Senior Principal AI Infrastructure Architect
Role details
Job location
Tech stack
Job description
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Lead the end-to-end design of large, complex AI infrastructure solutions - covering accelerated compute (NVIDIA H100/H200/B200 and GB200 NVL72, AMD Instinct MI300X/MI325X, Intel Gaudi 3), CPU host platforms (Intel Xeon, AMD EPYC, NVIDIA Grace), high-throughput storage tiers and lossless AI fabric - for enterprise, sovereign AI and AI Factory clients.
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Architect reference designs built on NVIDIA DGX/HGX SuperPOD, Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA, Cisco Nexus HyperFabric AI, HPE / Lenovo / Supermicro accelerated compute and equivalent platforms, balancing single-node performance with cluster-scale efficiency.
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Size and validate GPU clusters against real workloads - foundation-model pre-training, distributed fine-tuning, RAG, real-time and batch inference - using the right combination of NVLink/NVSwitch domains, InfiniBand NDR/XDR or Ultra Ethernet / NVIDIA Spectrum-X fabrics and tiered NVMe and parallel storage (VAST, WEKA, DDN, Pure FlashBlade, NetApp ONTAP AI, Dell PowerScale).
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Define the supporting datacenter design: high-density power (50-140 kW/rack), direct-to-chip and rear-door liquid cooling, structured cabling for AI fabrics and modular deployment models across on-prem, colo and sovereign-cloud footprints.
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Work closely with the sales team to drive the presales process for AI infrastructure pursuits - client discovery, technical workshops, proposal writing, executive presentations and bid defence.
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Translate clients AI ambitions and business outcomes into a hardware and platform roadmap, positioning NTT DATAs end-to-end portfolio - silicon, systems, storage, fabric, MLOps stack and managed services - to land service-led AI solutions.
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Lead integration of compute, storage, networking, the AI software stack (CUDA, ROCm, Triton, NIM, NVIDIA AI Enterprise, Run:ai, Slurm, Kubernetes / Kubeflow) and managed-service operating models across multiple domains, delivery units and geographies.
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Build business cases, TCO and unit-economics models (cost per token, cost per training run, GPU-hour economics) and end-to-end transition roadmaps for cloud-to-private AI migrations and sovereign AI deployments.
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Define architectural principles for AI infrastructure - accelerator utilisation, data gravity, multi-tenancy, model lifecycle, energy efficiency - and apply them to influence architectural outcomes and governance.
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Develop As-Is, Vision, FMO and To-Be AI platform architectures, identify gaps and develop transition roadmaps.
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Synthesise current and future trends in AI silicon, memory hierarchies (HBM3e, CXL), interconnects and AI software stacks with client strategic imperatives to create compelling, evidence-based solutions.
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Contribute to NTT DATAs AI Factories knowledge base by sharing reference architectures, sizing tools and lessons learned with internal teams and clients.
Requirements
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Deep, hands-on knowledge of AI hardware: GPU and accelerator portfolios (NVIDIA Hopper / Blackwell, AMD MI300/MI325, Intel Gaudi 3, emerging custom silicon), host CPU platforms (Intel Xeon, AMD EPYC, NVIDIA Grace), system topologies (HGX, DGX, MGX, OAM) and how each choice maps to specific AI workloads.
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Strong understanding of AI-class storage: parallel filesystems, all-flash NVMe platforms, S3-class object stores, checkpoint and dataset pipelines and the I/O patterns of large-scale training and inference (VAST, WEKA, DDN EXAScaler, Pure FlashBlade, NetApp ONTAP AI, Dell PowerScale).
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Solid command of AI networking - InfiniBand NDR/XDR, RoCEv2, NVIDIA Spectrum-X, Ultra Ethernet, NVLink/NVSwitch fabrics, congestion control and fabric design for rail-optimised and fat-tree topologies.
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Working knowledge of the AI software and orchestration stack: CUDA, cuDNN, NCCL, ROCm, Triton Inference Server, NIM, vLLM, TensorRT-LLM, Slurm, Kubernetes (with GPU Operator), Kubeflow, Run:ai, MLflow and NVIDIA AI Enterprise.
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Familiarity with datacenter facilities engineering for AI workloads: high-density power, liquid cooling (DLC, rear-door, immersion), PUE/WUE optimisation and the practical constraints of retrofitting existing colo space for accelerated compute.
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Excellent written and oral communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for technical and non-technical executive audiences.
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Strong systems-thinking and strategic-thinking skills - able to capture the key elements of a system into a simple abstraction that empowers good decisions.
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Strong business financial skills, with the demonstrable ability to perform a cost-benefit analysis, build CAPEX vs OPEX comparisons and manage budgets.
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Knowledge of cloud, hybrid and sovereign AI deployment patterns, plus architectural governance for Agile, DevSecOps and MLOps.
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Significant knowledge of core Managed Service portfolio artefacts, techniques, demos, tools and deliverables, applied to AI platform operations.
Academic Qualifications and Certifications:
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Bachelors degree or equivalent in Information Technology, Engineering, Computer Science or a related field. Masters or PhD advantageous.
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Vendor and technology certifications in AI infrastructure highly desirable - for example NVIDIA-Certified Associate / Professional (AI Infrastructure, AI Operations), Dell Technologies AI Factory, Cisco / Nutanix / HPE accelerated compute, Red Hat OpenShift AI, Run:ai - plus relevant storage and networking certifications.
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Scaled Agile certification advantageous.
Required experience:
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Significant experience in a consulting, presales or architecture role within a large-scale (preferably multi-national) technology services environment, with a track record of leading AI infrastructure pursuits.
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Demonstrable experience designing and delivering production AI platforms - from single multi-GPU servers through to multi-rack training clusters and inference factories.
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Strong working knowledge of the AI hardware vendor landscape (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Dell, HPE, Lenovo, Supermicro, Cisco, Pure, VAST, WEKA, DDN, NetApp) and how to position partner ecosystems competitively.
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Proven ability to translate AI workload requirements (model size, parameter count, sequence length, throughput SLOs, latency targets) into accurate hardware bills of materials and sizing justifications.
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Significant client engagement and consulting experience, including client needs assessment, change management and the ability to identify whitespace for follow-on AI infrastructure and managed-services work.
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Significant business development and presales experience on infrastructure-led deals, ideally including sovereign AI, AI Factory or regulated-industry GenAI programmes.
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Strong understanding of how AI infrastructure integrates with business processes, applications, data platforms and existing enterprise architecture.