Senior Staff Engineer, Lab Operations

Upscale AI; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 205,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Upscale AI is hiring a hands‑on Lab Operations lead to run day‑to‑day lab activities, manage racks, switches, and servers, and ensure projects stay on schedule. You will own asset tracking, forecasting, and procurement workflows, partnering with engineering and facilities to scale operations efficiently.

This role requires deep lab infrastructure experience, strong networking fundamentals, and the ability to physically handle hardware in data centers or colocations as needed.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical field or equivalent hands‑on experience.
• 10–12 years of hands‑on experience in lab operations or similar roles.
• Demonstrated hands‑on experience with servers, racks, switches and lab equipment; not a desk role.
• Ability to rack and stack hardware, move and lift equipment, and travel to data centers or on‑site facilities.
• Strong networking fundamentals and ability to own connectivity and systems issues independently.
• Proven track record in planning lab needs with stakeholders and forecasting capacity.
• Experience building tracking systems and running physical audits.

Responsibilities

• Manage day-to-day lab operations across software and hardware labs; receive, commission, deploy equipment, and maintain health and schedules.
• Partner with lab owners to forecast lab capacity, equipment needs, and infrastructure requirements.
• Install, configure, and maintain servers, switches, and lab network infrastructure; troubleshoot issues directly.
• Build and maintain tracking dashboards and asset databases; manage vendor relationships and procurement workflows.
• Triage and prioritize engineering requests; coordinate with hardware, firmware and validation teams to keep projects moving.

Skills

Lab operations

Hardware procurement

Vendor management

Project coordination

Networking fundamentals

Cross-functional communication

Inventory management

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Servers

Switches

Rack hardware

Asset dashboards

Job description

Why join Upscale AI

Upscale AI is building the high-performance infrastructure powering the next generation of artificial intelligence. Backed by over $300M in funding and rapid global adoption, we are scaling systems designed for the world’s most demanding AI workloads.

We focus on first-principles engineering across silicon, systems, and networking—where performance, scale, and execution are critical. Our team is talent-dense andhigh-performing. We value ownership, technical rigor, and speed, and we offer the opportunity to work on foundational problems with immediate, real-world impact.

If you’re looking to do high-impact work, move fast, and help define the infrastructure behind the future of AI—Upscale AI is where you can produce meaningful work at the frontier—and operate at a high standard.

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Role Summary

Own the engineering lab ecosystem end-to-endracks, switches, and software labs-atUpscaleAI, a fast-moving AI hardware and infrastructure company. This is a hands‑on role first and foremost. You're the person engineers and lab owners rely on to keep labs running, equipment tracked, networking connected, and projects on schedule, while also planning aheadand building the processes that let the operation scale as headcount and hardware volume grow quickly.

Responsibilities

• Lab operations and infrastructure (hands‑on): personally manage day-to-day operations across software and hardware labs, including receiving, commissioning, and physically deploying equipment (servers, racks, switches); maintain equipment health and maintenance schedules; get hands‑on with troubleshooting and physical setup rather than delegating it away.

• Lab owner partnership, planning, and forecasting: work directly with lab owners and engineering stakeholders to understand upcoming project needs; plan and forecast lab capacity, equipment, space, and infrastructure requirements ahead of engineering roadmaps so labs are never a bottleneck; translate stakeholder requests into concrete lab plans and timelines.

• Networking and systems: install, configure, and maintain physical and virtual servers, switches, and lab network infrastructure with your own hands; working knowledge of L2/L3 networking, TCP/IP, DNS/DHCP, firewalls, and cabling; troubleshoot connectivity and infrastructure issues directly as part of the IT organization, coordinating with broader IT systems and teams as needed.

• Inventory and asset management: build andmaintaintracking systems (dashboards, asset databases) for racks, switches, equipment, fixtures, and spares; conduct periodic physical audits yourself; manage vendor relationships and procurement workflows.

• Project and request management: triage and prioritize incoming engineering requests; maintain real-time status tracking and report to engineering and leadership stakeholders; coordinate cross-functionally with hardware, firmware, and validation teams to keep projects moving; drive process improvements as the team and lab footprint scale.

Required Qualifications

• 10– 12years of hands‑on experience in lab operations, hardware/test infrastructure, systems administration, or data center/networking operations, ideally in a hardware, networking, or semiconductor company.
• Bachelor's degree in a technical field or equivalent hands‑on experience.
• Demonstrated hands‑on experience with servers, racks, switches, and lab equipment-this is not a desk‑only management role.
• Physically able to rack and stack hardware, move and lift equipment, and travel to or work on‑site at colocation/data center facilities asrequired-physical hardware handling is a core,requiredpart of this job.
• Networking fundamentals (switches, cabling, protocols) with the ability to own connectivity and systems issues independently as part of the IT organization.
• Proven track record working directly with lab owners and stakeholders to plan and forecast lab needs.
• Proven inventory/asset management experience, including building tracking systems and running physicalaudits yourself.
• Strong project organization skills, including managing competing priorities and requests across engineering teams.
• Experience with lab or equipment procurement and vendor management.
• Excellent cross‑functional communication-this role sits within IT, bridging engineering, facilities, and lab owners, and requires being both a planner and a doer.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a networking, server, or infrastructure company.
• Scripting/automation skills.
• Prior experience in a similar role managinglabs environment is a plus
• Project trackingand
• organization

$205,000 - $230,000 a year

Where you fall within that range depends on your experience, skills, and impact—we benchmark against internal levels to keep things fair and consistent.

Equal Opportunity

Upscale AI is building a team that reflects a wide range of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. We’re proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and consider all qualified applicants regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or veteran status.

Accessibility & Accommodations

We’re committed to making our hiring process accessible to everyone. If you need accommodations at any stage, just reach out to us at [e-mail]—we’re happy to help. Note: This inbox is only for accommodation requests.