Staff HPC Compute Architect

We're here to help the smartest minds on the planet build Superintelligence. The labs pushing the edge? They run on Lambda. Our gear trains and serves their models, our infrastructure scales with them, and we move fast to keep up. If you want to work on massive, world-changing AI deployments with people who love action and hard problems, we're the place to be.If you'd like to build the world's best deep learning cloud, join us.Note: This position requires presence in our San Francisco office location 4 days per week; Lambda’s designated work from home day is currently Tuesday.Engineering at Lambda is responsible for building and scaling our cloud offering. Our scope includes the Lambda website, cloud APIs and systems as well as internal tooling for system deployment, management and maintenance.What You’ll DoArchitect and define scalable compute platforms optimized for AI/ML, simulation, and high-throughput workloads.Develop compute system standards and design patterns to ensure consistency, performance, and maintainability across infrastructure.Evaluate emerging CPU, GPU, and accelerator technologies, owning architectural tradeoff decisions that impact compute density, power, cooling, and total cost.Collaborate with product and engineering teams to map workload requirements to compute platform capabilities across bare metal and cloud deployments.Define compute platform roadmaps and architectural reference designs that guide hardware selection, firmware baselines, and rack-level configurations.Act as a technical lead during new platform introductions, guiding validation and performance characterization efforts.Mentor systems engineers and cross-functional stakeholders on compute performance tuning, sizing, and architectural decisions.YouProven experience (7+ years) architecting large-scale HPC or cloud compute platforms.Deep knowledge of CPU/GPU architectures, including system-on-chip integration, memory hierarchies, and accelerator topologies.Experience designing systems around high-bandwidth, low-latency fabrics (NVLink, InfiniBand).Strong understanding of system performance tuning, resource scheduling, thermal and power optimization, and compute lifecycle management.Comfortable working across hardware and software boundaries, especially at the intersection of compute architecture, OS behavior, and orchestration layers.Skilled at balancing architectural tradeoffs for density, power efficiency, cooling, and performance.Strong analytical and communication skills, with a track record of influencing technical strategy across teams.Nice to HaveHands-on experience with AI/ML workloads and their compute performance characteristics.Familiarity with orchestration tools used in HPC. (Slurm, Kubernetes, etc)Experience with virtualization technologies, specifically GPU virtualization.Exposure to hardware validation, vendor collaboration, and long-term OEM roadmap alignment.Background in compute telemetry, real-time performance profiling, or large-scale A/B infrastructure testing.Salary Range InformationThe 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 LambdaFounded in 2012, ~400 employees (2025) and growing fastWe offer generous cash & equity compensationOur investors include Andra Capital, SGW, Andrej Karpathy, ARK Invest, Fincadia Advisors, G Squared, In-Q-Tel (IQT), KHK & Partners, NVIDIA, Pegatron, Supermicro, Wistron, Wiwynn, US Innovative Technology, Gradient Ventures, Mercato Partners, SVB, 1517, Crescent Cove.We are experiencing extremely high demand for our systems, with quarter over quarter, year over year profitabilityOur research papers have been accepted into top machine learning and graphics conferences, including NeurIPS, ICCV, SIGGRAPH, and TOGHealth, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependentsWellness and Commuter stipends for select roles401k Plan with 2% company match (USA employees)Flexible Paid Time Off Plan that we all actually useA Final NoteYou do not need to match all of the listed expectations to apply for this position. We are committed to building a team with a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and skills.Equal Opportunity EmployerLambda 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.Compensation Range: $349K - $523K