{"id":16806,"url":"https://alion.io/job/etched-data-center-engineer","title":"Data Center Engineer","company":{"id":5021,"name":"Etched","domain":"etched.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/etched","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":89,"open_postings":75,"ghost_share":0.107,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":162,"computed_at":"2026-10-10T05:45:15Z"}},"role":"DevOps","role_family":"DevOps","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Jose, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":130000,"max":210000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":210000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Ansible","optional":false},{"name":"HPC","optional":false},{"name":"Platform Engineering","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-06-25T02:03:48Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-06-25","last_verified_at":"2026-10-11T19:30:55Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":108,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":108},"description":"About Etched\nEtched is building hardware for frontier intelligence. We co-design chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency across both prefill and decode workloads. Our first products are heavily focused on inference. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.\nJob Summary\nDeploying next-generation inference hardware at scale requires more than great chips - it demands world-class physical infrastructure. As a Data Center Engineer at Etched, you will own the end-to-end lifecycle of our data center and hardware lab environments: from facility selection and rack design, power distribution, networking layout, cabling, hardware management, day-to-day operations, and long-term capacity planning. You'll work directly with the hardware, platform, and software teams to bring our systems online faster, keep them running harder, and push the limits of what dense, high-power AI inference design and manufacturing infrastructure can do.\nThis is not a traditional data center operations role. We expect you to treat data center engineering with the same rigor and craftsmanship we apply to our chip design - thinking from first principles about power density, thermal constraints, network topology, and physical security. You'll be making real architectural decisions that directly shape how our products are engineered, manufactured and reach customers.\nYou will be on the ground in our co-location facilities and lab environments, working hands-on with custom server platforms and high-speed networking. You'll drive the processes, tooling, and vendor relationships that allow us to scale our infrastructure as fast as our product roadmap demands.\nKey Responsibilities\nOwn rack layout, capacity planning, power distribution, network design, cabling, and physical deployment of Etched High performance computing platforms across data center and hardware lab environments.\n\nDesign and manage power distribution and redundancy architectures - from utility feeds and PDUs to per-rack power and cooling budgets - for high-density AI compute deployments pushing 90 kW per rack.\n\nCollaborate with physical infrastructure and facilities teams, as well as external vendors to build and manage highly sophisticated hardware labs used for bring-up, EVT, and customer demos.\n\nPartner with co-location vendors and internal teams to evaluate sites, negotiate contracts, and enforce SLAs around power, cooling, physical security, and network connectivity.\n\nArchitect and implement high-speed networking infrastructure (100G/200G/400G Ethernet) connecting compute nodes, storage, and upstream peering, in coordination with network and platform engineering teams.\n\nDevelop and maintain asset management systems, rack diagrams, and change control processes to ensure full visibility into physical infrastructure state at all times.\n\nBuild and operate monitoring and alerting for environmental health (temperature, humidity, power draw, UPS state) and drive rapid response to hardware and facility incidents.\n\nDefine and execute preventive maintenance schedules and hardware lifecycle processes, including RMA coordination with vendors and on-site repair.\n\nLead capacity planning cycles in lockstep with the hardware roadmap, forecasting power, space, and network needs 6-18 months out and translating those forecasts into facility agreements and procurement plans.\n\nEstablish and enforce physical security procedures, access control policies, and audit trails across all data center sites.\n\nYou may be a good fit if you\nHave 5+ years of hands-on data center engineering or operations experience, with direct responsibility for physical hardware deployment, power architecture, and facility management.\n\nHave designed and deployed high-density compute environments (20 kW/rack and above) and have first-hand experience managing the thermal and power challenges that come with them.\n\nAre deeply comfortable with structured cabling, fiber and copper plant management, and high-speed networking hardware at scale.\n\nCan read and interpret electrical one-line diagrams, raised-floor and hot-aisle/cold-aisle plans, and co-location facility documentation without assistance.\n\nHave built or operated monitoring and DCIM tooling and treat infrastructure visibility as a non-negotiable property of any environment you own.\n\nAre a strong vendor manager - you know how to write an RFP, run a competitive evaluation, and hold a co-lo or hardware vendor to their commitments.\n\nThrive in fast-moving environments where requirements shift quickly and you need to make confident decisions with incomplete information.\n\nAre driven by ownership and take pride in environments that are clean, documented, and operationally excellent - not just ones that are \"up.\"\n\nStrong candidates may also have experience with\nPhysical deployment and bring-up of custom or semi-custom server platforms, including early-stage hardware that doesn't come with vendor support.\n\nLiquid cooling systems (direct liquid cooling, rear-door heat exchangers, or immersion cooling) and the facility requirements they impose.\n\nAI or HPC cluster environments - GPU or ASIC clusters, high-radix switch fabrics, RDMA networking.\n\nScripting and automation (Python, Bash, Ansible) for asset tracking, environmental monitoring integration, or operational workflows.\n\nWorking within a semiconductor or hardware startup, where roadmaps compress and infrastructure needs to keep pace with silicon.\n\nBenefits\nMedical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage\n$500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits\n\nHousing subsidy of $2,500 per month for those living within walking distance of the office\n\nRelocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)\n\nVarious wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more\n\nDaily lunch and dinner in our office\n\nUnlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification\n\nHow We're Different\nEtched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We are the first inference-focused frontier AI system. Our addressable market is the entirety of inference, unlike many of our competitors.\nWe are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both and work across disciplines as needed.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6511,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Processors, MCUs & AI Chips","AI Compute & Inference","AI Chips & Accelerators"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-06-25T02:03:48Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 5","filings_12m":5,"filings_prev_12m":0,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":173500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-03T21:08:04+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":55,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.762,"p_room":0.72,"age_days":107,"expected_fill_days":162,"reasons":["conf:3","win:mid","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-10T05:45:15Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":210000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/etched-data-center-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/etched-data-center-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-11T22:28:48Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":12389,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-12T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":5021},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=5021"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fetched-data-center-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fetched-data-center-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fetched-data-center-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/etched-data-center-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fetched-data-center-engineer"}]}