--- title: 'Senior Production Engineer, SDN at Crusoe' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-production-engineer-sdn-crusoe-sunnyvale-tx9re7d3vrp1' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-30' --- # Senior Production Engineer, SDN at Crusoe - **Company:** [Crusoe](https://feeny.ai/companies/crusoe) - **Location:** Sunnyvale, CA / United States - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-10-28 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-30 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/crusoe/4e479e29-9ddf-4ef0-822a-105dff0eb1e8 ## Job description Crusoe is on a mission to accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence. As the only vertically integrated AI infrastructure company built from the ground up, we own and operate each layer of the stack — from electrons to tokens — to power the world's most ambitious AI workloads. When you join Crusoe, you join a team that is building the future, faster. We're in the midst of the greatest industrial revolution of our time. The demand for AI compute is boundless, and power is a bottleneck. We're solving that — with an energy-first approach that makes AI infrastructure better for the world and faster for the people innovating with AI. We're looking for problem-solving, opportunity-finding teammates with a sense of urgency, who believe in the scale of our ambition and thrive on a path not fully paved — people who want to grow their careers alongside a team of experts across energy, manufacturing, data center construction, and cloud services. If you want to do the most meaningful work of your career, help our customers and partners advance their AI strategies, and be part of a high-performing team that believes in each other, come build with us at Crusoe. About This Role: At Crusoe Energy Systems, our Production Engineering (PE) team plays a mission-critical role in maintaining the performance and reliability of our AI-optimized cloud infrastructure. The SDN-focused PE role is responsible for ensuring the availability, performance, and scalability of Crusoe's cloud networking services, which power compute-intensive, latency-sensitive workloads for AI and HPC use cases. This role directly supports our vertically integrated, sustainable cloud platform by building and optimizing distributed, fault-tolerant networking systems at scale. What You'll Be Working On: In this role, you will build automation and self-healing tools to monitor and maintain Crusoe's software-defined networking (SDN) infrastructure, which underpins Crusoe Cloud's edge, backbone, and data center connectivity. You will drive reliability initiatives focused on routing convergence, traffic engineering, policy enforcement, and fault isolation. Collaborating closely with network engineers, you will help implement and maintain high-performance virtualized networking services (e.g., overlays, service meshes, programmable data planes) that support large-scale AI compute clusters. Your responsibilities will also include supporting user-facing networking services with a focus on availability, latency reduction, performance tuning, and adherence to error budgets. You'll investigate and resolve networking-related incidents using deep telemetry, flow logs, and packet-level analysis, while also partnering with hardware and kernel teams to optimize network stacks, drivers, and control planes. Additionally, you will contribute to the architecture of fault-tolerant, scalable SDN backends tailored for AI-first cloud environments. What You'll Bring to the Team: - Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience - 5+ years of professional experience in PE, systems, or networking engineering - Demonstrated experience automating network provisioning, configuration, and remediation — hands-on rack-and-stack or manual configuration alone is not a fit for this role - Hands-on experience with SDN platforms and protocols (e.g., Open vSwitch, ONOS, Tungsten Fabric, Calico, Cilium, EVPN/VXLAN) - Proficiency in a programming language such as Python, Go, or C - Experience with Infrastructure as Code and deployment tooling such as Terraform, Ansible, or Puppet - Deep knowledge of Linux internals with a focus on networking subsystems, kernel modules, and packet scheduling - Familiarity with network protocols such as BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, MPLS, and network virtualization technologies - Strong experience working with containerized workloads and orchestration platforms (e.g., Kubernetes, Docker), particularly around CNI plugins (Calico, Cilium) and Kubernetes-layer service networking — candidates should speak to networking/CNI work, not general Kubernetes cluster management - Excellent incident response, troubleshooting, and documentation practices - Experience with building and operating managed networking services at scale (AWS VPC, Transit Gateway, GCP VPC, Azure Virtual Network) - Excellent communication skills - Embody the Company values Benefits: - Industry competitive pay - Restricted Stock Units in a fast growing, well-funded technology company - Health insurance package options that include HDHP and PPO, vision, and dental for you and your dependents - Employer contributions to HSA accounts - Paid Parental Leave - Paid life insurance, short-term and long-term disability - Teladoc - 401(k) with a 100% match up to 4% of salary - Generous paid time off and holiday schedule - Cell phone reimbursement - Tuition reimbursement - Subscription to the Calm app - MetLife Legal - Company paid commuter benefit; $300 per month Compensation: Compensation will be paid in the range of $170,000 - $205,000 + Bonus. Restricted Stock Units are included in all offers. Compensation to be determined by the applicant's education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data. Crusoe is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, citizenship, marital status, sex/gender, sexual preference/ orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, national origin, or any other status protected by law or regulation. ## About Crusoe ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Crusoe is an energy-first AI infrastructure company that designs, builds, and operates hyperscale data centers and a cloud platform purpose-built for artificial intelligence workloads. