Data Center Standards Architect

About the role

Lambda, The Superintelligence Cloud, is a leader in AI cloud infrastructure serving tens of thousands of customers. Our customers range from AI researchers to enterprises and hyperscalers. Lambda's mission is to make compute as ubiquitous as electricity and give everyone the power of superintelligence. If you'd like to build the world's best AI cloud, join us.

Responsibilities

• Define and own Lambda’s data center engineering standards for high-density AI and GPU infrastructure environments.
• Create repeatable reference architectures, design patterns, technical specifications, and deployment standards that improve speed, quality, reliability, and consistency across data center builds.
• Develop the engineering “operating system” for data center scale, including standards libraries, design review processes, decision records, quality gates, commissioning criteria, acceptance checklists, exception processes, and operational handoff frameworks.
• Translate lessons learned from individual deployments into reusable mechanisms that make future deployments safer, faster, and more predictable.
• Establish technical standards across areas such as power distribution, cooling, liquid cooling readiness, rack integration, structured cabling, fiber management, network rooms, out-of-band management, telemetry, DCIM/BMS integrations, physical security, maintainability, and operational readiness.
• Lead cross-functional architecture reviews for new data center designs, expansions, retrofits, and infrastructure programs.
• Identify organizational bottlenecks and design systems, tools, and workflows that reduce ambiguity, improve accountability, and help teams execute at scale.
• Mentor engineers and technical leaders across the organization by raising the bar for systems thinking, documentation, design rigor, and operational excellence.
• Build governance mechanisms for standards adoption, including exception management, risk reviews, lifecycle ownership, metrics, and continuous improvement loops.
• Communicate clearly through written standards, technical narratives, architecture diagrams, design reviews, and executive-level recommendations.
• Raise the technical bar for teams through better processes, better documentation, better decision-making frameworks, and better engineering discipline.
• Be energized by building the systems that allow other engineers and operators to move faster and make better decisions.
• Care deeply about reliability, maintainability, repeatability, and operational excellence in mission-critical infrastructure environments.

Requirements

Operated as a staff, principal, or director-level engineering leader in data center engineering, infrastructure engineering, facilities engineering, cloud infrastructure, hardware infrastructure, or a related technical domain. Have experience designing or scaling standards, processes, tools, or governance systems across a complex engineering organization. Bring a strong systems-thinking mindset and are comfortable turning ambiguous, one-off problems into repeatable, scalable mechanisms. Have deep familiarity with data center infrastructure, including power, cooling, rack layouts, network infrastructure, cabling, commissioning, operational readiness, and lifecycle management. Understand how to balance engineering excellence with delivery velocity, cost, risk, reliability, and operational simplicity. Are comfortable influencing without direct authority across engineering, operations, construction, supply chain, finance, and executive stakeholders. Communicate clearly through written standards, technical narratives, architecture diagrams, design reviews, and executive-level recommendations. Have a track record of raising the technical bar for teams through better processes, better documentation, better decision-making frameworks, and better engineering discipline. Are energized by building the systems that allow other engineers and operators to move faster and make better decisions. Care deeply about reliability, maintainability, repeatability, and operational excellence in mission-critical infrastructure environments.

Qualifications

• Experience with AI, machine learning, GPU, HPC, or hyperscale cloud infrastructure.
• Experience with high-density compute environments, liquid cooling, advanced thermal management, or next-generation data center design.
• Experience building or operating infrastructure standards across multiple sites, regions, colocation providers, or global data center portfolios.
• Familiarity with DCIM, BMS, EPMS, telemetry platforms, infrastructure observability, or workflow automation tools.
• Experience creating internal platforms, tooling, dashboards, or knowledge systems that help engineering organizations scale.
• Experience working with colocation providers, OEMs, ODMs, construction partners, commissioning agents, and critical facilities operations teams.
• Experience leading technical governance forums, architecture review boards, standards councils, or large-scale engineering transformation programs.
• Background in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, systems engineering, network engineering, infrastructure architecture, or a related field.

Skills

Systems-thinking mindset, ability to translate ambiguous problems into scalable mechanisms, deep understanding of data center infrastructure, experience balancing engineering excellence with delivery velocity, comfort influencing across diverse stakeholders, clear communication skills, track record of raising the technical bar for teams, enthusiasm for building systems that enable faster, better decisions, commitment to reliability, maintainability, repeatability, and operational excellence in mission-critical environments.

Benefits

Not specified.

Pay

$443K - $517K

Schedule

Presence in our San Francisco office location 4 days per week; Lambda’s designated work from home day is currently Tuesday.