Senior HPC Systems Validation Engineer

Lambda•San Jose, CA

21h•$255,000 - $340,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Lambda, a leader in AI cloud infrastructure, is seeking a Senior HPC Systems Validation Engineer to join its Hardware Engineering team. This role is crucial for building and scaling the physical infrastructure that powers Lambda's AI cloud. The Hardware Engineering team is responsible for the full hardware lifecycle, from roadmap and architecture to operations, focusing on gigawatt-scale AI factories with advanced technologies like liquid cooling and next-generation interconnects. This position requires a presence in the San Jose office four days per week, with Tuesdays designated as the work-from-home day.

Requirements

5 years of experience in one or many of the following areas: hardware integration validation, fleet hardware reliability engineering, component qualification, performance validation for HPC, data center, or cloud infrastructure products.
Deep knowledge in system integration testing and performance benchmarking at one or many of the L10, L11, and L12 levels.
Experience in validation of one or many of the following server hardware platforms: AI/ML, general compute (x86 and ARM), storage systems, or network switches.
Hands-on experience with vendor-led product NPI cycles and ability to drive hardware validation, issues triage, debugging, and root cause in both NPI and after production at scale.
Ability to collaborate well across architecture, hardware and datacenter engineering, supply chain, fleet and infrastructure engineering, HPC deployments and operations, and vendor engineering teams.
Strong ownership and can-do attitude; self-starter comfortable working in ambiguity.

Nice To Haves

10+ years of experience in one or many of the following areas: hardware integration validation, fleet hardware reliability engineering, component qualification, performance validation for HPC, data center, or cloud infrastructure products.
Experience supporting AI/ML infrastructure and accelerated compute hardware (e.g., NVIDIA, AMD, Intel).
Experience in acceptance testing to enable large scale hardware deployments.
Deep knowledge in BMC, BIOS settings, and network card configurations.
Proficient in validating, issue triaging, benchmarking, and performance tuning for rack-scale servers at L10, L11, L12 levels.
Working knowledge of infrastructure toolings for asset management, provisioning, hardware lifecycle management, etc.
Working knowledge in PLM systems and BOM structure.

Responsibilities

Own system integration validation for new HPC AI/ML, general purpose compute, storage, and network hardware platforms throughout hardware NPI and deployment readiness.
Develop and execute functional, stress, reliability, error-injection, and benchmark tests on new hardware systems, enabling automated tools for scale testing.
Collaborate with HPC deployment and operation teams, fleet engineering teams, infrastructure engineering, and PMO teams to facilitate tooling automation and L10/L11/L12 level benchmarking.
Manage firmware and software compatibility, track and recommend firmware and software releases during NPI, and support HPC operation teams on firmware and software maintenance post-production.
Support RMA teams on critical hardware issues' triage and Root-Cause-Analysis after deployment; own fleet hardware issues' failure correlation, trend analysis, and close the loop with Platform Hardware Engineer and Quality team to improve product reliability.
Own hands-on lab setup and test infrastructure for repeatable hardware evaluation, partnering with Platform Hardware Engineer, Data Center Engineering, and Cluster Network Design.
Manage hardware vendors regarding hardware validation and manufacturing testing; support new vendor evaluation and Quarterly Business Reviews.
Drive alternate component qualification from technical evaluation through PLM enablement, developing and executing validation plans for key commodities like memory, SSDs, NICs, PSUs, PDUs, fans, cables, optics, and transceivers.