Compute Lead

Goodfire
San Francisco, CA
On-site

Who this role is best for

A natural match if you have experience managing high-stakes compute infrastructure in AI research.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with hands-on experience in GPU resource management and high-impact AI infrastructure projects
    — “Manage Goodfire’s compute allocations across training, research, and customer workloads”
  • Individuals who thrive in mission-driven environments and prioritize team alignment over personal goals
    — “Put mission and team first”
  • Professionals who have navigated complex vendor negotiations and resource scarcity in high-performance computing
    — “navigate GPU scarcity and partner negotiations with rigor”

Things to consider

  • In-office presence is required for this San Francisco-based role
    — “We are hiring for this position in our San Francisco office who’d be onsite 5 days a week”
  • The role demands making tough trade-offs and prioritizing high-priority workloads
    — “the conviction to make hard trade-offs rather than split the difference”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience in forecasting and optimizing compute demand for AI projects
    — “Build forecasting models that anticipate compute demand”
  • Showcase a track record of balancing competing demands and delivering results under pressure
    — “balance competing demands across teams and the conviction to make hard trade-offs”
  • Emphasize your ability to translate technical requirements into actionable infrastructure plans
    — “translate roadmaps into concrete compute requirements”
  • Demonstrate expertise in cluster testing and performance validation
    — “Own cluster acceptance testing: define acceptance criteria with our infrastructure team”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Company

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • managing compute allocations for training and research
  • securing capacity and monitoring cluster health
Typical background
Experience in managing compute resources for AI models

Skills & requirements

Required

Compute Resource ManagementGPU Sourcing And TestingCluster Health MonitoringForecasting ModelsInfrastructure Operations

Preferred

AI InterpretabilityResource Allocation

Stack & domain

GPUInfrastructureOperationsAIInterpretability

About the role

Original posting from Goodfire via Greenhouse

About Goodfire

Goodfire is an AI interpretability research lab. We build interpretability agents and infrastructure to understand, monitor, and align AI models.

We believe that AI is the most consequential technology of our time. Yet AI models are trained by trial and error today, with limited understanding of what drives their behavior. Our goal is to advance the research and technology needed to fully understand and align AI so humanity can trust superintelligence.

Goodfire is a public benefit corporation founded by researchers who helped pioneer the field of interpretability at OpenAI and Google DeepMind. We are headquartered in San Francisco and have raised over $200M from leading investors including Lightspeed, Menlo, and B Capital.

About the role

We’re hiring a Compute Lead to own one of the most critical resources at the company: our compute for model training, research, and customers. You’ll run everything from how we allocate our compute to how we source, test, and secure capacity. You’ll make the day-to-day calls that determine how far our world-class research and product ambitions can go.

We’re looking for someone who can navigate GPU scarcity and partner negotiations with rigor, and moves with exceptional urgency. You’ll need strong judgment to balance competing demands across teams and the conviction to make hard trade-offs rather than split the difference. You might be the right fit if you find the intersection of infrastructure, operations, and high-stakes resource allocation exhilarating.

Key responsibilities

Manage Goodfire’s compute allocations across training, research, and customer workloads

Source and secure capacity: gather availability and pricing across providers, move quickly on the best options, and take deals from first call through contract and delivery

Own cluster acceptance testing: define acceptance criteria with our infrastructure team and run burn-in and performance testing before we sign off

Monitor cluster health once live: track node failures and downtime, and drive fixes with providers

Track utilization and quota usage by project, flag idle or underused capacity, and reallocate quickly so GPUs are going to our highest-priority work

Partner closely with research and product teams to translate roadmaps into concrete compute requirements and ensure infrastructure never becomes a bottleneck

Build forecasting models that anticipate compute demand and enable confident long-term planning and budgeting

Our values

Goodfire is looking for individuals who embody our values and share our deep commitment to making interpretability accessible. We are building a team first and foremost.

Put mission and team first

All we do is in service of our mission. We trust each other, deeply care about the success of the organization, and choose to put our team above ourselves.

Improve constantly

We are constantly looking to improve every piece of the business. We proactively critique ourselves and others in a kind and thoughtful way that translates to practical improvements in the organization. We are pragmatic and consistently implement the obvious fixes that work.

Take ownership and initiative

There are no bystanders here. We proactively identify problems and take full responsibility over getting a strong result. We are self-driven, own our mistakes, and feel deep responsibility over what we’re building.

Action today

We have a small amount of time to do something incredibly hard and meaningful. The pace and intensity of the organization is high. If we can take action today or tomorrow, we will choose to do it today.

Where we work

We are hiring for this position in our San Francisco office who’d be onsite 5 days a week.

What we offer

This role offers market competitive salary, equity, and competitive benefits.

The expected salary range for this position is $200-400k.

This role reports to our Head of Finance.

Most importantly, you'll have the opportunity to join a vital mission at an important point in its trajectory — we are developing groundbreaking technology with a world-class team on the critical path to ensuring a safe and beneficial future for humanity. If you want to do your life’s work with us, even if you believe you do not meet every single requirement, apply now.

Source: Goodfire careers (Greenhouse)

Similar roles