Head of Infrastructure

THE COMPANYOur mission is to build the Covariant Brain, a universal AI to give robots the ability to see, reason and act on the world around them. Bringing AI from research in the lab to the infinite variability and constant change of our customer’s real-world operations requires new ideas, approaches and techniques.
Success in the real world requires a team that represents that world: diversity of backgrounds, points of view, and experiences. Our common denominator: ambitious expectations, love of learning, empathy for those around us, and a team-first mindset.
THE ROLEAs the Head of Infrastructure, you will lead the development of Covariant’s core software and compute platform and have oversight over the AI Infrastructure and Production Engineering teams. 
The AI Infrastructure team makes Covariant’s robot data accessible and easy to leverage to develop, debug, and deploy AI-based software. Their vision is to automate and refine every step of the AI lifecycle, from collecting, indexing, and annotating data to training and deploying new models and monitoring performance across the robot fleet.
The Production Engineering team is responsible for the performance, availability, and security of our software infrastructure spanning both cloud (public cloud like AWS) and edge (robot fleet operating in customer sites). This spans areas like configuration management, access control, networking, software packaging and deployment, monitoring, security, and incident management. 

YOU WILL

• Onboard in a hands-on technical capacity to get well-versed in our technical stack and deployment workflows (All Covariant engineering leaders are involved in designing and writing software)
• Collaborate closely with product management, field/deployment, AI research, and other engineering teams to put together annual roadmaps and quarterly plans
• Develop a vision for how our core infrastructure evolves to meet company scale and product needs over the coming years
• Hire and manage a strong team of engineers, tech leads, and tech lead managers (TLMs) primarily at HQ but potentially spanning Covariant offices worldwide over time
• Stay abreast of the latest technology developments in AI, robotics, and infrastructure software to chart the best course for Covariant infrastructure
• Be willing to interface with customer technical personnel and participate in cross-functional meetings tackling infrastructure, networking or security questions relating to our robot deployments. 

YOU HAVE

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science or closely related field
• 10+ years of experience building systems software, cloud infrastructure, and/or site reliability/data engineering at leading technology companies
• 2+ years managing teams, hiring, mentoring, and growing engineers
• Experience with modern programming languages like Python
• Designed and deployed solutions using public cloud providers like AWS
• Experience with containerization technologies like Docker and container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes and Amazon ECS
• Strong communication skills; able to efficiently communicate technical details to a varied audience.

NICE TO HAVES

• Experience architecting data infrastructure for AI systems
• Experience working close to hardware and/or software in the physical world (e.g. robotics, 3d printing, automation)
• Experience managing managers or tech leads

SAMPLE WEEK IN THE LIFE

• In a given week you might:
• Help design and build a new data logging system or debug a performance issue on our edge compute servers
• Join calls with pre-sales and customer teams to discuss technical details of a robot deployment at the customer facility
• Mentor and give guidance to engineers on the team on their projects, and do code reviews
• Help manage a production incident, run a post-mortem meeting, and follow up on action items
• Work with the finance team, IT, and other eng leaders to plan our R&D annual budget
• Meet with the AI research team to gather requirements and understand how to support a new research project, such as training and deploying a new model
• Present team roadmap at the company all-hands or a company leadership forum
• Run weekly team meetings and meet 1:1 with key cross functional stakeholders

Base pay is one element of our total rewards package which may also include comprehensive benefits, equity, etc., depending on eligibility. The actual base pay offered will be determined by factors such as years of relevant experience, skills, education, etc. Decisions will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

COMPANY CORE VALUESLEARNING CONSTANTLY STRIVING FOR EMPATHY TAKING ON THE IMPOSSIBLE, TOGETHER 
BENEFITS (US)Health, dental, and vision insurance for you and your fam