Principal Data Center Infrastructure Software Engineer

Designworks Talent
Bellevue, US
Hybrid

Who this role is best for

Best suited to experienced infrastructure engineers with production Kubernetes and Linux expertise working in AI infrastructure at scale. The hybrid work arrangement and emphasis on building foundational systems suggest a need for candidates who can lead technical initiatives and collaborate closely with teams.

Best fit for

  • Experienced infrastructure engineers with production Kubernetes and Linux expertise
    — “Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, containerization, and distributed systems in production environments.”
  • Candidates who can lead technical design and automation of AI infrastructure clusters
    — “We're seeking Data Center Software Engineers to lead the design, development, configuration, and automation of AI infrastructure clusters.”
  • Individuals with a background in large-scale datacenter operations and observability practices
    — “Build reliability, observability, and operational excellence practices for mission-critical infrastructure.”

Things to consider

  • Requires three days per week in-office despite hybrid flexibility
    — “Approximately three days per week in the office.”
  • U.S. work authorization is mandatory; no visa sponsorship available
    — “U.S. work authorization is required. Visa sponsorship is not currently available.”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with GPU cluster optimization and large-scale AI workloads
    — “Optimize GPU, networking, storage, and system performance for large-scale AI workloads.”
  • Showcase infrastructure-as-code and automation expertise with Terraform or Ansible
    — “Experience with infrastructure-as-code and automation tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or similar frameworks.”
  • Emphasize your ability to troubleshoot complex systems across hardware and software layers
    — “Troubleshoot complex issues across hardware, operating systems, networking, storage, and software stacks.”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · MediumAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Team

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

What success looks like

  • deploy and optimize Kubernetes
  • troubleshoot complex issues
  • build reliability practices
Typical background
software engineeringcloud infrastructuredata center operations

Skills & requirements

Required

Infrastructure-as-codeAutomationKubernetesContainerizationDistributed Systems

Preferred

Bare-metal ProvisioningHardware Lifecycle ManagementGPU Clusters

Stack & domain

LinuxKubernetesContainerizationDistributed SystemsInfrastructure-as-codeAutomationTerraformAnsibleGPU ClustersNetworkingStorageSystem PerformanceObservabilityOperational ExcellenceProblem-solvingTroubleshootingCommunicationCollaborationLeadershipAI InfrastructureCloud PlatformData CenterLarge-scale ComputeModel TrainingInferenceAgentic AI

About the role

Original posting from Designworks Talent via Ashby

DATA CENTER INFRASTRUCTURE SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Location: Hybrid | Bellevue, WA (downtown)

Titles: Senior | Staff | Principal (multiple roles available)

BUILD THE DATA CENTER SOFTWARE INFRASTRUCTURE

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

A well-funded, rapidly growing AI infrastructure company is building a next-generation cloud platform designed to power the full lifecycle of artificial intelligence. The organization is developing a comprehensive AI infrastructure, platform, and services portfolio that supports the full spectrum of AI workloads including large-scale compute, model training, fine-tuning, inference, and emerging agentic AI applications.

Backed by significant long-term investment, the company combines the speed, ownership, and innovation of a startup with the stability and resources of an established parent organization. Engineering teams are intentionally lean, highly collaborative, and AI-native, leveraging modern tooling and automation to build infrastructure capable of supporting the industry's most demanding AI workloads.

We're seeking Data Center Software Engineers to lead the design, development, configuration, and automation of AI infrastructure clusters.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Your responsibility begins once servers and racks are installed in the data center and extends through software deployment, networking, configuration, cluster bring-up, and automation, ensuring the platform is fully operational and ready for customer workloads.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

  • Develop infrastructure-as-code, automation, and provisioning systems for compute, networking, and storage.
  • Deploy and optimize Kubernetes, container, and distributed computing platforms.
  • Optimize GPU, networking, storage, and system performance for large-scale AI workloads.
  • Troubleshoot complex issues across hardware, operating systems, networking, storage, and software stacks.
  • Build reliability, observability, and operational excellence practices for mission-critical infrastructure.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

  • 5+ years of experience designing, building, or operating large-scale Linux-based infrastructure.
  • Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, containerization, and distributed systems in production environments.
  • Experience with infrastructure-as-code and automation tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or similar frameworks.
  • Strong experience operating cloud or datacenter-scale infrastructure.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

  • Experience with bare-metal provisioning and hardware lifecycle management platforms (e.g., MAAS, Ironic, xCAT, xCAT, or similar).
  • Experience with IPMI, Redfish, PXE boot, and automated operating system deployment at scale.
  • Experience managing GPU clusters in datacenter or cloud environments.

COMPENSATION

  • Competitive base pay for Bellevue market
  • Certain roles are eligible for additional rewards, including merit increases, annual bonus, and long term incentives. These awards are allocated based on individual performance
  • U.S. based employees have access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan and company match, employees also receive per calendar year, paid holidays.

LOCATION

  • Hybrid role based in the Bellevue, WA area.
  • Approximately three days per week in the office.
  • Candidates elsewhere in the U.S. who are open to relocation are encouraged to apply.
  • U.S. work authorization is required. Visa sponsorship is not currently available.

WHY JOIN?

  • Ground-floor opportunity: you'll be among the earliest engineers on the team, directly shaping architecture, tooling, and culture.
  • Work directly on cutting-edge AI infrastructure at real scale — from data center design through GPU clusters to production inference.

Source: Designworks Talent careers (Ashby)

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