Dive in and do the best work of your career at DigitalOcean. Journey alongside a strong community of top talent who are relentless in their drive to build the simplest scalable cloud. If you have a growth mindset, naturally like to think big and bold, and are energized by the fast-paced environment of a true industry disruptor, you’ll find your place here. We value winning together—while learning, having fun, and making a profound difference for the dreamers and builders in the world.
Drive the future of DigitalOcean - design our Compute, GPU, Storage, and Infrastructure Platforms
This role is a Principal Infrastructure Architect on our Hardware Engineering team, this individual owns the forward looking roadmap for our CPU, GPU,Storage, and Infrastructure hardware platforms. Looking forward as the industry evolves, , from Air to Liquid to 800VDC rack scale systems. Collaborating with peers on the Infrastructure and Networking teams who own the roadmaps for datacenters and networking at DO.
What You’ll Be Doing:- Defining and owning DigitalOcean's hardware architectures for next-generation compute environments across our CPU, GPU, Storage, and Infrastructure Server SKU products, navigating shifts in technology, networking topologies, and AI/ML requirements.
- Serving as DigitalOcean's primary technical stakeholder for infrastructure technologies partnering with SMEs in the Product and Hardware Engineering organization.
- Providing leadership and guidance as a primary stakeholder in the hardware selection and qualification process.
- Evangelizing emerging technical concepts to senior leadership to inform product and business strategies.
- Architecting end-to-end server designs with vendors and partner teams to support a wide variety of CPU, GPU, and other emerging workloads.
- Architecting end-to-end storage topologies with vendor teams to support diverse workloads across performance, capacity, and archival tiers, moving from direct-attached to disaggregated and software-defined storage.
- Leading proof-of-concept (PoC) initiatives for emerging infrastructure technologies and transitioning successful pilots into global deployment standards.
- Mentor engineers at all levels and contribute to a culture of technical excellence, inclusivity, and impact.
- Represent DigitalOcean in the broader community attending conferences, contributing to papers and presentations.
- 10+ years of experience in server architecture, storage architecture, infrastructure engineering, or a related field, with a track record of owning and deploying designs at scale.
- Deep expertise in server and storage hardware platforms with strong working knowledge of compute technologies across the spectrum—from commodity CPU servers to rack scale GPU and xPU platforms.
- Working experience of driving AI/ML hardware roadmaps and the ability to translate evolving silicon, accelerator, memory, and storage trends into future-proofed platform designs.
- Knowledge of emerging and non-traditional hardware approaches such as CXL memory pooling, DPUs/SmartNICs, disaggregated storage, and computational storage.
- Demonstrated ability to lead proof-of-concept initiatives and scale successful pilots into global deployment standards.
- Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, partnering with technical and business teams along with external vendors and partners.
- Excellent communication and leadership skills, including mentoring engineers and representing the company externally at conferences and through technical papers.
- $184,000 - $231,000
*This is a hybrid role
JR: 2026-7831
#LI-Hybrid
- We innovate with purpose. You’ll be a part of a cutting-edge technology company with an upward trajectory, who are proud to simplify cloud and AI so builders can spend more time creating software that changes the world. As a member of the team, you will be a Shark who thinks big, bold, and scrappy, like an owner with a bias for action and a powerful sense of responsibility for customers, products, employees, and decisions.
- We prioritize career development. At DO, you’ll do the best work of your career. You will work with some of the smartest and most interesting people in the industry. We are a high-performance organization that will always challenge you to think big. Our organizational development team will provide you with resources to ensure you keep growing. We provide employees with reimbursement for relevant conferences, training, and education. All employees have access to LinkedIn Learning's 10,000+ courses to support their continued growth and development.
- We care about your well-being. Regardless of your location, we will provide you with a competitive array of benefits to support you from our Employee Assistance Program to Local Employee Meetups to flexible time off policy, to name a few. While the philosophy around our benefits is the same worldwide, specific benefits may vary based on local regulations and preferences.
- We reward our employees. The salary range for this position is based on market data, relevant years of experience, and skills. You may qualify for a bonus in addition to base salary; bonus amounts are determined based on company and individual performance. We also provide equity compensation to eligible employees, including equity grants upon hire and the option to participate in our Employee Stock Purchase Program.
- DigitalOcean is an equal-opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.
Application Limit: You may apply to a maximum of 3 positions within any 180-day period. This policy promotes better role-candidate matching and encourages thoughtful applications where your qualifications align most strongly.
Skills Required
- 10+ years of experience in server architecture, storage architecture, infrastructure engineering, or related field with deployed designs at scale
- Deep expertise in server and storage hardware platforms across commodity CPU servers to rack scale GPU and xPU platforms
- Working experience driving AI/ML hardware roadmaps and translating silicon, accelerator, memory, and storage trends into platform designs
- Knowledge of CXL memory pooling, DPUs/SmartNICs, disaggregated storage, and computational storage
- Proven ability to lead proof-of-concept initiatives and scale successful pilots into global deployment standards
- Strong cross-functional collaboration skills with technical and business teams and external vendors
- Excellent communication and leadership skills, including mentoring engineers and representing the company at conferences
DigitalOcean Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage includes medical, dental, vision, and mental-health support plus employer-paid life/AD&D/disability, with multiple plan options and above-average employer contributions. Offerings are described as market-leading and in some cases fully paid to keep premiums low.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity awards (new-hire and performance RSUs) are paired with an Employee Stock Purchase Plan offered at a discount. This ownership component augments cash compensation and broadens participation in company growth.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is provided for a defined period and includes a structured, part-time transition-back program. The approach emphasizes a smoother return-to-work experience for new parents.
DigitalOcean Insights
What We Do
DigitalOcean is the Inference Cloud — a full-stack, production-ready cloud platform built to run AI applications with predictable performance, sustainable economics, and radically simpler operations at scale. We are built for teams turning AI into real products — not just training models. Our advantage is not fewer features, but fewer failure modes when operating AI at scale — combining minimal operational overhead, predictable cost efficiency, and a full-stack cloud that works as a system. Hyperscalers are broad by design. Neoclouds are infrastructure-first. DigitalOcean is inference-first — with a real cloud underneath. It combines inference-optimized compute, managed inference software, and integrated cloud capabilities that reduce operational burden for teams running real workloads. Inference is the foundation—not the boundary. Everything else builds on top of it.
Why Work With Us
At DO, we do career-defining work. We innovate with AI and build cutting-edge tech. Our rewards to match that intensity - to motivate you, recognize your impact, and give you what you need to thrive. If you have a growth mindset, like to think big and bold, and are energized by the fast-paced environment, you'll find your place here.
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Remote Workspace
Employees work remotely.
We commit to both remote work and in-person collaboration. These ways of working are dependent on specific roles and are mutually agreed upon by employees. In the US, we are mainly remote. In our APAC locations, we have a hybrid in-office approach.
