Product Engineering NPI Team Lead

Fluidstack; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 208,000 - 263,000; Full time

Job summary

Fluidstack is hiring for the Product Engineering NPI Team in Los Angeles. You will build the NPI process from scratch, lead and develop the TPM team, ensure portfolio-level visibility, set transfer-to-manufacturing standards, and enforce RACI between TPMs and engineering leads.

This is a high-impact hardware program management role at the frontier of AI compute infrastructure. Ideal candidates bring 10+ years in NPI or program management at a hardware OEM/ODM, with 3+ years leading TPM or NPI

Qualifications

• 10+ years in NPI or program management at a hardware OEM or ODM.
• 3+ years leading TPM or NPI teams.
• Experience building stage-gate processes and ECO discipline.

Responsibilities

• Build the NPI process from scratch: gate definitions, readiness criteria, and ECO discipline across products from racks to MV switchgear.
• Lead and develop the NPI TPM team, allocating resources and balancing coverage.
• Own portfolio-level program visibility with rigorous status and risk reporting for leadership.
• Set transfer-to-manufacturing standards with manufacturing engineering and define exit criteria for production ownership.
• Hold the RACI between TPMs and engineering leads so ownership is clear.

Skills

NPI experience

Program management

TPM leadership

Cross-product management

Gate/process design

Tools

Portfolio tooling

Job description

About Fluidstack

We exist to make humanity more free. For most of human history, you farmed or you starved. Technology gave people more time for the things they wanted to do, instead of things they had to do. Powerful AI will be the biggest lever for human choice we've ever built - but only if models are aligned with what humanity actually wants. There are groups building AI who don't share these goals. Whoever deploys frontier compute infrastructure fastest will decide whether AI expands human freedom or shrinks it.

About Fluidstack

We exist to make humanity more free. For most of human history, you farmed or you starved. Technology gave people more time for the things they wanted to do, instead of things they had to do. Powerful AI will be the biggest lever for human choice we've ever built - but only if models are aligned with what humanity actually wants. There are groups building AI who don't share these goals. Whoever deploys frontier compute infrastructure fastest will decide whether AI expands human freedom or shrinks it.

We're singularly focused on delivering 10 to 100s of GWs of compute faster than anyone else, rethinking every layer of the stack. We acquire power, design and build data centers, and operate them - with teams spanning hardware and software. Speed and scale are our key differentiators. Come be a part of building civilization-scale infrastructure for AI.

We hire people who care deeply about this problem space.

How We Operate

• Be a barrel. Full autonomy. Own things end to end, take on scope without being asked, no permission required to operate outside your core role.
• Insane urgency. We drive everything forward as fast as possible.
• Reason from first principles. Challenge every assumption. Zero analogy thinking, no egos, the best idea wins.
• Love of the game. The frontier of AI is the most interesting problem of our time. We put in long hours at high intensity to push the frontier forward.
• Build something that actually matters. If you're going to spend your time, spend it on something that matters to the world.

The Product Engineering NPI Team

The NPI team takes hardware from design release to repeatable production across every product Fluidstack builds, from compute racks to medium-voltage switchgear.

Examples Of Key Problems The Team Is Working On

• Stand up a stage-gate NPI process that works across product families as different as rack-level compute integration and MV power equipment, without forcing them through the same checklist.
• Run multiple concurrent NPI programs with a small TPM team, keeping schedule, readiness, and risk visible at the portfolio level.
• Define what "ready to transfer" means with manufacturing engineering, so products land in production without a wave of post-transfer ECOs.
• Enforce change discipline (ECOs, deviations, readiness criteria) at a pace that keeps up with the largest AI compute buildout in history.

Role Scope

• Build the NPI process from scratch: gate definitions, readiness criteria, and ECO and change discipline that hold across products ranging from racks to MV switchgear.
• Lead and develop the NPI TPM team, allocating 3 TPMs across 6 product families and making the tradeoffs explicit when coverage gets thin.
• Own portfolio-level program visibility, with status and risk reporting rigorous enough that leadership hears about problems from you before anyone else.
• Set the transfer-to-manufacturing standards with manufacturing engineering, defining exit criteria a program must clear before production takes ownership.
• Hold the RACI between TPMs and engineering technical leads so ownership never blurs and no decision waits on a debate about whose call it is.

What We're Looking For

• 10+ years in NPI or program management at a hardware OEM or ODM, with 3+ years leading TPM or NPI teams.
• You've built stage-gate processes yourself, defining the gates, readiness criteria, and ECO discipline, not just operated inside a process someone else designed.
• You've led TPM or NPI teams and developed the people in them, not just assigned their work.
• You've managed programs spanning multiple product lines simultaneously and can show how you kept them all honest.
• You've killed a program too late at least once, and you can name the signal you missed and what you watch for now.
• You keep NPI lightweight enough that engineers use it instead of routing around it.
• Bonus: portfolio management tooling, products spanning compute and power equipment, manufacturing transfer at new plants, or building teams from zero.

We are committed to pay equity and transparency.

Fluidstack is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans’ status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Fluidstack will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records pursuant to applicable law.

Compensation Range: $208K - $263K