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Salary: USD 200,000 - 285,000 / annual
Cowboy Space Corp., founded in 2024 by Baiju Bhatt (co-founder of Robinhood) and backed by leading investors, is building infrastructure to power the orbital economy. The company operates satellites in Low Earth Orbit to collect sunlight, enable on-orbit compute, transmit energy via infrared lasers, and deliver secure, high-bandwidth optical data.
As Head of Compute, you will own the strategy, architecture, deployment, and operations of AI compute infrastructure in orbit. You will transform orbital power and datacenter hardware into a scalable, reliable, commercially consumable GPU cloud platform. This role requires designing and operating systems in power-constrained, thermally challenging, and radiation-exposed environments.
Key responsibilities include building end-to-end AI compute architecture across GPU, CPU, networking, storage, orchestration, and cloud platform layers; defining infrastructure requirements for training, inference, and managed compute services; developing scalable storage and networking architectures optimized for AI workloads across orbital data centers; establishing testing and validation roadmaps for compute hardware; standing up and leading an agile team; collaborating with software, guidance/navigation/control, RF, and spacecraft teams; optimizing systems for power efficiency and thermal constraints; guiding vendor selection and partnerships; participating in system-level trade studies; and representing compute hardware in design reviews and executive discussions.
Required qualifications include 10+ years in cloud infrastructure, hyperscale computing, HPC, AI infrastructure, or large-scale platform engineering; deep experience deploying and operating large GPU clusters and multi-tenant cloud infrastructure; deep knowledge of InfiniBand, RoCE, high-performance Ethernet, and AI storage architectures; experience designing and shipping complex hardware systems; strong background in embedded systems, avionics, HPC, FPGA/ASIC/GPU systems, or distributed/edge compute; experience leading technical projects or small teams; strong understanding of system architecture and hardware/software co-design; and demonstrated ability to manage large technology vendors and infrastructure investments.
Preferred qualifications include experience designing compute systems for space, aerospace, or high-reliability environments; familiarity with radiation effects and mitigation strategies; experience optimizing systems for SWaP constraints; familiarity with AI/ML accelerators; experience with real-time systems and low-latency processing; experience with mission-critical or safety-critical systems; strong cross-functional leadership experience; and passion for space systems and novel compute platforms in orbit.
