Staff Engineer, Infrastructure – HPC & AI Compute

Pronto; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 224,000 - 284,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision

Equity

Sick Time and Paid Holidays

Team lunch in SoMa office

Job summary

Pronto is seeking a Staff Engineer to build the physical compute infrastructure powering AI, robotics, and autonomous systems. You will lead GPU HPC deployments, scale architecture, and work with facilities to deliver data-center-ready capacity in a fast-moving environment.

You will own networking, storage, and hardware design for large-scale compute while driving automation and reliability across the platform. This role is based in San Francisco and onsite five days a week.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS/CE/EE or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of infrastructure engineering or related HPC fields.
• Experience designing, deploying, commissioning, or expanding physical compute infrastructure (HPC, GPU clusters, large-scale data centers).
• Ability to lead complex infrastructure initiatives end-to-end from requirements to production readiness.
• Strong Linux, server hardware, networking, and storage foundations.
• Experience in high-performance or large-scale computing environments with AI/ML workloads.
• Hands-on infrastructure automation using Python, Go, Bash, Ansible or similar.
• Experience evaluating hardware, networking, and storage tradeoffs for cost/performance.
• Knowledge of data-center power, cooling, rack density, cabling, and connectivity.
• Strong troubleshooting across hardware, OS, networking, and storage.

Responsibilities

• Build AI compute infrastructure from the ground up, deploying GPU and HPC resources.
• Define foundation to scale to thousands of GPUs and exabyte-scale storage.
• Own compute and hardware architecture decisions for GPU servers and network gear.
• Design high-performance networking and distributed storage for compute workloads.
• Collaborate with facilities and real estate to translate compute needs into power and cooling specs.
• Drive end-to-end infrastructure deployment with vendors and internal teams.
• Develop tooling for bare-metal provisioning, monitoring, and incident response.
• Plan capacity and improve reliability as compute demand grows.

Skills

HPC infrastructure

GPU clusters

Linux

Networking

Storage

Data-center design

Automation tooling

Python

Go

Bash

Ansible

NVIDIA DGX knowledge

Kubernetes

Slurm

PXE provisioning

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/CE/EE or equivalent experience

Tools

PXE

Warewulf

NVIDIA Base Command Manager

Kubernetes

Slurm

InfiniBand

Job description

Who we are

Pronto AI is a global leader in commercializing autonomous vehicle (AV) technology, deploying Autonomous Haulage Systems (AHS) that automate operations in mines, quarries, and construction sites worldwide. While much of the industry remains in R&D, we deliver real, production-ready autonomy that is already operating in the field.

We are on a mission to make mining operations safer, smarter, and more efficient through cutting-edge technology, and we are building toward becoming the world’s first profitable AV technology company.

What you’ll do

As a Staff Engineer focused on HPC & AI Compute Infrastructure, you’ll help build the physical computing infrastructure powering Atoms’ AI, robotics, and autonomous systems. You'll work closely with our Infrastructure, AI, and engineering teams to bring immediate GPU capacity online while architecting the foundation for thousands of GPUs, large-scale CPU compute, and Exabyte-scale storage. This is a hands‑on role spanning hardware, software, networking, storage, and data‑center infrastructure, where you'll own complex technical challenges from initial requirements through deployment and production.

• Build AI compute infrastructure from the ground up. Lead the design, deployment, and commissioning of physical GPU and HPC infrastructure, including an intermediate data-center environment in San Francisco, to support autonomous systems, AI/ML workloads, and large-scale simulation.
• Architect for scale. Define the technical foundation to grow from initial deployments to thousands of GPUs, large-scale CPU compute, and Exabyte-scale storage, balancing performance, reliability, scalability, and cost.
• Own compute and hardware architecture. Evaluate and specify GPU servers, CPUs, memory, networking components, storage systems, and rack configurations based on workload requirements and infrastructure constraints.
• Design high-performance networking and storage. Work across cluster interconnects, high-bandwidth networking, distributed storage, and data movement to support compute-intensive workloads.
• Partner on physical data-center delivery. Collaborate with facilities, real estate, and infrastructure teams to translate compute requirements into power, cooling, rack density, space, and connectivity specifications.
• Drive infrastructure deployment end to end. Work with hardware manufacturers, vendors, and internal teams on technical evaluations, bills of materials, procurement planning, installation, integration, validation, and production readiness.
• Automate infrastructure operations. Develop tooling and processes for bare-metal provisioning, configuration management, monitoring, hardware validation, incident response, and failure recovery to make deployments repeatable and reliable.
• Own capacity planning and operational reliability. Anticipate infrastructure bottlenecks, troubleshoot complex hardware and software issues, and continuously improve performance, utilization, and availability as compute demand grows.

