Technical Program Manager Lead, R&D

ABOUT FLUIDSTACK

We exist to make humanity more free. For most of human history, you farmed or you starved. Technology gave people more time for the things they wanted to do, instead of things they had to do. Powerful AI will be the biggest lever for human choice we've ever built - but only if models are aligned with what humanity actually wants. There are groups building AI who don't share these goals. Whoever deploys frontier compute infrastructure fastest will decide whether AI expands human freedom or shrinks it.

We're singularly focused on delivering 10 to 100s of GWs of compute faster than anyone else, rethinking every layer of the stack. We acquire power, design and build data centers, and operate them - with teams spanning hardware and software. Speed and scale are our key differentiators. Come be a part of building civilization-scale infrastructure for AI.

We hire people who care deeply about this problem space. If that is you, please apply!

HOW WE OPERATE

- Be a barrel. Full autonomy. Own things end to end, take on scope without being asked, no permission required to operate outside your core role.

- Insane urgency. We drive everything forward as fast as possible.

- Reason from first principles. Challenge every assumption. Zero analogy thinking, no egos, the best idea wins.

- Love of the game. The frontier of AI is the most interesting problem of our time. We put in long hours at high intensity to push the frontier forward.

- Build something that actually matters. If you're going to spend your time, spend it on something that matters to the world.

THE R&D TEAM

Examples of key problems the team is working on

- Turn modular and behind-the-meter designs into buildable, ordered, and scheduled reality across mechanical, electrical, controls, and modelling workstreams.

- Redesign every data center system as a pre-engineered, shippable module that leaves the factory ready for UL listing and multi-state AHJ approval.

- Develop and scale first-of-a-kind modular data centers that compress a gigawatt build from years of site trades into a factory schedule.

- Prove out behind-the-meter power and the next generation of cooling and electrical distribution for multi-GW campuses.

ROLE SCOPE

- Run the R&D program portfolio that turns modular and behind-the-meter designs into buildable, ordered, and scheduled reality across mechanical, electrical, controls, and modelling workstreams.

- Hold one integrated view of the dependencies, decisions, and dates where workstreams share the same engineers and deadlines, and keep it current as designs change.

- Run the operating rhythm of design reviews, decision logs, and escalations that keeps every workstream aligned and surfaces slips weeks before they hit the schedule.

- Produce the honest one-pager on where every R&D program stands, so leadership sees real status and open decisions without chasing them.

- Keep program artifacts as the single source of truth engineers actually run off of, so every program works from one current plan instead of scattered threads.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

The below is a starting point. We always make space for exceptional people, so if you don't fit this role exactly, tell us where you would https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/fluidstack/05c2e69c-42f9-4fcb-9cf0-a467aaf98f1c.

- You've run TPM or program management for hardware, infrastructure, or capital programs, and you still go hands-on when a program is stuck.

- You've run portfolios where workstreams shared the same engineers and deadlines, and held one integrated view of dependencies and dates across them.

- You surface the slip weeks early with the recovery options already attached, not after the date has moved.

- Your program artifacts are the source of truth teams run off of, not decks that go stale the week after you build them.

- You write and speak clearly enough to distill a tangled cross-workstream issue into a decision and a next step for an engineer or an execut …