SambaNova is a leader in next-generation AI infrastructure, delivering a full-stack inference platform for customers worldwide. At the core of SambaNova's technology is the RDU (Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit) — a chip built on a dataflow architecture rather than the traditional GPU model. Its decode performance is especially strong for agentic workloads like multi-turn agents, code generation, and long-running applications. RDUs are packaged into SambaRack, rack-scale hardware that lets customers deploy state-of-the-art models with better performance, greater energy efficiency, and faster time to value.
We are seeking a highly technical and strategic Project Manager / Engineering Lead to own and advance our engagement with a key strategic partner. The ideal candidate will be the central hub for all technical, operational, and strategic activities. You will be responsible for ensuring the technical success of joint projects, managing complex deliverables, leading a cross-functional engineering team, and deepening the customer relationship to secure future business. This role requires a unique blend of deep technical understanding of AI/ML systems, exceptional project management skills, and strong customer-facing abilities.
Key Responsibilities
- Technical Project Leadership & Execution:
- Own the end-to-end planning and execution of complex technical evaluation projects ● Develop and maintain detailed project timelines, ensuring alignment between engineering efforts and customer milestones.
- Lead daily standups and syncs to track progress, identify risks, and unblock the engineering team
- Manage deliverables such as performance benchmarks, technical reports, and software artifacts.
- Customer & Stakeholder Management:
- Serve as the primary technical point of contact for the customer's engineering teams.
- Manage customer expectations, clearly communicating project status, capabilities, and limitations. This includes being candid about software maturity and guiding the customer toward successful outcomes
- Translate customer requirements and feedback into actionable engineering tasks.
- Prepare and deliver technical briefings and reports to customer stakeholders at all levels.
- Cross-Functional Team Coordination:
- Coordinate the work of a large, distributed team of engineers specializing in compilers, performance SDKs, model bring-up, systems, and packaging.
- Clearly assign action items and ensure accountability across different functional groups. ● Facilitate collaboration between internal teams (e.g., Product, Engineering, GTM) to ensure a unified strategy.
- Technical Analysis & Strategy:
- Understand and articulate the technical differentiators of the platform, such as scale-up/scale-out (SUSO) performance, compilation workflows, and comparative analysis against competitors
- Drive technical decisions on project scope, such as selecting which models (e.g., Llama 70B/405B, Qwen, GLM) to focus on and defining the success criteria for deep engagements.
- Analyze project outcomes to inform product roadmap and future sales strategies.
Qualifications & Experience
Required:
- Fluent in Japanese and English.
- Experience in supporting strategic Japanese and US high technical companies. Can manage cultural and time-zone differences.
- 10+ years of experience in a technical project management, engineering lead, or customer-facing architect role within AI/ML, HPC, or systems infrastructure.
- Proven experience managing complex software/hardware integration or evaluation projects with tight deadlines.
- Strong understanding of AI/ML workloads, including model training, inference, and the associated software stack (e.g., PyTorch, vLLM).
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain highly technical concepts to both engineers and executive stakeholders.
- Demonstrated ability to lead and influence cross-functional teams without direct authority.
Highly Desirable:
- Hands-on experience with large language models (LLMs) and mixture-of-experts (MoE) models.
- Background in performance analysis and benchmarking of AI systems.
- Familiarity with compiler technology, parallel programming, or high-speed networking.
Success Metrics
In the first 6-12 months, you will be successful if you:
- Seamlessly take over the existing engagement and maintain strong customer satisfaction.
- Successfully execute the next phase of technical projects, leading to a repeat purchase or expansion of the partnership.
- Establish yourself as the trusted technical advisor for the customer.
- Improve the efficiency and clarity of cross-functional team coordination.
Base Salary Range:
Submission Guidelines
Please note that in order to be considered an applicant for any position at SambaNova Systems, you must submit an application form for each position for which you believe you are qualified.
EEO Policy
SambaNova Systems is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard basis of age (40 and over), color, disability, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, national origin/ancestry, race, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding), sexual orientation, and any other applicable status protected by federal, state, or local laws.
Benefits Summary for US-Based, Full-Time Employment Positions
SambaNova offers a competitive total rewards package, including the base salary, plus equity and benefits. We cover 95% premium coverage for employee medical insurance, and 77% premium coverage for dependents and offer a Health Savings Account (HSA) with employer contribution. We also offer Dental, Vision, Short/Long term Disability, Basic Life, Voluntary Life, and AD&D insurance plans in addition to Flexible Spending Account (FSA) options like Health Care, Limited Purpose, and Dependent Care. Our library of well-being benefits available to you and your dependents includes a full subscription to Headspace, Gympass+ membership with access to physical gyms, One Medical membership, counseling services with an Employee Assistance Program, and much more.
Skills Required
- Fluent in Japanese and English
- Experience supporting strategic Japanese and U.S. high-technology companies, including managing cultural and time-zone differences
- 10 or more years of experience in technical project management, engineering leadership, or customer-facing architecture within AI/ML, HPC, or systems infrastructure
- Experience managing complex software and hardware integration or evaluation projects under tight deadlines
- Strong understanding of AI/ML workloads, including model training, inference, and software stacks such as PyTorch and vLLM
- Excellent communication skills for explaining technical concepts to engineers and executive stakeholders
- Ability to lead and influence cross-functional teams without direct authority
- Hands-on experience with large language models and mixture-of-experts models
- Background in AI system performance analysis and benchmarking
- Familiarity with compiler technology, parallel programming, or high-speed networking
What We Do
AI is changing the world and at SambaNova, we believe that you don’t need unlimited resources to take advantage of the most advanced, valuable AI capabilities - capabilities that are helping organizations explore the universe, find cures for cancer, and giving companies access to insights that provide a competitive edge. We deliver the world’s fastest and only complete AI solution for enterprises and governments with world-record inference performance and accuracy. Powered by the SambaNova SN40L Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU), organizations can build a technology backbone for the next decade of AI innovation with SambaNova Suite. Our fully integrated hardware-software system, DataScale®, enables organizations to train, fine-tune, and deploy the most demanding AI workloads using the largest and most challenging models. Most recently, with the launch of our newest offering, SambaNova Cloud, developers can supercharge AI-powered applications on Llama 3.2 models. SambaNova was founded in 2017 in Palo Alto, California, by a group of industry luminaries, business leaders, and world-class innovators who understand AI. Today, we’ve built an incredibly smart and motivated team dedicated to making a lasting impact on the industry and equipping our customers to thrive in the new era of AI.
Why Work With Us
As a talent first company, we aim to hire the greatest and most innovative minds in the industry- driving the next generation of AI computing where no barrier is too high and the possibilities are truly limitless. We encourage our peers to take risks and take the initiative to make a lasting impact on the AI and ML industries.
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