Director of Technical Program Management, Logical Deployment

Nscale; Bellevue (WA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Nscale is seeking a Director of Logical Deployment to own everything that turns powered racks into validated, customer-ready clusters. You will lead the network and software bring-up, manage asset data, and drive the end-to-end deployment playbook and automation for rapid site readiness.

You will build and lead a team of program managers, networking and validation specialists, and tooling leads, with a focus on schedules, governance, and executive reporting to accelerate time-to-first-Cluster.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in hyperscale infrastructure, cloud platforms or large-scale HPC delivery, including 5+ years leading teams.
• Direct experience delivering large GPU or HPC clusters, from network and platform bring-up through validation and customer acceptance.
• Strong working knowledge of data center networking, including front-end and back-end fabrics, InfiniBand or RoCE, and out-of-band and management networks.
• Strong working knowledge of infrastructure software, including provisioning, control planes, fleet management and asset systems such as NetBox.
• Track record of driving engineering teams you don't directly manage to firm commitments.
• Strength in building integrated schedules and critical paths across many dependencies, and in recovering them when they slip.
• Clear, concise executive communication, both in writing and in the room, with honest forecasts.
• Ability to travel about 50% of the time, primarily to data center sites.

Responsibilities

• Own the integrated logical schedule for each cluster, from asset data lock to customer handoff.
• Maintain asset and inventory data in NetBox as the source of truth, locked before bring-up begins and kept accurate throughout.
• Drive connectivity readiness, including edge connectivity, out-of-band and management networks, and bootstrap connectivity for both Nscale and customer environments.
• Sequence service, control plane and fleet bring-up across engineering teams.
• Drive front-end and back-end fabric deployment to completion with the Networking and Build Out teams.
• Clear fabric, configuration and connectivity blockers quickly, and escape early when they threaten the schedule.
• Own GPU enrollment and validation, along with fleet manager ingestion and provisioning.
• Lead acceptance validation against customer criteria, closing defects with engineering and OEM partners.
• Prepare each cluster for handoff and transition it cleanly to ongoing operations, with complete documentation, runbooks and open-issue lists.
• Define the logical deployment playbook, including entry criteria from Physical Deployment, gates, checklists and standard timelines.
• Automate bring-up, validation and status reporting with the tooling team, so every cluster comes online faster than the last.
• Report weekly status and risks to the VP and senior leadership, clearly separating forecast from upside.
• Lead, hire and develop a team of engineering program managers, networking and validation specialists, and tooling and automation leads.

Skills

Leadership

Program management

Networking

Infrastructure software

Scheduling & critical paths

Executive communication

Travel readiness

Tools

NetBox

Job description

• About Nscale and the Deployment PMO

Nscale builds and operates large-scale AI infrastructure, delivering GPU clusters for leading hyperscalers, AI labs and enterprises across North America, EMEA and APAC. The Deployment PMO turns signed contracts into live AI infrastructure, coordinating the many teams and partners involved in bringing large GPU clusters online.

About the role

As Director of Logical Deployment, you own everything that turns powered racks into a working, validated, customer-ready cluster. Once hardware is energized, you lead the network and software bring-up that makes it compute. That covers asset and inventory data, bootstrap connectivity, fabric deployment, control plane and fleet bring-up, GPU enrollment, acceptance validation, and handoff to ongoing operations.

You will turn a complex chain of engineering dependencies into a predictable sequence the business can commit to, and hold engineering, networking and partner teams to it.

What you'll do

Own logical bring-up

• Own the integrated logical schedule for each cluster, from asset data lock to customer handoff.
• Maintain asset and inventory data in NetBox as the source of truth, locked before bring-up begins and kept accurate throughout.
• Drive connectivity readiness, including edge connectivity, out-of-band and management networks, and bootstrap connectivity for both Nscale and customer environments.
• Sequence service, control plane and fleet bring-up across engineering teams.

Deliver the network fabric

• Drive front-end and back-end fabric deployment to completion with the Networking and Build Out teams.
• Clear fabric, configuration and connectivity blockers quickly, and escape early when they threaten the schedule.

Validate and hand off

• Own GPU enrollment and validation, along with fleet manager ingestion and provisioning.
• Lead acceptance validation against customer criteria, closing defects with engineering and OEM partners.
• Prepare each cluster for handoff and transition it cleanly to ongoing operations, with complete documentation, runbooks and open-issue lists.

Lead people and build the operating model

• Lead, hire and develop a team of engineering program managers, networking and validation specialists, and tooling and automation leads.
• Define the logical deployment playbook, including entry criteria from Physical Deployment, gates, checklists and standard timelines.
• Automate bring-up, validation and status reporting with the tooling team, so every cluster comes online faster than the last.
• Report weekly status and risks to the VP and senior leadership, clearly separating forecast from upside.

What success looks like in your first 6-12 months

• Every active cluster has one integrated logical schedule, owned by a named lead and reviewed weekly.
• Logical milestones hit their committed dates, or slips are flagged at least two weeks ahead with a recovery plan.
• Time from rack energization to customer handoff shrinks with each cluster.
• Acceptance validation runs to a repeatable, documented standard on every site.
• Clusters transition to ongoing operations with no open blockers.
• A documented logical deployment playbook and core bring-up automation are in use on every new site.
• The Logical Deployment team is fully staffed, with clear ownership and a succession path.

What you bring

• 12+ years in hyperscale infrastructure, cloud platforms or large-scale HPC delivery, including 5+ years leading teams.
• Direct experience delivering large GPU or HPC clusters, from network and platform bring-up through validation and customer acceptance.
• Strong working knowledge of data center networking, including front-end and back-end fabrics, InfiniBand or RoCE, and out-of-band and management networks.
• Strong working knowledge of infrastructure software, including provisioning, control planes, fleet management and asset systems such as NetBox.
• A track record of driving engineering teams you don't directly manage to firm commitments.
• Strength in building integrated schedules and critical paths across many dependencies, and in recovering them when they slip.
• Clear, concise executive communication, both in writing and in the room, with honest forecasts.
• Ability to travel about 50% of the time, primarily to data center sites.

How you lead

This is a Director-level role. We are looking for a leader who owns outcomes rather than one who reports on them.

• Decisive: You call the real date, even when it's unpopular, and pair it with a recovery plan. You make calls on incomplete information and stand behind them.
• Assertive with partners: You hold engineering, networking and partner teams to their commitments. When a dependency slips, you escape early, directly and with evidence.
• Accountable: You own the outcome for every cluster in your scope. Rather than "waiting on engineering," you explain what you are doing about it.
• Steady under pressure: You bring order to a failing bring-up and help your team think clearly when schedules collapse.
• Credible with executives: You brief SVPs and customers with a clear, honest position: what's true, what's at risk, and what you need from them.
• A builder of leaders: You hire strong engineers and program managers, give them real ownership and grow them into leaders.
• Technically deep: You can read a fabric design, a bring-up log or a validation report and know where the problem is. Status reports alone are not enough.

Preferred qualifications

• Hands-on experience with NVIDIA GB200/GB300 or Vera Rubin NVL72-class clusters, including NVLink, InfiniBand or Spectrum-X fabrics.
• Experience at a hyperscaler, neocloud or AI lab bringing 10K+ GPU clusters into production.
• Familiarity with NVIDIA cluster validation and burn-in.
• Experience building automation for provisioning, validation or deployment reporting.
• A background in network engineering, SRE or infrastructure software.

The range below reflects the base salary for the position. Actual compensation may vary based on