Senior HPC Systems Architect

Socket.dev; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Lambda, The Superintelligence Cloud, is seeking a Senior HPC Systems Architect to design and lead the development of large-scale GPU clusters and HPC infrastructure. This role requires presence in the San Francisco or San Jose office 4 days per week, with Tuesday as the designated work-from-home day.

You will define system requirements, build testing frameworks, evaluate new technologies, and mentor engineering teams to deliver scalable, production-ready solutions for AI workloads.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience designing and architecting large-scale HPC and distributed computing systems.
• Expert-level knowledge of HPC hardware including GPU clusters, compute nodes, InfiniBand and Ethernet, and distributed storage.
• Hands-on experience with direct-to-chip liquid cooling systems.
• Proven expertise in creating robust performance benchmarks, capacity planning, and system validation.
• Exceptional skills in system architecture, design documentation, and technical specifications.
• Ability to work collaboratively across teams, ensuring alignment of technical solutions with business objectives.

Responsibilities

• Design and architect advanced HPC systems optimized for large-scale computational workloads and AI applications.
• Collaborate with internal teams and stakeholders to define system requirements and performance goals.
• Develop comprehensive testing frameworks to rigorously assess system performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and architectural approaches to continuously enhance infrastructure capabilities.
• Create detailed architectural plans, documentation, and blueprints to guide implementation teams.
• Provide technical leadership and mentoring to engineering teams, fostering best practices in HPC architecture.

Skills

HPC architecture

GPU clusters

High-speed networking

System benchmarking

Documentation

Cross-team collaboration

Problem solving

Tools

Ansible

Terraform

Kubernetes

InfiniBand

Job description

Lambda, The Superintelligence Cloud, is a leader in AI cloud infrastructure serving tens of thousands of customers. Our customers range from AI researchers to enterprises and hyperscalers. Lambda's mission is to make compute as ubiquitous as electricity and give everyone the power of superintelligence. One person, one GPU.

If you'd like to build the world's best AI cloud, join us.

*Note: This position requires presence in our San Francisco or San Jose office location 4 days per week; Lambda’s designated work from home day is currently Tuesday.

Architecture leads the design, development, and execution of next-generation GPU clusters. Our team gets first access to the latest technologies and is responsible for translating emerging platform capabilities into scalable, production-ready infrastructure. Our scope spans from rack and pod level system arrangement that maximizes the data center power footprint, to right-sizing compute fabrics that meet the most demanding customer workloads.

We work at the intersection of GPU systems, high-performance networking, power and cooling, data center design, and customer-scale AI infrastructure.

We're looking for a Senior HPC Systems Architect with extensive experience designing, developing, and testing large-scale high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructures. This strategic role focuses on crafting cutting-edge liquid-cooled HPC solutions.

What You'll Do

• Design and architect advanced HPC systems optimized for large-scale computational workloads and AI applications.

• Collaborate with internal teams and stakeholders to define system requirements and performance goals.

• Develop comprehensive testing frameworks to rigorously assess system performance, scalability, and reliability.

• Evaluate emerging technologies and architectural approaches to continuously enhance infrastructure capabilities.

• Create detailed architectural plans, documentation, and blueprints to guide implementation teams.

• Provide technical leadership and mentoring to engineering teams, fostering best practices in HPC architecture.

You

• 8+ years of experience designing and architecting large-scale HPC and distributed computing systems.

• Expert-level knowledge of HPC hardware including GPU clusters, compute nodes, high-speed networking (InfiniBand, Ethernet), and distributed storage.

• Hands-on experience with direct-to-chip liquid cooling systems.

• Proven expertise in creating robust performance benchmarks, capacity planning, and system validation.

• Exceptional skills in system architecture, design documentation, and technical specifications.

• Ability to work collaboratively across teams, ensuring alignment of technical solutions with business objectives.

• Self-motivated, strategic thinker with strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.

Nice to Have

• Prior experience with AI infrastructure design.

• Familiarity with cloud computing environments and hybrid cloud HPC architectures.

• Knowledge of automation and orchestration tools (Ansible, Terraform, Kubernetes).

Salary Range Information

The annual salary range for this position has been set based on market data and other factors. However, a salary higher or lower than this range may be appropriate for a candidate whose qualifications differ meaningfully from those listed in the job description.

About Lambda

• Founded in 2012, with 500+ employees, and growing fast

• Our investors notably include TWG Global, US Innovative Technology Fund (USIT), Andra Capital, SGW, Andrej Karpathy, ARK Invest, Fincadia Advisors, G Squared, In-Q-Tel (IQT), KHK & Partners, NVIDIA, Pegatron, Supermicro, Wistron, Wiwynn, Gradient Ventures, Mercato Partners, SVB, 1517, and Crescent Cove

• We have research papers accepted at top machine learning and graphics conferences, including NeurIPS, ICCV, SIGGRAPH, and TOG

• Our values are publicly available: https://lambda.ai/careers

• We offer generous cash & equity compensation

• Health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents

• Wellness and commuter stipends for select roles

• 401k Plan with 2% company match (USA employees)

• Flexible paid time off plan that we all actually use

Equal Opportunity Employer

Lambda is an Equal Opportunity employer. Applicants are considered without regard to race, color, religion, creed, national origin, age, sex, gender, marital status, sexual orientation and identity, genetic information, veteran status, citizenship, or any other factors prohibited by local, state, or federal law.