automation.

Skills

Distributed systems

Leadership

Safety-critical systems

Build-vs-buy judgment

GPU power management

Tools

Kubernetes

Slurm

Temporal

Python

Job description

Crusoe is on a mission to accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence. As the only vertically integrated AI infrastructure company built from the ground up, we own and operate each layer of the stack — from electrons to tokens — to power the world’s most ambitious AI workloads. When you join Crusoe, you join a team that is building the future, faster.

We’re in the midst of the greatest industrial revolution of our time. The demand for AI compute is boundless, and power is a bottleneck. We’re solving that — with an energy-first approach that makes AI infrastructure better for the world and faster for the people innovating with AI.

We’re looking for problem-solving, opportunity-finding teammates with a sense of urgency, who believe in the scale of our ambition and thrive on a path not fully paved — people who want to grow their careers alongside a team of experts across energy, manufacturing, data center construction, and cloud services.

If you want to do the most meaningful work of your career, help our customers and partners advance their AI strategies, and be part of a high-performing team that believes in each other, come build with us at Crusoe.

About the Role:

Power, not silicon, is the binding constraint on AI infrastructure. Crusoe is vertically integrated from electrons to tokens; generation, batteries, controls, and the cloud orchestration layer which means we can credibly commit flexible load to utilities and deliver on it. No other AI cloud can.

Flexible Compute is the system that makes that real: reducing data-center power draw on demand quickly, reliably, verifiably — while protecting the workloads that matter most. It gets us megawatts sooner, earns more per megawatt, and rides through grid-stress events without breaking SLAs.

You’ll operate at the seam between one of the industry’s fastest-growing energy footprints and the software that controls it. This is a utility-facing, safety-critical control system, and a ground-up build. You’ll define the architecture, ship the first production system, and build the team from scratch.

What You’ll Be Working On:

• Own the curtailment orchestration and decision layer: grid-signal ingestion, staged shedding, per-SKU power capping without ever silently dropping a paid workload

• Land a utility-validated pilot: fast ramp to setpoint, tight accuracy, high-fidelity telemetry, and the test harness that proves it before we commit to a utility

• Deliver dynamic power management for oversubscription — more GPUs per megawatt with no customer-visible impact

• Build fast, workload-aware GPU power estimation, validated against fleet telemetry : the engine behind shed forecasting, oversubscription admission, and power planning for new silicon

• Design for safety: authenticated signal ingress, bounded blast radius, fail-safe defaults, manual backstops

• Own graceful ride-through of power-loss and grid-stress events, integrated with on-site battery and generation backstops

• Partner deeply with Data Center Engineering (mechanical, electrical, controls) and Energy teams on interconnection commitments, curtailment program design, and BESS/generation integration.

• Integrate with our cloud control plane across Kubernetes and Slurm fleets : one control plane, not two

• Make build-vs-leverage calls across vendor power-management stacks and grid integration layers

• Hire and lead the team from the ground up, keeping headcount sublinear to fleet growth through automation

What You’ll Bring to the Team:

• 12+ years in software engineering, including 5+ leading engineering teams, ideally taking a system from 0→1 to production scale

• Deep experience with distributed control planes, orchestration, or fleet automation (e.g., Temporal, Kubernetes, Slurm)

• A track record with safety-critical or physically-actuating systems, where a misfire has a bounded, designed-for worst case

• Working knowledge of data-center power systems: utility interconnection, switchgear/UPS/BESS, rack/PDU distribution, power telemetry, and GPU power management

• Experience with energy markets or grid programs demand response, curtailable-load tariffs, ISO/RTO market signals (e.g., ERCOT, PJM, CAISO) or demonstrated speed to fluency in them

• Strong build-vs-buy judgment and comfort deciding with incomplete data

• A record of hiring senior engineers and running healthy operations for systems that must never fail silently

Bonus Points

• GPU cluster operations or AI cloud infrastructure experience

• Prior work in the energy sector: power generation, storage, utility software, or grid-scale controls

• Background in GPU power/performance modeling, DVFS, or turning research prototypes into production systems

• Experience with checkpoint/preemption for large training jobs or power-aware scheduling

Benefits:

• Competitive compensation and equity packages

• Restricted Stock Units

• Paid time off, paid holidays & leave of absence programs

• Comprehensive health, dental & vision insurance

• Employer contributions to HSA account

• Paid parental leave

• Paid life insurance, short-term and long-term disability

• Professional development & tuition reimbursement

• Mental health & wellness support

• Commuter benefits (parking & transit)

• Cell phone stipend

• 401(k) Retirement plan with company match up to 4% of salary

• Volunteer time off

• Global travel insurance & emergency assistance

• Daily meals allowance

• Additional perks & programs specific to location

Compensation Range

Compensation will be paid in the range of up to $285,000 - $335,000 + Bonus. Restricted Stock Units are included in all offers. Compensation to be determined by the applicant’s knowledge, education, and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data.

Crusoe is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, citizenship, marital status, sex/gender, sexual preference/ orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, national origin, or any other status protected by law or regulation.