What we’re looking for

We're looking for a hands‑on infrastructure engineer who has experience building and scaling physical compute environments, from initial system design through deployment and production. You should be comfortable working across hardware, software, networking, storage, and data‑center infrastructure, bringing deep technical expertise and the ability to lead complex engineering initiatives. We're looking for someone who can move quickly to deliver immediate compute capacity while building the technical foundation for long‑term scale.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of experience in infrastructure engineering, systems engineering, high-performance computing, data-center engineering, or related technical disciplines.
• Demonstrated experience designing, deploying, commissioning, or significantly expanding physical compute infrastructure, including HPC clusters, GPU systems, or large-scale data-center environments.
• Proven ability to lead complex infrastructure initiatives from technical requirements and architecture through implementation, production readiness, and ongoing operations.
• Strong systems engineering foundation across Linux, server hardware, networking, and storage, with deep technical expertise in multiple areas.
• Experience working with high-performance or large-scale computing environments, including GPU/CPU clusters, distributed computing, AI/ML infrastructure, simulation, or comparable workloads.
• Hands‑on experience developing infrastructure automation or tooling using Python, Go, Bash, C++, Ansible, or similar technologies.
• Experience evaluating hardware configurations, networking and storage technologies, vendor solutions, and performance, reliability, and cost tradeoffs.
• Working knowledge of data-center infrastructure requirements, including power, cooling, rack density, cabling, and network connectivity.
• Strong troubleshooting skills and experience diagnosing complex production issues across hardware, operating systems, networking, and storage.
• Ability to operate independently in fast‑moving environments, navigate ambiguity, collaborate across engineering disciplines, and drive technical decisions without relying on established processes.

Nice to have

• Experience building or operating large-scale AI/ML training clusters, GPU supercomputers, or high-density HPC environments.
• Experience in industries such as AI infrastructure, autonomous vehicles, robotics, scientific computing, semiconductor engineering, hyperscale data centers, or GPU cloud infrastructure.
• Familiarity with NVIDIA DGX/HGX systems, InfiniBand, RDMA/RoCE, Slurm, Kubernetes, or other HPC and distributed computing technologies.
• Experience with distributed storage technologies such as Ceph, Lustre, GPFS/Spectrum Scale, BeeGFS, or similar systems.
• Experience with bare-metal provisioning and cluster automation using PXE, xCAT, Warewulf, NVIDIA Base Command Manager, or comparable tools.
• Exposure to modular data centers, liquid cooling, high-density rack deployments, and large-scale power and cooling infrastructure.
• Experience working directly with hardware OEMs, infrastructure vendors, procurement teams, and facilities partners on capacity planning, infrastructure deployments, and capital expenditure decisions.
• Work on real, production-deployed autonomy.
• Build technology that directly improves safety, efficiency, and productivity.
• Tackle complex challenges in demanding, real-world environments.
• Be part of a fast-moving team with high ownership and impact.
• See your work deployed and making a difference in the field.
• Collaborate closely with experienced engineers and industry operators.

What else you need to know

This role is based in our San Francisco office location. As a company driven by innovation and continuous change, close collaboration is essential. We’re constantly reimagining our industry, creating new products, and refining our processes, and we do our best work together. That’s why all of our office-based teams work onsite, five days a week.

Ready to join us as we serve those who serve others?

#LI-Onsite

The base salary range for this role is $224,000 - $284,000 per year.

Actual compensation will be determined on an individual basis and may vary depending on experience, skills, and qualifications.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package. You may also be eligible for equity awards.

Benefits Summary (USA Full-Time Exempt Employees)

• Medical, Dental, Vision, Disability, and Life Insurance
• Flexible Spending Account / Health Savings Account Options
• 401(k)
• Equity
• Sick Time, Unlimited Flexible Time Off, and Paid Holidays
• Team lunch in our SoMa office every Tuesday and Thursday

Benefits are subject to change at the company's discretion.

Pronto accepts applications on an ongoing basis.

As set forth in Pronto’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.