Staff Engineer, Distributed Storage,hpc & AI Infrastructure

Together AI Together AI · Data AI · Amsterdam, Netherlands · Engineering

Staff Engineer focused on designing and delivering multi-petabyte distributed storage systems optimized for AI training and inference workloads. Responsibilities include architecting high-performance parallel filesystems and object stores, integrating cutting-edge technologies, driving cost optimization, and building Kubernetes-native storage operators and self-service platforms. The role requires deep expertise in distributed storage, Kubernetes, and performance optimization for GPU/HPC clusters, with strong coding skills in Go and Python.

What you'd actually do

  1. Design multi-petabyte AI/ML storage systems; integrate WekaFS, Ceph, etc.; lead capacity planning and cost optimization (30-50% savings via tiering, lifecycle policies, right-sizing).
  2. Design/optimize RDMA, InfiniBand, 400GbE networks; tune for max throughput/min latency; implement NVMe-oF/iSCSI; troubleshoot bottlenecks; optimize TCP/IP for storage.
  3. Build Kubernetes storage operators/controllers; enable automated provisioning, self-service abstractions, multi-tenant isolation, quotas; create reusable Helm/Terraform patterns.
  4. Deliver 10-50 GB/s per GPU node; optimize caching (weights/datasets/checkpoints), parallel filesystems, and data paths; troubleshoot with profiling tools; scale to thousands of nodes.
  5. Build multi-tier caches (local NVMe, distributed, object); optimize data locality and model-weight distribution; implement smart prefetching/eviction.

Skills

Required

  • 8+ years in storage engineering with 3+ years managing distributed storage at multi-petabyte scale
  • Proven track record deploying and operating high-performance storage for GPU/HPC clusters
  • Deep Kubernetes and cloud-native storage experience in production environments
  • Strong coding skills in Go and Python with demonstrated ability to build production-grade tools
  • BS/MS in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
  • History of technical leadership: designing systems that significantly improved performance (>3x), reliability (99.9%+ uptime), or cost efficiency
  • Distributed Storage Systems: Deep expertise in WekaFS, Lustre, GPFS, BeeGFS, or similar parallel filesystems at multi-petabyte scale
  • Object Storage: Production experience with S3, MinIO, Ceph, or R2 including performance optimization and cost management
  • Kubernetes Storage: CSI drivers, StatefulSets, PersistentVolumes, storage operators, and custom controllers
  • Storage optimization for GPU workloads, RDMA/InfiniBand networking, parallel filesystem optimization (100+ GB/s aggregate cluster throughput)
  • Programming: Go and Python for automation, operators, and tooling
  • Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, Ansible, Helm, GitOps (ArgoCD)
  • Linux Storage Stack: Advanced knowledge of filesystems (ext4, xfs), LVM, NVMe optimization, RAID configurations
  • Observability: Prometheus, Grafana, Thanos architecture and operations

Nice to have

  • GPU Direct Storage (GDS), NVMe-oF, storage networking (100GbE/400GbE)
  • ML/AI storage patterns (model weights, checkpointing, dataset caching)
  • Kubernetes operator development (controller-runtime, kubebuilder)
  • Storage snapshots, cloning, and thin provisioning
  • Backup and disaster recovery (Velero, Restic, cross-region replication)
  • Storage encryption (at-rest and in-transit), security and compliance
  • Storage benchmarking and profiling tools (fio, iperf3, iostat, blktrace)

What the JD emphasized

  • multi-petabyte scale
  • high-performance storage for GPU/HPC clusters
  • Deep Kubernetes and cloud-native storage experience in production environments
  • significantly improved performance (>3x), reliability (99.9%+ uptime), or cost efficiency

Other signals

  • design and deliver multi-petabyte storage systems purpose-built for the world’s largest AI training and inference workloads
  • build Kubernetes-native storage operators and self-service platforms
  • optimize end-to-end data paths for 10-50 GB/s per node
  • optimize caching (weights/datasets/checkpoints), parallel filesystems, and data paths