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series E) - **Headquarters**: Denver, Colorado, USA - **Founded**: 2018 - **Founders**: Chase Lochmiller and Cully Cavness ## Core Business - Primary industry/industries: AI Infrastructure, Cloud Computing, Data Centers, Clean Energy - Target customers: Enterprise AI companies, AI-native startups, research institutions, government agencies (B2B) - **Mission**: "Accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence." ## Products & Services - **Crusoe Cloud**: An AI-optimized cloud platform purpose-built for AI workloads, featuring high-performance NVIDIA and AMD compute, accelerated storage, and optimized RDMA networking. Claims to deploy models up to 20x faster and cut costs by up to 81%. - **Crusoe Managed Inference**: A managed AI inference service built with Crusoe's proprietary MemoryAlloy technology, offering best-in-class speed, throughput, and reliability. Features the Crusoe Intelligence Foundry for model selection and API key management. - **AI Data Center Infrastructure**: Vertically integrated design, build, and operation of hyperscale AI factories (e.g., the 1.2 GW Stargate campus in Abilene, TX). Modular, scalable construction for power-hungry AI workloads. - **Crusoe Managed Kubernetes & Slurm**: Managed orchestration services that eliminate operational overhead for customers. - **Crusoe AutoClusters**: Fault-tolerant, managed cluster services for large-scale AI training. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (private company). - **Key Metric**: Raised over $1.8B+ in total funding (Series E in 2024 was $1B+; Series D in 2024 was $600M; Series C in 2021 was $350M). - **Notable Investors/Partners**: NVIDIA, NYDIG, GE Vernova, Redwood Materials, Tallgrass, AMD. The company has also partnered with leading energy and technology firms to power its data centers. - **Growth Signals**: Divested bitcoin mining business to NYDIG in 2023 to focus exclusively on AI infrastructure; broke ground on the 1.2 GW Stargate campus in Abilene, TX; expanded into Europe with a geothermal/hydro-powered deployment in Iceland; announced 1.8 GW Wyoming data center with Tallgrass; acquired GPU memory optimization startup Atero and established a Tel Aviv office. ## Competitive Advantages - **Energy-First Approach**: The company’s core differentiator is its vertical integration starting from energy sourcing. It uses "environmentally aligned power sources" (wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, natural gas with carbon capture) to power its AI factories, including pioneering technology to convert wasted natural gas into energy. - **Vertical Integration**: Controls the entire stack—from finding innovative energy sources to building and managing hyperscale data centers and operating the cloud platform. - **NVIDIA Partnership**: Close partnership with NVIDIA, providing access to the latest and highest-performance GPU hardware for its cloud and infrastructure. - **Proven Performance**: Claims 99.98% uptime, 100% customer satisfaction score, and significant cost/performance advantages (up to 81% cost reduction). ## Strategic Focus - **Massive Infrastructure Expansion**: Aggressively scaling its data center footprint, with major projects in Abilene, Texas (Stargate) and Wyoming (Tallgrass), and expansion into Europe. - **Deepening AI Cloud**: Continuing to build out its Crusoe Cloud platform with managed services (Kubernetes, Slurm, AutoClusters) to make it easier for AI companies to use their infrastructure. - **Responsible AI**: Emphasizing sustainability and responsible AI governance, as evidenced by achieving ISO 42001 certification and publishing an ESG report. - **Acquisition-led Growth**: Acquired Atero (GPU memory optimization) to enhance its core technology stack. ## Why Work Here - **Mission-Driven**: The company is united by a tangible mission: "Accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence." Employees report high levels of engagement (92% proud to work there per internal survey). - **Massive Growth Trajectory**: Crusoe is at the center of the AI infrastructure boom, building some of the world's most powerful AI factories. For job seekers, this means exposure to cutting-edge technology and the opportunity to scale a company from a startup to an industry leader. - **Culture**: The company values "moving fast and making things," continuous learning, and collective genius. It describes itself as an "AI factory company" that values velocity and impact. - **Work Policy**: Hybrid/Office presence required in most roles. Office locations include: Denver (HQ), San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Bellevue, Tulsa, Dublin (Ireland), and Tel Aviv (Israel). - **Benefits**: Competitive compensation & equity, comprehensive health & wellness, mental health resources, retirement plans, paid time off, leave of absence programs, learning & development, volunteer time off, daily meals allowance, and other location-specific perks. - **Engineering Culture**: Strong emphasis on technical excellence, working with large-scale systems, and pioneering new approaches to energy and infrastructure. The company values candidates' "AI fluency" in its hiring process. ## Sources 1. [crusoe.ai](https://www.crusoe.ai/) 2. [crusoe.ai/careers](https://www.crusoe.ai/about/careers) 3. [crusoe.ai/about/culture](https://www.crusoe.ai/about/careers/culture) 4. [crusoe.ai/about/company](https://www.crusoe.ai/about/company) ## Other roles at Crusoe - [Senior Technical Recruiter II](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-technical-recruiter-ii-crusoe-sunnyvale-g6aspngrhsg7) — Sunnyvale, CA / United States - [Senior Technical Sourcer II](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-technical-sourcer-ii-crusoe-san-francisco-k7n81tjt3e9g) — San Francisco, CA / United States - [Associate / Senior Associate, Corporate Development](https://feeny.ai/job/associate-senior-associate-corporate-development-crusoe-san-francisco-m7xdm1tpacte) — San Francisco, CA / United States - [Senior Production Engineer, Managed AI](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-production-engineer-managed-ai-crusoe-san-francisco-k05bhccvqfma) — San Francisco, CA / United States - [Director, Customer Support](https://feeny.ai/job/director-customer-support-crusoe-dublin-wsj2hatks2gw) — Dublin, Ireland - [Staff Software Engineer, CAPE](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-cape-crusoe-san-francisco-pny5sde6j3zr) — San Francisco, CA / United States - [Senior Software Engineer (DCIE)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-dcie-crusoe-san-francisco-00cbwrj1fzm1) — San Francisco, CA / United States - [Staff Engineer, Crusoe Managed Data Transfer (Distributed Systems)](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-engineer-crusoe-managed-data-transfer-distributed-systems-crusoe-san-3mtfcserv33y) — San Francisco, CA / United States - [Accounting Manager, Leases](https://feeny.ai/job/accounting-manager-leases-crusoe-denver-atqca7dyshs0) — Denver, CO / United States - [Accounting Manager, Leases](https://feeny.ai/job/accounting-manager-leases-crusoe-san-francisco-p85w2h3eag4e) — San Francisco, CA / United States