Principal Technical Program Manager (TPM) - AI Infrastructure Operations

Houston, TXOnsiteFull TimePrincipalPosted 2 months agoVisa sponsorship available

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Required skills

AI Infrastructure
HPC
GPU fleet
Infiniband network fabrics
SLAs
Uptime
Availability
MTTR
Fleet Operations
Network Operations

Nice to have

Hyperscale
Public Cloud
Automation tooling
CI/CD pipelines

Role summary

Nscale is seeking a Principal Technical Program Manager (TPM) for AI Infrastructure Operations to be the operational backbone of their high-scale AI and HPC environment. This role focuses on driving complex, cross-functional programs to ensure the stability, availability, and growth of their GPU fleet and Infiniband network fabrics. The TPM will be responsible for program leadership, establishing and tracking critical infrastructure KPIs (Availability, Uptime), optimizing operational workflows, and coordinating across engineering, data center operations, and vendors. The ideal candidate has 5+ years of experience in TPM roles, a strong understanding of data center infrastructure, distributed systems, Linux, networking, and a metrics-driven approach. Experience with AI/HPC infrastructure, hyperscale environments, and SRE principles is preferred.

Role Overview

As a Technical Program Manager (TPM) for AI Infrastructure Operations, you will be the operational backbone of our high-scale, high-performance AI and High-Performance Computing (HPC) environment. You will be responsible for driving complex, cross-functional programs that ensure the stability, availability, and growth of our cutting-edge GPU fleet and Infiniband network fabrics. This role requires a blend of deep technical understanding, rigorous program management, and a relentless focus on delivering against key operational metrics (SLAs, Uptime, Availability). You will bridge the gap between engineering execution and strategic business goals, directly impacting our ability to serve customer workloads at scale.

Key Responsibilities

Program Leadership: Own the planning, execution, and delivery of strategic operational programs, including new data center AI infrastructure build-outs, large-scale fleet software/firmware rollouts, and the implementation of new operational tooling (in partnership with SRE).

Metrics and Reporting: Establish, track, and drive accountability against critical infrastructure KPIs, specifically focusing on Availability (Target 97.5%) and Uptime (Target 99%). Develop clear dashboards and communication rhythms to provide leadership with real-time visibility into operational health, program status, and risk.

Process Engineering: Analyze and optimize operational workflows across Fleet Operations, Network Operations, and SRE teams. Drive the standardization of incident management, change management, and postmortem processes to reduce toil and improve Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR).

Cross-Functional Coordination: Serve as the primary liaison between engineering teams (Hardware, Compute Platform, Network), Data Center Operations, and external vendors (GPU, Network hardware). Proactively identify and resolve dependencies, risks, and roadblocks.

Capacity and Readiness: Partner with Data Science/Operation Programs to translate capacity planning models into actionable infrastructure delivery and readiness roadmaps. Ensure that new hardware (GPUs, NICs, switches) is successfully integrated into the operational control plane and meets go-live criteria.

Risk Management: Proactively identify technical, schedule, and resource risks related to AI infrastructure scaling and stability. Develop mitigation strategies and communicate impacts clearly to stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

Experience: 5+ years of experience in a Technical Program Management role, successfully driving large-scale, complex infrastructure or software engineering programs.

Technical Domain Knowledge: Strong foundational understanding of data center infrastructure, distributed systems, Linux, and networking concepts.

Program Management Rigor: Proven expertise in modern program management methodologies (Agile, Scrum, PMP certification preferred). Exceptional organizational, communication, and presentation skills.

Metrics-Driven Approach: Demonstrable experience in defining, tracking, and improving system performance based on operational metrics (e.g., Uptime, Availability, MTTR, SLOs/SLIs).

Execution in Ambiguity: Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-growth environment, managing multiple priorities and adapting to evolving technical requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

Direct experience managing programs related to data center infrastructure build-outs and hardware commissioning processes.

Specific domain knowledge of AI/HPC infrastructure, including NVIDIA GPUs, InfiniBand/RDMA networks, and the challenges of tightly-coupled systems.

Experience in a hyperscale or public cloud environment supporting 24/7 mission-critical services.

Familiarity with SRE principles, automation tooling, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines for infrastructure.

A Bachelor's or Master's degree in a technical field (Computer Science, Engineering, etc.) or equivalent practical experience.

What We Can Offer You

At Nscale, you'll find a collaborative, supportive, and innovative environment where your contributions spark real impact. We're building something extraordinary, and we want you at the core.

Highly competitive package (base + equity) with reviews every 12 months.

Join the fastest-growing tech startup, your chance to push boundaries, collaborate with brilliant minds, and make your mark on cutting-edge AI.

Expect a dynamic progression plan tailored to your ambitions. Grow by trying new things, leading, challenging the status quo, and owning your impact, always with our full support.

For information on how Nscale handles candidate personal data, please see our Employee & Candidate Privacy Notice: Here.Nscale does not accept unsolicited candidate submissions from recruitment agencies.

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