Principal On-Prem Deployment Architect

job summary:

Step into a high-impact role with a premier, VC-backed systems integration firm that builds next-generation technology for highly secure environments. We are seeking an elite infrastructure leader to design and orchestrate massive, on-premises physical data center deployments for sovereign enclaves and air-gapped facilities. Join an engineering culture that deeply values psychological safety and blameless post-mortems, while working on petabyte-scale data ingestion and advanced AI inference hardware projects. If you started your career racking servers and have since evolved into an architectural authority who engineers complex physical infrastructure plans, this is your next long-term career home.

Benefits include premium medical coverage featuring a $0 overall deductible and 0% coinsurance for hospital stays, alongside comprehensive 100% employer-paid vision and dental plans.

location: Telecommute

job type: Permanent

salary: $160,000 - 220,000 per year

work hours: 8am to 5pm

education: High School



responsibilities:

Responsibilities

• Architect and Design: Translate complex enterprise requirements into actionable low-level designs (LLDs), precise hardware Bills of Materials (BOMs), and rigorous sizing and capacity models.
• Lead the Room: Facilitate technical discovery sessions over video and in-person, serving as the definitive infrastructure authority alongside enterprise security and customer engineering teams.
• Bridge the Physical and Digital: Partner closely with internal software and platform engineers to ensure that highly complex data and backend systems land seamlessly onto the physical hardware you design.
• Direct Global Delivery: Define the delivery framework by creating exact rack and cable plans, firmware baselines, and commissioning checklists for regional field teams to execute independently.
• Provide Escalation Support: Act as the ultimate technical backstop for deployment anomalies, utilizing your deep mastery of Linux, enterprise storage, and network fabric to solve complex physical-layer issues.
• Travel and Collaborate: Work seamlessly across EMEA time zones from your remote US home office, with occasional quarterly travel to the UAE to oversee major delivery milestones from high-end resort accommodations.

qualifications:

Qualifications

Must-Haves

7 to 10 years of progressive IT infrastructure experience, demonstrating a strong history of career longevity and the ability to learn from long-term project lifecycles.

Extensive early-career, hands-on experience in physical data center environments (racking, stacking, cabling, power/cooling budgets, and directly troubleshooting physical infrastructure via crash cart).

Proven ability to produce highly detailed, defensible technical documentation, including sizing models and hardware BOMs that survive rigorous procurement scrutiny.

Expert-level depth in Linux systems administration, enterprise storage architectures, and network fabric.

Exceptional customer-facing communication skills with the ability to run design workshops and confidently defend architectural choices.

Must currently reside in the United States and be willing to accommodate early morning EMEA meetings and occasional international travel.

Note: This role requires active, on-premises architectural design experience; candidates with exclusively cloud/SaaS backgrounds will not be considered.

Nice-to-Haves

ship is highly preferred, alongside an active security clearance (or the ability to obtain one long-term).

Hands-on experience sizing and deploying NVIDIA hardware ecosystems (specifically NVLink) and GPU clusters for AI and LLM inference.

Previous experience deploying infrastructure into air-gapped, classified, or sovereign disconnected environments.

Familiarity with Dell and Cisco hardware ecosystems, as well as geographic collocation and cross-region failover.

Understanding of compliance frameworks such as SOC 2, FedRAMP, or CMMC.

Basic operational familiarity with Kubernetes.

Skills

Technical Skills: Physical Data Center Infrastructure, Low-Level Design (LLD), Hardware Capacity Planning, Linux Systems Administration, Enterprise Storage, Network Architecture, BOM Generation, GPU Clustering (NVIDIA), Disaster Recovery.

Soft Skills: Technical Leadership, Enterprise Discovery, Vendor Evaluation, Cross-Functional Engineering Collaboration, Architectural Documentation, High-Stakes Problem Solving.

skills:

AI,backend,large-scale data,analytics platforms,customer data,data centers,enterprise storage,data transfer,Disaster recovery,distributed data,firmware,GPU infrastructure,Linux,Linux systems,Design documents,software design,resilience,acceptance test,access control,architecture,bills of materials,bill of materials,budgets,business continuity planning,Compliance framework,crash cart,lifecycle strategy,design review,diagnosis,technical design,FedRAMP,infrastructure,lifecycle management,optics,Presales,procurement,platform engineering,production systems,professional services,Reference architectures,requirements gathering,risk registers,storage systems,structured cabling,technical direction

Equal Opportunity Employer: Race, Color, Religion, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, National Origin, Age, Genetic Information, Disability, Protected Veteran Status, or any other legally protected group status.

At Randstad Digital, we welcome people of all abilities and want to ensure that our hiring and interview process meets the needs of all applicants. If you require a reasonable accommodation to make your application or interview experience a great one, please contact

Pay offered to a successful candidate will be based on several factors including the candidate's education, work experience, work location, specific job duties, certifications, etc. In addition, Randstad Digital offers a comprehensive benefits package, including: medical, prescription, dental, vision, AD&D, and life insurance offerings, short-term disability, and a 401K plan (all benefits are based on eligibility).

This posting is open for thirty (30) days.


It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.