Principal Engineer, Cluster Orchestration

About the Role

CoreWeave runs some of the largest GPU clusters in the world. The AI infrastructure behind those clusters determines how workloads are placed how resources are shared and how reliably systems perform under constant pressure.

As a Principal Engineer in AI Infrastructure you will lead the design and evolution of the cluster orchestration systems that make this possible. This includes Slurm Kubernetes SUNK and the control planes that support AI training inference and model onboarding at scale.

You will define long-term architecture solve hard scaling problems and set technical direction across teams. Your work will directly affect how quickly customers can run models how efficiently we use GPUs and how reliably the platform behaves at scale.

What Youll Do

Architecture and Technical Direction

• Define the long-term architecture for CoreWeaves orchestration platforms across Kubernetes Slurm SUNK Kueue and related systems.
• Act as a technical authority on scheduling quota enforcement fairness pre-emption and multi-tenant GPU isolation.
• Make design decisions that balance performance reliability cost and operational complexity.

Orchestration Platform Development

• Lead the evolution of Kubernetes-native control planes including SUNK and custom operators.
• Design systems that support workload admission validation and rollout including model onboarding flows.
• Identify and remove scaling limits across schedulers control planes registries networking and storage.

Reliability and Operations

• Set standards for reliability observability and operational readiness across orchestration services.
• Define SLOs alerting and incident response practices for platform-critical systems.
• Ensure systems behave predictably during failures peak load and rapid growth.

Hands-on Engineering

• Write and review production code for Kubernetes controllers schedulers admission logic and internal tooling.
• Measure and improve scheduling latency container startup time image distribution and cold-start performance.
• Lead architecture and design reviews across infrastructure teams.

Leadership and Influence

• Mentor senior and staff engineers and help grow technical leaders.
• Influence platform infrastructure security and product teams through clear technical judgment.
• Engage with customers and open-source communities on deep technical topics when needed.

Who You Are

• 15 years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems.
• Deep practical knowledge of Kubernetes and Slurm internals.
• Experience running GPU-heavy platforms for AI training inference or HPC workloads.
• Strong background in Go and cloud-native systems development.
• Proven ability to set technical direction across teams without direct authority.
• Comfortable making high-impact technical decisions in complex systems.
• Bachelors or Masters degree in a relevant field or equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with systems such as Kueue Kubeflow Argo Workflows Ray Istio or Knative.
• Background in ML platform engineering model onboarding or lifecycle management.
• Strong understanding of scheduling strategies pre-emption quota enforcement and elastic scaling.
• Track record of operating highly reliable systems with clear SLOs and incident processes.
• Contributions to Kubernetes ML infrastructure or related open-source projects.
• Experience mentoring senior engineers and raising engineering standards.

Is This a Good Fit

You may be a good fit if you enjoy defining long-term architecture solving deep systems problems and working close to the hardware layer of AI platforms. This role suits engineers who care about correctness scale and operational discipline and who want their work to directly shape how AI runs in production.

Why CoreWeave

At CoreWeave AI infrastructure is the product. As a Principal Engineer in cluster orchestration you will be responsible for systems that directly determine how efficiently GPUs are used how reliably large models run and how quickly customers can move from research to production.

This role puts you at the center of hard problems in scheduling resource isolation and large-scale control planes. You will work on systems where small design choices affect thousands of GPUs and real customer workloads. If you care about building infrastructure that runs under constant pressure scales without shortcuts and enables the next generation of AI workloads CoreWeave is a place where your work will matter.

The base salary range for this role is $206000 to $303000. The starting salary will be determined based on job-related knowledge skills experience and market location. We strive for both market alignment and internal equity when determining addition to base salary our total rewards package includes a discretionary bonus equity awards and a comprehensive benefits program (all based on eligibility).

What We Offer

The range weve posted represents the typical compensation range for this role. To determine actual compensation we review the market rate for each candidate which can include a variety of factors. These include qualifications experience interview performance and location.

In addition to a competitive salary we offer a variety of benefits to support your needs including:

• Medical dental and vision insurance - 100% paid for by CoreWeave
• Company-paid Life Insurance
• Voluntary supplemental life insurance
• Short and long-term disability insurance
• Flexible Spending Account
• Health Savings Account
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Ability to Participate in Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP)
• Mental Wellness Benefits through Spring Health
• Family-Forming support provided by Carrot
• Paid Parental Leave
• Flexible full-service childcare support with Kinside
• 401(k) with a generous employer match
• Flexible PTO
• Catered lunch each day in our office and data center locations
• A casual work environment
• A work culture focused on innovative disruption

Our Workplace

While we prioritize a hybrid work environment remote work may be considered for candidates located more than 30 miles from an office based on role requirements for specialized skill sets. New hires will be invited to attend onboarding at one of our hubs within their first month. Teams also gather quarterly to support collaboration.

California Consumer Privacy Act - California applicants only

CoreWeave is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive workplace. All qualified applicants and candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race color religion sex disability age sexual orientation gender identity national origin veteran status or genetic information.

As part of this commitment and consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) CoreWeave will ensure that qualified applicants and candidates with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations for the hiring process unless such accommodation would cause an undue hardship. If reasonable accommodation is needed please contact: .

Export Control Compliance

This position requires access to export controlled information. To conform to U.S. Government export regulations applicable to that information applicant must either be (A) a U.S. person defined as a (i) U.S. citizen or national (ii) U.S. lawful permanent resident (green card holder) (iii) refugee under 8 U.S.C. 1157 or (iv) asylee under 8 U.S.C. 1158 (B) eligible to access the export controlled information without a required export authorization or (C) eligible and reasonably likely to obtain the required export authorization from the applicable U.S. government agency. CoreWeave may for legitimate business reasons decline to pursue any export licensing process.