Senior Field Engineer

About the Role

SambaNova Systems is looking for a Data Center Deployment Engineer to join our field engineering team. In this customer-facing role, you will own the end-to-end deployment of SambaNova's rack-scale AI systems at customer data centers across Japan and the region. You'll serve as the technical authority on-site, ensuring that power, cooling, networking, and physical infrastructure are ready to support our hardware before, during, and after deployment.

This is a hands-on, high-visibility role that sits at the intersection of infrastructure engineering and customer success. You'll work closely with customers, their data center operators, and internal teams to make deployments go smoothly.

What You'll Do

• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for customers during rack product deployments, covering all aspects of physical site readiness including power, cooling, networking, and data center services.
• Conduct pre-deployment site assessments to identify potential infrastructure issues and work with customers to resolve them before hardware arrives.
• Develop and communicate cooling plans appropriate to the power and heat load of SambaNova rack systems, with a primary focus on front-to-rear air-cooled environments.
• Validate data center power infrastructure for compatibility with SambaNova systems, including 208V and 415V AC environments.
• Partner with data center operators at facilities to help coordinate logistics, cage/rack assignments, cross-connects, and remote hands.
• Validate customer networking infrastructure, including verification of cabling, uplink switch details, and protocols required for AI workloads.
• Document deployment procedures, site configurations, and any issues encountered for internal knowledge-sharing and customer records.
• Communicate deployment status, risks, and findings clearly to both technical and non-technical customer stakeholders.
• Assist with on-going customer support at a rack and system level.
• Provide input on future product design at a rack level. 

What We're Looking For

Data Center Infrastructure

• General logistics experience for large hardware deployments: coordinating deliveries, staging, and installation in live data center environments.
• Solid understanding of data center AC power at 208V and 415V and work with customer facilities teams.
• Experience planning and validating cooling solutions for high-density compute, with knowledge of front-to-rear airflow design.
• Familiarity with the operational requirements and processes of major colocation providers (Equinix, NTT Global Data Centers, DigitalRealty, or similar).

Networking

• Working knowledge of data center network topologies, including three-tier and leaf-spine/Clos designs.
• Familiarity with Ethernet networking protocols including BGP, LACP, VRRP, VLAN, VXLAN, and VPN.
• Understanding of RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) principles and its relevance to high-performance AI workloads.
• Experience with high-speed data center switching platforms; Juniper and Arista experience is a plus.

Systems

• Extensive hands-on administrative experience with Red Hat Linux, or other rpm-based Linux distributions, in production environments. This includes system configuration, troubleshooting, and performance tuning.
• Proficiency with BMC, service processor, and IPMI-based out-of-band systems management.
• Familiarity with RAS (reliability, availability, and serviceability)  design at a rack level.

Additional

• Familiarity with AI and machine learning concepts and terminology sufficient to communicate effectively with AI infrastructure teams.
• Fluent Japanese speaker with strong written and verbal English communication skills.
• Excellent presentation and interpersonal skills; able to build trust and credibility with customer executives and technical teams alike.
• Demonstrated knowledge of Shell scripting or Python.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple deployments and competing priorities.

Nice to Have

• Experience with DC power systems in data center environments.
• Hands-on experience with liquid cooling technologies.