Hardware Project Manager – AI Data Center

Description About the Company DriveNets is a leader in large-scale networking solutions for AI infrastructure and service providers. The company’s disaggregated networking architecture transforms the economics of large-scale infrastructures while maximizing performance, utilization, and operational efficiency. Its high-performance AI fabric maximizes GPU utilization and accelerates deployments by optimizing the AI stack end-to-end, resulting in higher tokens-per-second and lower cost-per-token. DriveNets’ solutions power production networks for global tier-1 operators like AT&T and Comcast, and scale multi-vendor AI infrastructures at foundation model labs, NeoClouds, and enterprises. Responsibilities and Duties • Join a new, fast-growing group at DriveNets chartered with building hardware infrastructure for AI-scale data centers. • Own hardware programs end-to-end: from initial requirements through validation, production, and deployment. • Manage the interaction between internal R&D teams and external hardware vendors (ODMs), ensuring hardware development aligns with DriveNets' software stack requirements and product timelines. • Collaborate cross-functionally with product management, systems architecture, software R&D, legal, and supply chain teams to align on requirements and execution plans. • Serve as the main technical point of contact with ODMs, managing technical discussions, tracking progress, and resolving issues. • Drive hardware and firmware planning, including schedule alignment with software integration cycles and overall AI data center rollout milestones. • Lead bug triage and resolution processes for hardware and firmware, including customer-reported issues. • Coordinate content and timelines for hardware and firmware releases, ensuring quality and timely delivery. • Identify and mitigate technical and schedule risks throughout the project lifecycle. • Provide technical guidance and hands-on engagement in board-level design issues, validation planning, hardware bring-up, and debugging. • Deliver regular status updates to executive stakeholders and drive decisions at critical project milestones. • Gather and communicate requirements in a collaborative manner across all stakeholders. Requirements Technical Skills • B.Sc. or higher in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field. • 7+ years of experience in hardware program/project management or systems engineering roles. • Proven experience managing hardware development with external ODMs or hardware vendors. • Strong technical knowledge of networking hardware, high-speed board design, firmware, and hardware/software integration. • Experience with hardware validation, bring-up, and debugging tools. • Track record managing the full product lifecycle for hardware- and software-based products, from requirements to launch. • Working knowledge of project management methodologies (Agile and Waterfall). Soft Skills • Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, with the ability to align engineering, product, legal, and supply chain teams around a shared plan. • Excellent communication and negotiation skills, including the ability to translate technical hardware issues into business impact for executive stakeholders. • Proactive and comfortable operating with ambiguity, with the initiative to help stand up a new group and its processes from the ground up. Nice to Have / Advantage • Experience in the telecom or networking industry. • Background in AI infrastructure, data center, or GPU networking hardware. • Familiarity with whitebox hardware development models. • Experience in Agile or hybrid hardware-software development environments. • Experience with customer-facing issue management and escalation handling. • PMP certification or equivalent project management credential. • Exposure to DevOps practices and tooling.