Principal Architect – Infrastructure Engineering & DevOps

Overview

This is an incredible opportunity to be part of a company that has been at the forefront of AI and high-performance data storage innovation for over two decades. DataDirect Networks (DDN) is a global market leader renowned for powering many of the world's most demanding AI data centers, in industries ranging from life sciences and healthcare to financial services, autonomous cars, Government, academia, research and manufacturing.

"DDN's A3I solutions are transforming the landscape of AI infrastructure." – IDC

“The real differentiator is DDN. I never hesitate to recommend DDN. DDN is the de facto name for AI Storage in high performance environments” - Marc Hamilton, VP, Solutions Architecture & Engineering | NVIDIA

DDN is the global leader in AI and multi-cloud data management at scale. Our cutting-edge data intelligence platform is designed to accelerate AI workloads, enabling organizations to extract maximum value from their data. With a proven track record of performance, reliability, and scalability, DDN empowers businesses to tackle the most challenging AI and data-intensive workloads with confidence.

Our success is driven by our unwavering commitment to innovation, customer-centricity, and a team of passionate professionals who bring their expertise and dedication to every project. This is a chance to make a significant impact at a company that is shaping the future of AI and data management.

Our commitment to innovation, customer success, and market leadership makes this an exciting and rewarding role for a driven professional looking to make a lasting impact in the world of AI and data storage.

Job Description

As a Principal Architect – Infrastructure Engineering & DevOps, you’ll lead the design and evolution of our hybrid infrastructure and developer platforms — combining cloud automation, high-performance bare-metal systems, and DevOps engineering into a unified foundation.

This role is deeply cross-functional: you’ll work closely with Dev, DevOps, and QA to architect systems that scale, unblock releases, and support rapid, reliable software delivery. You’ll pair high-level architectural direction with hands-on execution, providing infrastructure leadership during delivery cycles and production events.

Key Responsibilities

Infrastructure & Platform Architecture

• Lead the technical strategy and architecture of our hybrid infrastructure systems (cloud + bare metal)
• Design internal tools and automation that improve scalability, reliability, and cost-effectiveness
• Define and promote infrastructure-as-code practices, platform APIs, and shared tooling patterns
• Drive system design decisions that support multi-tenant workloads, observability, and auditability

Engineering Collaboration & Delivery Support

• Partner with Dev, DevOps, and QA to resolve infrastructure or deployment blockers during release windows
• Guide and mentor DevOps engineers on modern automation techniques and platform standards
• Participate in architectural reviews, readiness checkpoints, and root-cause analyses across engineering

Software Build & Release Pipelines

• Design and evolve robust software build & release pipelines to support hybrid environments, including GPU-based bare-metal systems
• Improve test orchestration, staging workflows, and artifact delivery in alignment with platform goals
• Integrate automation with infrastructure-level controls for access, audit, and security compliance

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in infrastructure, platform, or DevOps engineering roles
• Strong programming ability (e.g., Python, Go) for automation and tooling
• Hands-on experience with hybrid infrastructure (cloud + bare metal), including provisioning and orchestration
• Deep understanding of infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform, Helm, Kubernetes manifests)
• Track record of cross-functional collaboration with Dev, DevOps, and QA

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with GPU-accelerated compute or HPC-style infrastructure
• Familiarity with platform engineering or developer experience optimization
• Exposure to high-velocity release cycles, including deployment windows and incident response
• Availability to support US business hours and occasionally participate in critical release events

This position requires participation in an on-call rotation to provide after-hours support as needed.

Success Metrics – First 30 Days

• Review infrastructure architecture and current release and automation workflows
• Partner with Dev, QA, and DevOps leads to identify urgent pain points and improvement areas
• Propose short-term fixes and longer-term infrastructure roadmap priorities
• Shadow at least one release window or cross-functional incident process

Success Metrics – Beyond 30 Days

• Software delivery velocity and infrastructure consistency improved across teams
• Robust, scalable build and release pipelines operational across cloud and bare-metal environments
• Development, QA, and operations aligned on automation, tooling, and architectural standards for delivery at scale
• Delivery stakeholders (Dev, QA, DevOps) supported and unblocked with minimal escalation

Join us to architect the infrastructure foundation that powers AI, high-performance computing, and cloud-native software delivery — where platform thinking, software engineering, and infrastructure scale converge.

Apply now to shape modern infrastructure systems that drive software delivery across metal, cloud, and code — in close partnership with the teams delivering at speed.

DDN

Join our dynamic and driven team, where engineering excellence is at the heart of everything we do. We seek individuals who love to challenge themselves and are fueled by curiosity. Here, you'll have the opportunity to work across various areas of the company, thanks to our flat organizational structure that encourages hands-on involvement and direct contributions to our mission. Leadership is earned by those who take initiative and consistently deliver outstanding results, both in their work ethic and deliverables, making strong prioritization skills essential. Additionally, we value strong communication skills in all our engineers and researchers, as they are crucial for the success of our teams and the company as a whole.

Interview Process: After submitting your application, one of our recruiters will review your resume. If your application passes this stage, you will be invited to a 30-minute interview during which a member of our team will ask some basic questions. If you clear the interview, you will enter the main process, which can consist of up to four interviews in total:

• Coding assessment: Often in a language of your choice.
• Systems design: Translate high-level requirements into a scalable, fault-tolerant service (depending on role).
• Real-time problem-solving: Demonstrate practical skills in a live problem-solving session.
• Meet and greet with the wider team.
• Our goal is to finish the main process in 2-3 weeks at most.

DataDirect Networks (DDN) is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender, sex stereotyping, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, protected Veteran Status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.