Principal Operations Engineer, Hardware

Responsibilities

• Serve as the most senior technical authority for the operational hardware fleet across hyperscale AI data center portfolio
• Lead site assessments and operational audits
• Drive technical readiness of teams ahead of site activation
• Review hardware platforms and integration designs from an operational lens
• Feed operational learnings back into hardware engineering, deployment, and supply chain organizations
• Act as a force multiplier across site hardware leads, deployment teams, and reliability engineers
• Serve as connective tissue between hardware operations, hardware engineering, network, facilities, and customer-facing teams
• Diagnose hardware issues on the floor, lead fleet-wide root cause investigations, and hold vendors accountable on RMA processes
• Author, approve, and execute high-risk MOPs and change records in live production environments
• Lead root cause analysis on significant hardware events and drive corrective actions to closure
• Travel extensively across the fleet (50-75%)

Requirements

• 10+ years of hands-on experience operating mission-critical hardware infrastructure, with at least 5 years as the senior technical voice on a site, campus, or fleet
• Deep working command of GPU systems, server platforms, storage infrastructure, firmware lifecycle management, and hardware diagnostics
• Demonstrated ability to author, approve, and execute high-risk MOPs and change records in live production environments
• Track record of leading root cause analysis on significant hardware events and driving corrective actions to closure
• Track record of holding OEMs, ODMs, service vendors, and deployment partners accountable
• Strong written communication skills for operational health assessments, RCAs, procedure reviews, and design review feedback
• Comfort operating as the senior technical voice across operations, hardware engineering, network, facilities, supply chain, and customer-facing teams
• Willingness to travel extensively across the fleet (50-75%)

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field
• Hyperscale or large-scale compute operational experience supporting thousands of servers and accelerator systems
• Direct experience operating modern GPU platforms at production scale
• Strong working knowledge of Linux administration, hardware management tooling, and production troubleshooting workflows
• Experience supporting liquid-cooled compute infrastructure
• Experience operating across multiple sites or as part of a global fleet operations function
• Experience standing up new sites from deployment handover through steady-state
• Experience contributing operational requirements into hardware platform decisions, reference architectures, or productized data center builds
• Scripting and automation experience in support of fleet-scale hardware operations

Compensation & Benefits

• Base salary range: $150,000 - $250,000 per year
• Competitive total compensation package (salary + equity)
• Retirement or pension plan
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Generous PTO policy