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Fluidstack is building civilization-scale compute infrastructure for AI, targeting 10 GW of compute in 2027 and 30 GW in 2028. The company is rethinking every layer of the stack—acquiring power, designing and building data centers, and operating them with teams spanning hardware and software.
The Thermofluids R&D team is solving some of the most complex engineering challenges in the industry: rejecting more than 10 gigawatts of heat, designing and building custom cooling machines (compressors and chillers) that the merchant market cannot supply at scale, and owning every thermofluids problem across the fleet—from working fluid and cycle architecture to heat exchangers, two-phase heat transfer at the chip, and thermal energy storage.
As Supply Chain Manager for the R&D team, you will own long-lead procurement for the compressor program, including high-speed motors, magnetic bearings, forgings, castings, pressure vessels, and test instrumentation. You will qualify and dual-source vendors on the critical path, where a single motor or bearing lead time can determine the prototype schedule. You will buy simultaneously for prototype and production ramp, ensuring the first machine does not lock the fleet into a sole source. You will run make-versus-buy decisions with engineering, determining which parts are manufactured in-house and which go outside. Your core responsibility is keeping procurement off the critical path of a schedule that moves from concept to production far faster than the industry standard.
Fluidstack operates with radical autonomy, insane urgency, first-principles reasoning, and a focus on building something that matters. The company is hiring people who care deeply about expanding human freedom through aligned AI infrastructure.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Demonstrated experience buying long-lead engineered hardware where lead time, not unit price, was the program-deciding factor
- Track record of qualifying a second source for parts perceived as single-source
- Experience sitting with engineers early in design cycles to influence specifications for supply reasons (not receiving finished BOMs with fixed dates)
- Ability to carry suppliers through prototype builds with changing drawings while maintaining relationships
- Experience using lead-time evidence to reset program schedules
- Bonus qualifications: rotating machinery and precision-machined component sourcing; aerospace or defense supply base experience (precision machine shops, forgings, castings, long-lead alloys); motors, drives, and bearings expertise; pressure equipment and specialist fabrication; prototype-to-production transitions in hardware startups
