Director, Power Applications

Karman•Ann Arbor, MI

3d•$210,000 - $240,000•Remote

About The Position

Karman is an NVIDIA-backed AI company that applies AI to electric grids and AI data centers. Its platform helps data center operators dynamically orchestrate power, use available energy infrastructure more effectively, and unlock additional compute capacity. The Director, Power Applications leads the Power Applications team, which develops, deploys, and maintains power orchestration applications. The team owns the decision layer of Karman’s real-time control loop, turning live power telemetry into power-management commands for megawatt-scale data centers. It combines research and development with continuous software delivery, spanning data science, algorithms engineering, software engineering, and AI infrastructure. Reporting to the VP of AI and Applications, the Director is responsible for connecting research and implementation into a unified program. This includes guiding research on open-ended problems, setting decision deadlines and evidence standards, and moving validated capabilities into production as deliberate increments. The role also leads software delivery with reliability, quality, release gates, and operational ownership, while using field performance to inform future research. The Director is the team’s single point of contact for planning and reporting, partnering with Product and technical program management on roadmap commitments. The role manages dependencies with neighboring teams, including data products, actuation, and system architecture, and represents the team to leadership, customers, and partners. The team is growing, so the first year includes hiring and establishing the structure and routines that support scale. The role can be performed remotely from anywhere in the United States.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, applied mathematics, statistics, physics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related quantitative field.
At least 10 years building and shipping software or algorithms for physical or real-time systems.
At least 5 years leading teams of senior engineers and scientists, with a track record of hiring and developing people.
Experience leading or directing a research or data science function, including framing open-ended questions as time-bound decisions, setting evidence standards, and moving results into production.
Experience leading software delivery programs for production systems with release gates, reviews, and operational ownership; sound judgment in maintaining quality under schedule pressure.
Depth in control systems, estimation, optimization, or applied statistics sufficient to challenge and guide principal-level engineers and scientists and understand the overall program.
Strong planning and program management skills, including setting milestones with Product and program management, managing cross-team dependencies, and communicating trade-offs to leadership.
Excellent written and verbal communication across product, engineering, and executive audiences.
Strong remote leadership habits, including proactive communication, thorough documentation, empathy, and assuming good intent.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree (MS or PhD), or equivalent research experience, in control, estimation, optimization, applied mathematics, statistics, robotics, or a related field.
Hands-on experience with real-time or closed-loop control software on physical equipment and related fleet operations, including staged rollouts, observability, and on-call.
Background in power systems, data center electrical infrastructure, energy, or another physical-world real-time domain.
Experience with GPU power-management tooling, LLM inference serving, or edge computing on NVIDIA platforms.
Growth-stage company experience, including scaling a team, introducing process and structure, and working with plans of record that treat the roadmap as a contract between Product and Engineering.

Responsibilities

Own the end-to-end lifecycle of Karman’s power control and orchestration applications, from research through production performance.
Manage and develop technical leads, data scientists, algorithms engineers, and software engineers.
Set the research agenda with the research technical lead, balancing technical direction against business needs and resources.
Set research decision deadlines and define success criteria; make evidence-based decisions to pivot, shelve, or double down.
Deliver the product plan of record with the software technical lead, maintaining standards for quality, release gates, and operational ownership.
Own two-way handoffs between research and implementation, along with the experiment environments and workflows that support research.
Serve as the single point of contact for planning and reporting with Product and program management.
Balance product and technical roadmaps with requests for proof points and demonstrations, communicating trade-offs and costs.
Manage interfaces and dependencies with neighboring teams, including data products, actuation, and system architecture.
Hire for open roles and build the structure and routines needed for the team to scale.
Represent the team to leadership, customers, and partners.