9+ years of software engineering experience, including 3+ years in leadership roles.
Experience building or operating Kubernetes platforms or managed services.
Strong technical judgment in Kubernetes, platform APIs, and cluster lifecycle management.
Ability to navigate trade-offs in extensibility, compatibility, security, and reliability.
Proven team-building skills and effective collaboration across engineering and product teams.
Excellent communication skills to translate ambiguous needs into actionable plans.
BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Responsibilities
Build and lead the engineering team, focusing on hiring and developing talent.
Define the technical strategy and roadmap for LKS platform capabilities.
Deliver a reliable baseline cluster experience using CNCF-conformant Kubernetes.
Own the integration and lifecycle of managed add-ons, ensuring compatibility and customer choice.
Develop Kubernetes capabilities for AI workloads, starting with Slurm and evaluating future options.
Collaborate with the Hosted Control Plane team on cluster lifecycle and incident response.
Communicate progress, risks, and customer impact to leadership and partner teams.
Benefits
Generous cash and equity compensation.
Health, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents.
Wellness and commuter stipends for select roles.
401k Plan with 2% company match for USA employees.
Flexible paid time off plan that is actively encouraged.
Full Job Description
About the Role
Lambda Kubernetes Service (LKS) is an API-first Kubernetes platform for AI training and inference on Lambda infrastructure. We're looking for an Engineering Manager to lead the team building its customer-facing platform capabilities: cluster runtime, system components, managed add-ons, and AI workload orchestration.
You'll lead the engineering team and partner with the Hosted Control Plane team and Lambda's Compute, Networking, Storage, IAM, Security, and Product teams. The goal is a reliable, extensible Kubernetes experience from a functional vanilla cluster to vetted capabilities such as GPU and network operators, and orchestration options such as Slurm through Slinky.
What You'll Do
Build and lead the engineering team; hire strong engineers, develop technical leaders, and set a high bar for ownership and quality.
Define the technical strategy and roadmap for LKS platform capabilities and Kubernetes runtime.
Deliver a reliable baseline cluster experience using upstream, CNCF-conformant Kubernetes.
Own the integration and lifecycle of managed add-ons, including qualification, compatibility, releases, and customer choice.
Build Kubernetes capabilities for AI workloads, starting with Slurm through Slinky and evaluating options such as Volcano and LLMD as needs grow.
Partner with the Hosted Control Plane team on cluster lifecycle, upgrades, release readiness, and incident response.
Work across Lambda infrastructure and product teams to deliver secure, supportable integrations.
Communicate progress, risks, and customer impact clearly to leadership and partner teams.
You
Have 9+ years of software engineering experience, including 3+ years leading engineering teams.
Have built or operated Kubernetes platforms, managed Kubernetes services, or container infrastructure.
Bring strong technical judgment across Kubernetes, platform APIs, operators, and cluster lifecycle.
Can guide tradeoffs across extensibility, compatibility, security, reliability, and customer experience.
Build strong teams and work effectively across engineering, product, and infrastructure organizations.
Communicate clearly and turn ambiguous needs into pragmatic plans and results.
Hold a BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or a related field, or have equivalent practical experience.
Nice to Have
Experience with GPU operators, AI infrastructure, or GPU-aware Kubernetes.
Experience with Slurm, Slinky, Volcano, LLMD, Kueue, Ray, or similar orchestration systems.
Experience with Kubernetes networking, storage, upgrades, or managed add-on catalogs.
Salary Range Information
The annual salary range for this position has been set based on market data and other factors. However, a salary higher or lower than this range may be appropriate for a candidate whose qualifications differ meaningfully from those listed in the job description.
About Lambda
Founded in 2012, with 500+ employees, and growing fast
Our investors notably include TWG Global, US Innovative Technology Fund (USIT), Andra Capital, SGW, Andrej Karpathy, ARK Invest, Fincadia Advisors, G Squared, In-Q-Tel (IQT), KHK & Partners, NVIDIA, Pegatron, Supermicro, Wistron, Wiwynn, Gradient Ventures, Mercato Partners, SVB, 1517, and Crescent Cove
We have research papers accepted at top machine learning and graphics conferences, including NeurIPS, ICCV, SIGGRAPH, and TOG
Our values are publicly available: https://lambda.ai/careers
We offer generous cash & equity compensation
Health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents
Wellness and commuter stipends for select roles
401k Plan with 2% company match (USA employees)
Flexible paid time off plan that we all actually use
About Lambda
Lambda is an online education company that offers courses in computer science and software engineering. The company was founded in 2017 by Austen Allred and Ben Nelson. Lambda's courses are designed to be accessible to anyone, regardless of their background or prior experience. The company's mission is to provide high-quality education that leads to well-paying jobs in the tech industry. Lambda has partnerships with a number of companies, including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, and has helped thousands of students launch careers in tech.
