Senior Procurement Engineer, AI Infrastructure

VERDA, LLC
Palo Alto, CA, United States
26 days ago

Role details

Contract type
Permanent contract
Employment type
Full-time (> 32 hours)
Experience level
Expert
Experience required
3 years minimum
Compensation
$140,000.0 - $180,000.0
Working hours
Regular working hours
Languages
Chinese, English
Job source

Tech stack

Artificial Intelligence Big Data Cloud Computing Computer Engineering AI Infrastructure Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) Storage Technologies Hardware Infrastructure Server Operating Systems & Platforms

Job description

AI infrastructure procurement is getting more technical. GPUs, server architectures, networking, storage, power, and cooling all feed into sourcing decisions that are capital-intensive and hard to reverse. Today there’s a gap between what Engineering knows and what Procurement needs to know to negotiate well and choose right. We’re hiring someone to close it., We are looking for a Senior Procurement Engineer, AI Infrastructure to be the technical advisor embedded within our Procurement team. You will provide the technical backbone for AI infrastructure sourcing, evaluating GPU server platforms, supplier proposals, and emerging technologies; challenging vendor assumptions; analyzing total cost of ownership; and building the frameworks and knowledge that turn Procurement into a genuinely technical, strategic function.

This is not a highly structured engineering role. You’ll often evaluate new technologies and make recommendations where there’s no predefined process and no clear answer. Comfort with ambiguity, independent thinking, and sound judgment matter as much as deep technical knowledge.

This is a rare chance to step beyond a purely engineering career into a strategic role combining AI infrastructure expertise, supplier engagement, and executive-level exposure at a rapidly growing AI infrastructure company!

What You’ll Do

  • Act as the primary technical advisor to Procurement leadership on AI infrastructure sourcing decisions across GPU servers, networking, storage, power, and cooling
  • Evaluate AI server platforms, GPU architectures, and cluster designs from OEMs, ODMs, and technology vendors. Assess emerging technologies for scalability and business impact
  • Define and maintain hardware reference architectures and standards, and approve specifications and bills of materials (BoMs)
  • Review and challenge vendor proposals, technical assumptions, and roadmaps; support supplier evaluations by surfacing trade-offs, risks, and differentiators
  • Analyze total cost of ownership (power, cooling, maintenance, spare parts, and lifecycle) to support long-term sourcing decisions
  • Build internal technical competency: deliver knowledge-sharing sessions, develop reference materials, and create the AI Infrastructure Procurement Playbook
  • Translate technical requirements into sourcing specifications and evaluation criteria, working closely with Infrastructure, Engineering, and Operations teams

Requirements

  • Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field (Master’s or equivalent advanced technical training preferred)
  • 3-5+ years of experience in hardware, systems, or infrastructure engineering, including designing and supporting large-scale data center hardware platforms
  • Deep expertise in server and storage architectures; power, thermal, and rack-level design; and hardware components
  • Familiarity with AI cloud, hyperscale infrastructure, or GPU cluster environments, including exposure to large-scale AI deployments and supplier ecosystems
  • Strong technical judgment, with the ability to lead technical discussions and influence stakeholders
  • A mentorship mindset and a collaborative approach
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English
  • Willingness to travel domestically and internationally as required, * Experience supporting procurement, strategic sourcing, supplier management, or commercial teams in hardware, infrastructure, or technology industries
  • Experience presenting technical concepts to non-technical audiences, with a track record of mentoring or transferring knowledge across functions
  • Mandarin Chinese

About the company

Imagine a future where everyone has instant, low-cost access to intelligence. We’re building a fully featured European AI cloud - with everything one needs to train, experiment with, and deploy AI models. In addition, our GPUs run on 100% renewable energy.

We’re ambitious, curious, and gutsy doers. We practice a low hierarchy across the company and high morale in our teams. We’ve already achieved a lot, yet we’re At Verda, we’re building a fully featured European AI cloud, covering everything needed to train, experiment with, and deploy AI models at scale.

We are a full-stack AI infrastructure company, meaning we design, operate, and optimize the compute powering modern AI workloads across training and inference. Our infrastructure runs on 100% renewable energy, helping build a more sustainable AI ecosystem.

Join Verda while it’s still being built - not once it’s finished.

Apply for this position

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