Senior Procurement Engineer, AI Infrastructure

Verda•Palo Alto, CA

8d•$140,000 - $180,000•Onsite

About The Position

Verda is building a fully featured European AI cloud, designed to support the entire lifecycle of AI models, from training and experimentation to deployment. As a full-stack AI infrastructure company, Verda designs, operates, and optimizes the compute power for modern AI workloads. The company is committed to a sustainable AI ecosystem by running its infrastructure on 100% renewable energy. This role offers a unique opportunity to join Verda during its foundational stages and contribute to its growth. The Senior Procurement Engineer, AI Infrastructure will serve as a technical advisor within the Procurement team, bridging the gap between engineering knowledge and procurement needs. This role is crucial for making informed sourcing decisions for capital-intensive AI infrastructure components like GPUs, server architectures, networking, storage, power, and cooling. The position requires a blend of deep technical expertise, independent thinking, comfort with ambiguity, and sound judgment to evaluate emerging technologies and negotiate effectively with vendors. It presents a strategic career move combining AI infrastructure knowledge with supplier engagement and executive exposure.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field (Master's or equivalent advanced technical training preferred)
3-5+ years of experience in hardware, systems, or infrastructure engineering, including designing and supporting large-scale data center hardware platforms
Deep expertise in server and storage architectures; power, thermal, and rack-level design; and hardware components
Familiarity with AI cloud, hyperscale infrastructure, or GPU cluster environments, including exposure to large-scale AI deployments and supplier ecosystems
Strong technical judgment, with the ability to lead technical discussions and influence stakeholders
A mentorship mindset and a collaborative approach
Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English
Willingness to travel domestically and internationally as required

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting procurement, strategic sourcing, supplier management, or commercial teams in hardware, infrastructure, or technology industries
Experience presenting technical concepts to non-technical audiences, with a track record of mentoring or transferring knowledge across functions
Mandarin Chinese

Responsibilities

Act as the primary technical advisor to Procurement leadership on AI infrastructure sourcing decisions across GPU servers, networking, storage, power, and cooling
Evaluate AI server platforms, GPU architectures, and cluster designs from OEMs, ODMs, and technology vendors. Assess emerging technologies for scalability and business impact
Define and maintain hardware reference architectures and standards, and approve specifications and bills of materials (BoMs)
Review and challenge vendor proposals, technical assumptions, and roadmaps; support supplier evaluations by surfacing trade-offs, risks, and differentiators
Analyze total cost of ownership (power, cooling, maintenance, spare parts, and lifecycle) to support long-term sourcing decisions
Build internal technical competency: deliver knowledge-sharing sessions, develop reference materials, and create the AI Infrastructure Procurement Playbook
Translate technical requirements into sourcing specifications and evaluation criteria, working closely with Infrastructure, Engineering, and Operations teams