Principal AI Compute Engineer, Project Sunrise Orbital Data Centers

BLUE ORIGIN • Denver, CO

2d • $218,520 - $305,927

About The Position

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight! This role is part of Advanced Concepts and Enterprise Engineering (ACE), supporting Blue Origin’s mission of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. The team fosters innovation and drives engineering workflows of the future, shared solutions and standards, simplicity and lower costs, and manufacturable design.

Join Blue Origin as we build infrastructure in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re developing a satellite constellation of orbital data centers to transform how compute infrastructure is deployed.

As the Principal Engineer of Compute, you will own the strategy, architecture, deployment, and operation of the compute package and overall network architecture on the spacecraft. This role requires you to grow the team and operate with a high degree of autonomy, while managing multidisciplinary effort while making critical design decisions. You are a novel thinker who will find innovative approaches to challenging engineering problems. You will lead both hardware for the compute and associated software stack.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of experience in one or more of the following areas: hyperscale/cloud infrastructure, High-Performance Computing (HPC), AI infrastructure, or large-scale platform engineering.
• Significant experience deploying and operating large GPU clusters.
• Experience leading, growing, and managing teams of 8+ engineers.
• Deep networking knowledge including understanding of the vendor ecosystem.
• Strong understanding of storage architectures for AI/HPC systems.
• Experience developing and shipping complex compute or electronic hardware.
• Experience in at least one relevant hardware domain such as embedded systems, avionics, HPC, FPGA/ASIC/GPU systems, or distributed/edge computing.
• Strong systems-architecture and hardware/software co-design skills.
• Experience commercializing data compute, AI, and cloud products.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with data center design, build out, and operation.
• Experience with software development lifecycles along with hardware/software co-design.
• Space, aerospace, or other high-reliability compute-system experience.
• Knowledge of radiation effects and mitigation approaches.
• Experience optimizing around size, weight, and power (SWaP).
• Familiarity with AI/ML accelerators or specialized edge-compute architectures.
• Hands on experience building your own AI platforms.
• Experience with mission- or safety-critical development and rigorous validation.
• Strong cross-functional leadership spanning software, spacecraft, and systems engineering.
• Familiarity or fluency with AI tools and their application for design optimization or analysis.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end AI compute architecture from 0->1 and then taking it 1->n.
• Define the architecture for the entire stack: GPU/CPU, networking, storage, orchestration, and the cloud-platform.
• Establish infrastructure requirements for AI workloads.
• Define spacecraft network topology, storage architecture, and overall compute related requirements.
• Build networking and storage systems that can scale with the constellation.
• Establish test, validation, and qualification strategies for compute hardware, integrating closely with spacecraft, software, mission, launch, reliability, product, operations, and finance teams.
• Build and lead the compute payload engineering organization, including direct people management
• Work with software teams to define workload orchestration and resource management.
• Lead major supplier, component, and technology-partner decisions. This includes make/buy options and vertical integration.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability, 401(k) with a company match of up to 5%, and an Education Support Program.
• Stock Options for all regular employees (working at least 20 hours/week)
• Paid Time Off: Up to four (4) weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours, and up to 14 company-paid holidays.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal