Staff Kubernetes Platform Engineer, Infrastructure (GroqMetal)

San Francisco Bay Area • New York City Area • Dallas-Fort Worth Area Platform Eng In office Full-time About Groq Inference is the engine that powers AI, and Groq was built from the silicon up to deliver the world's fastest inference at scale. We pioneered the LPU—the first processor designed specifically for AI inference—and are transforming that innovation into a global cloud platform powering production AI workloads.

With the capital, infrastructure, and team to execute, we're uniquely positioned to define the next era of AI infrastructure. The opportunity is massive, and it's still wide open. Now let's go build it!

Mission

GroqMetal is building the infrastructure platform that turns large-scale physical compute into a reliable, isolated, customer-consumable AI infrastructure. This is a hands-on Senior Staff role: you will write production software as part of a software engineering team. You will lead the design of a Kubernetes-based software platform focused on large-scale AI training and inference workloads.

You will be a key technical leader in building the systems that turn cutting-edge physical infrastructure into a stable product.

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.

Responsibilities & opportunities in this role:

• Design and build core Groq platform systems: APIs, controllers, operators, reconciliation loops, and infrastructure abstractions.
• Remain deeply hands-on: Write, review, test, debug, and operate substantial production code while providing Senior Staff technical leadership.
• Embrace the market: Leverage Kubernetes to build a commercial product for AI infrastructure, delivering production-grade Kubernetes services for dedicated customers running large-scale AI training and inference workloads.
• Build a system, not just deploy technology: Apply distributed-systems principles to partial failure, retries, concurrency, consistency, idempotency, availability, and recovery.
• Design for stability and robustness: Design stable platform APIs and contracts that decouple the customer experience from changes in backend infrastructure.
• Collaborate with a team of experts: Work across infrastructure, inference, networking, infosec, and other teams to turn ambiguous platform needs into production systems.

Ideal candidates have/are:

• Experienced software engineers first: Strong experience designing, implementing, testing, shipping, and maintaining production software.
• Deep Kubernetes platform engineering experience: Experience with operators/controllers, CRDs, admission control, node lifecycle, cluster services, and production-grade platform design.
• Strong distributed-systems expertise: Practical experience reasoning about CAP, consensus, leader election, eventual consistency, state reconciliation, fault domains, and recovery.
• Experience developing infrastructure software: Experience working through a robust SDLC, including design review, automated testing, CI/CD, staged rollout, rollback, observability, and incident learning.
• Experience delivering Kubernetes as a Service: Practical knowledge and experience gained from delivering Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, or infrastructure control planes as a commercially critical or externally consumed product is highly valued, but not required.
• Hands-on experience using coding agents: Experience using tools such as Codex, Claude Code, or similar systems/harnesses in substantive engineering work is highly valued; real-world practice matters more than commercial deployment.
• Steeped in the domain: Experience at a hyperscaler or neocloud supporting AI workloads or commercializing GPU clusters, with a strong understanding of the operational and product challenges of large-scale accelerator infrastructure.
• Comfort with ambiguity: Experience with inference platforms, accelerator/GPU infrastructure, device plugins, cloud infrastructure, or customer-facing platform products.

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 with 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 also offers a Long-Term Incentive (LTI) Program and a robust suite of employee benefits.

#LI-MS1

US Job Posting

This position may require access to technology and/or information subject to U.S. export control laws and regulations, including the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). To comply with these requirements, candidates for this role must meet certain citizenship or residency criteria. Specifically, they must qualify as U.S.

Persons for export control purposes (i.e., U.S. citizen, U.S. lawful permanent resident (Green Card holder), or a protected individual under 8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(3) such as a refugee or asylee), or otherwise be eligible for an applicable export license.

Non-US Job Postings

This position may require access to technology and/or information subject to U.S. export control laws and regulations, as well as applicable local laws and regulations, including the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). To comply with these requirements, candidates for this role must meet all relevant export control eligibility criteria.

Groq is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), age, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Groq complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any protected characteristic.

Groq is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with physical or mental disabilities. If you require a reasonable accommodation to complete an application or to participate in the hiring process, please contact us at [email protected]. This contact is for accommodation requests only, which will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

All offers of employment are contingent upon verification of the applicant’s identity and employment authorization in accordance with federal law.

Groq encourages people with criminal record histories to apply for employment, and values diverse experiences, including prior contact with the criminal legal system. To that end, Groq welcomes such applicants in accordance with the California Fair Chance Act, Los Angeles City Fair Chance Act Ordinance, Los Angeles County Fair Chance Act Ordinance, and San Francisco Fair Chance Act Ordinance.

Philadelphia applicants can review information pertaining to Philadelphia’s Fair Criminal Record Screening Standards Ordinance here: https://www.phila.gov/documents/fair-chance-hiring-law-poster.

As part of our hiring process, Groq may use artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools or automated systems to assist with activities such as reviewing applications, evaluating qualifications, scheduling interviews, analyzing assessment responses, or supporting recruiting operations. These tools are designed to assist—not replace—human decision-making, and hiring decisions are subject to human review.

We may process information you provide during the application process, including resumes, application materials, interview responses, assessments, and, where applicable, audio, video, or transcript data. If legally required, we will request consent before using technologies that analyze biometric or video interview data.

Candidates may request reasonable accommodations, an alternative evaluation process, additional information regarding the use of AI in the hiring process, or review of certain automated decisions by contacting [email protected].