Sr Staff/Staff Infrastructure Engineer

Details

Groq is hiring a Sr Staff/Staff Infrastructure Engineer to own the bare-metal layer of its platform: how thousands of physical servers across multiple data centers become healthy, secure, tenant-assignable Kubernetes nodes and remain operational.

This role is part of the Platform Engineering team and serves as the technical lead for infrastructure below the Kubernetes API, including server provisioning, OS lifecycle, datacenter networking fabric, BMC and firmware management, and integration with modern DPUs.

Responsibilities

• Own the bare-metal lifecycle at scale, including automated server bring-up using PXE/iPXE, Metal3, Ironic, and kubeadm.
• Manage OS image lifecycle, BIOS, firmware, and BMC fleets, as well as hardware health telemetry and remediation.
• Own datacenter networking fabric, including leaf/spine networking, BGP, ECMP, RoCE, congestion control, tenant traffic isolation, IPAM, and switch automation.
• Partner with networking architects on Spectrum-X-class fabrics supporting multi-tenant AI workloads at line rate.
• Operate the Kubernetes substrate for host clusters running the multi-tenant control plane, including Cilium CNI, Karpenter, GitOps through Flux and Argo, and virtual cluster integration.
• Lead new datacenter bring-up workflows, turning newly installed racks into production capacity available to customers.
• Partner with datacenter field staff on hardware faults, maintenance windows, and on-call response.
• Represent the physical infrastructure layer in platform design discussions.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in production infrastructure, including at least 3 years owning bare-metal lifecycle at scale.
• Strong datacenter networking fundamentals, including BGP, leaf/spine networking, MTU, congestion control, and fabric debugging.
• Production Kubernetes operations experience, including cluster bring-up, CNI internals, and fleet upgrades.
• Experience with infrastructure as code, including Terraform and Helm.
• Experience with GitOps.
• Experience being on call for a fleet of physical machines.

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience operating NVIDIA GPU clusters at scale, including H100, GH200, GB200, or NVL72 systems; driver stacks, NCCL, NVLink, and GPU Operator.
• Experience with DPUs such as NVIDIA BlueField or AMD Pensando and offload patterns.
• Experience with Spectrum-X, RoCE, or InfiniBand fabrics for AI workloads.
• Background in hyperscaler infrastructure, AI cloud companies, high-frequency trading, or high-performance computing.

Compensation

Total cash compensation, inclusive of potential bonus value, depends on level and is specific to candidates located in the United States:

• Staff: $270,400–$365,000 per year
• Sr Staff: $341,400–$401,600 per year

Individual placement depends on geographic location, experience, skills, and alignment with internal compensation standards. Compensation for international candidates varies based on local market dynamics. Groq currently offers a quarterly bonus as an interim alternative to equity, with plans to introduce long-term incentive program participation in the near future. Employees also receive a robust suite of benefits.

Work Arrangement

The role is based in one of Groq's three hiring hubs: the Dallas, San Francisco, or New York City area. Employees may work remotely while Groq establishes its local office, with the expectation that the role will transition to onsite work once the office opens.

Eligibility

This position may require access to technology or information subject to U.S. export control laws and regulations, including the Export Administration Regulations. Candidates must meet applicable export control eligibility criteria. For U.S. postings, candidates must qualify as U.S. Persons or otherwise be eligible for an applicable export license.

Groq is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to an inclusive environment and provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities.