Staff Infrastructure Engineer, Networking (Groq Metal)
Groq
- Location
- Hybrid (San Francisco Bay Area, Illinois · New York City Area, Illinois · Dallas-Fort Worth Area, Illinois)
- Compensation
- $270k - $401k/yr
- Employment
- Full-time
- Level
- Senior Level
Posted 2 days ago
About the role
Groq is building the world's fastest AI inference platform. This role owns the bare-metal infrastructure layer, managing server provisioning, datacenter networking, and Kubernetes substrate to support multi-tenant AI workloads at scale.
Skills
Bare-metal lifecycle
Kubernetes
Datacenter networking
BGP
Leaf/spine
PXE/iPXE
Metal3
Ironic
Terraform
Helm
GitOps
Cilium CNI
RoCE
Firmware management
Infrastructure-as-code
Perks
- Quarterly bonus
- Hybrid Work
Full job details
Mission:
We're hiring a Sr Staff/Staff Infrastructure Engineer to own the bare-metal layer of our platform: how thousands of physical servers across multiple data centers become healthy, secure, tenant-assignable Kubernetes nodes — and stay that way.
This role sits on the Platform Engineering team and is the technical lead for everything below the Kubernetes API: server provisioning, OS lifecycle, datacenter networking fabric, BMC / firmware management, and integration with modern DPUs.
Location: This role will be based in one of our three hiring hubs: the Dallas, San Francisco, or New York City area. The person hired for this role must be based in one of these three areas. You’ll have the flexibility to work remotely while we establish our local Groq office, with the expectation that this role will transition to onsite once the office opens.
What you'll own:
- Bare-metal lifecycle at scale— automated server bring-up (PXE/iPXE, Metal3, Ironic, kubeadm), OS image lifecycle, BIOS/firmware/BMC fleet management, hardware health telemetry and remediation.
- Datacenter networking fabric— leaf/spine, BGP, ECMP, RoCE, congestion control, tenant traffic isolation, IPAM, switch automation. You'll partner with our networking architects on Spectrum-X-class fabrics that power multi-tenant AI workloads at line rate.
- Kubernetes substrate— the host clusters that run our multi-tenant control plane (Cilium CNI, Karpenter for capacity, GitOps via Flux/Argo, virtual cluster integration). You won't be the K8s app developer, but you'll be the person the K8s app developers trust to keep the floor solid.
- New datacenter bring-up— turn "rack lands on the floor" into "production capacity available to customers" as a repeatable, automated workflow.
- Day-2 operations— partner with DC field staff on hardware faults, maintenance windows, and on-call response. Be the voice of the physical layer in platform design conversations.
What we're looking for:
Required
- 8+ years in production infrastructure, with at least 3 years owning bare-metal lifecycle at scale.
- Strong in datacenter networking fundamentals: BGP, leaf/spine, MTU, congestion control, fabric debugging.
- Production Kubernetes operations experience — cluster bring-up, CNI internals, fleet upgrades.
- Comfort with infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Helm) and GitOps.
- Has been on-call for a fleet of physical machines and knows what that costs.
Bonus:
- NVIDIA GPU clusters at scale (H100 / GH200 / GB200 / NVL72) — driver stack, NCCL, NVLink, GPU Operator.
- DPUs (NVIDIA BlueField, AMD Pensando) and offload patterns.
- Spectrum-X / RoCE / InfiniBand fabrics for AI workloads.
- Background in hyperscaler infra, AI cloud (CoreWeave / Crusoe / Lambda / Together), HFT, or HPC.
Why Join Us:
- Purposeful Hiring: You’re not here by accident, and neither is anyone else. Every teammate is handpicked with intention because who we build what matters.
- Builders Wanted: You’re not just riding the rocket ship, you’re building it. Your work directly shapes the trajectory of our company.
- Mission-Driven Work: We’re here to make a real impact. Our mission fuels everything we do.
- Tackling Hard Problems: If easy isn’t your thing, you’re in the right place. We solve some of the most complex and exciting challenges in our space.
- Excellence Is The Standard: High performance isn’t just encouraged, it’s the baseline. And it’s contagious.
If this sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you!
Compensation:
Groq is committed to providing competitive compensation through our Total Cash philosophy, which incorporates potential bonus value directly into base pay. The total cash salary ranges for this position, which is inclusive of the potential bonus value, is dependent by level:
- Staff: $270,400 - $365,000
- Sr Staff: $341,400 - $401,600
Individual placement within these ranges is determined by your geographic location, experience, skills, and alignment with internal compensation standards. These ranges are specific to candidates located in the United States. Compensation for international candidates will vary based on local market dynamics. Beyond cash compensation, Groq currently offers a quarterly bonus as an interim alternative to equity, with plans to introduce long term incentive program participation in the near term future. Employees also receive a robust suite of benefits.
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