Staff HPC Network Architect

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

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision coverage

Equity compensation

401k with company match

Flexible paid time off

Wellness and commuter stipends

Job summary

Lambda, The Superintelligence Cloud is seeking an experienced Senior Network Architect to design and optimize high-performance data center networks for AI workloads. You will define topologies for large GPU clusters, multi-tenant storage, and multi-site environments, while driving automation and fault tolerance.

You will lead architectural decisions, mentor teams, and collaborate across compute, storage, and networking groups to ensure ultra-low latency, high bandwidth, and reliable operation in

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in architecting high-performance data center networks, preferably for HPC/AI/cloud.
• Expertise with InfiniBand HDR/NDR and advanced Ethernet fabrics including RoCE and RDMA.
• Strong understanding of data center switching architectures, congestion control, QoS, and VXLAN/EVPN systems.
• Experience with BGP-based fabric design including MP-BGP EVPN, ECMP, and convergence.
• Proficiency in SDN, APIs, automation, and network telemetry.
• Cloud-scale, multi-site, fault-tolerant design with high availability.
• Excellent communication and cross-functional leadership abilities.

Responsibilities

• Architect high-performance networking solutions for cloud platforms with ultra-low latency and high bandwidth.
• Define topology and patterns for large GPU clusters, storage backends, and multi-tenant environments.
• Evaluate and select next-generation network technologies to meet AI workload requirements.
• Develop standards, reference designs, and roadmaps for scalability across sites.
• Collaborate with compute/storage teams to ensure end-to-end data flow and fault tolerance.
• Lead network automation strategies and tooling for provisioning, telemetry, and visibility.
• Mentor engineers and cross-functional teams on advanced network concepts and best practices.

Skills

InfiniBand HDR/NDR

RoCE

RDMA

eBGP/MP-BGP EVPN

VXLAN

Data center architectures

Networking performance optimization

Network automation

Telemetry

Networking leadership

Tools

NVIDIA BlueField

Broad and flexible network hardware

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 Jose or San Francisco office location 4 days per week; Lambda’s designated work from home day is currently Tuesday.

What You’ll Do

• Architect high-performance networking solutions that power cloud platforms, with a focus on ultra-low-latency and high-bandwidth connectivity.

• Define the network topology and architectural patterns for large-scale GPU clusters, storage backends, and multi-tenant environments.

• Evaluate, benchmark, and select next-generation network technologies (e.g., InfiniBand NDR/XDR, RoCE, 400G-1.6T Ethernet, Ultra Ethernet, ESUN, OCI, etc) to meet AI workload requirements.

• Develop and maintain network architecture standards, reference designs, and scalability roadmaps for multi-site and hybrid environments.

• Partner with compute and storage architects to ensure seamless end-to-end data flow and fault tolerance.

• Guide network automation strategies and tooling to enable efficient provisioning, telemetry, and operational visibility.

• Mentor engineers and cross-functional teams on advanced network concepts, troubleshooting, and architectural best practices.

You

• Proven experience (7+ years) architecting high-performance data center networks, preferably for HPC, AI/ML, or large-scale cloud infrastructure.

• Deep expertise with InfiniBand (HDR/NDR) and advanced Ethernet fabrics, including RoCE and RDMA protocols.

• Strong understanding of data center switching architectures, congestion control (PFC, ECN), QoS, and network virtualization technologies such as VXLAN and EVPN.

• Skilled in designing for low-latency and high-throughput data paths, including GPU-to-GPU and storage traffic optimization.

• Expertise with BGP-based fabric design, including eBGP underlays, MP-BGP EVPN, ECMP, route policy, and convergence.

• Experience with SDN, APIs, automation, and network telemetry.

• Strong optical networking competency, including transceiver technologies, fiber types and topologies, link budgets, breakout architectures, and WDM.

• Experience building resilient, fault-tolerant high-performance network architectures with redundancy, failover, and high availability.

• Excellent communication and leadership skills, capable of influencing technical decisions across diverse teams.

• Strong ownership and can do attitude, self-starter who feels comfortable working in ambiguity.

Nice to Have

• Hands-on experience with AI workload profiling, collective communication patterns (e.g., NCCL, MPI), and network tuning for distributed training.

• Familiarity with network automation frameworks and telemetry tools.

• Exposure to DPU/SmartNIC technologies, including NVIDIA BlueField, or similar.

• Knowledge of large-scale, multi-site interconnect design, including DWDM or metro/long-haul networking.

• Experience collaborating with hyperscale or enterprise customers on highly customized network designs.

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.