Technical Lead, AI Infrastructure Systems

About Wafr

Wafr Technologies is building the next generation of AI-ready data centre infrastructure in Canada. Powered by our proprietary FRDGE phase-change thermal battery, Thermint AI dispatch system, and TerraQuant MRV stack, our facilities are engineered to deliver approximately 80% less cooling power and approximately 90% less water consumption than conventional designs.

The Role

We are seeking a hands-on Technical Lead to help architect, build, deploy, and scale a next-generation platform operating at the intersection of AI infrastructure, optimization systems, thermal engineering, power systems, and real-time controls.

This role is not a traditional software management position. We are looking for someone who is equally comfortable making high-level technical decisions and rolling up their sleeves to implement production systems across cloud infrastructure, DevOps, backend services, optimization workflows, and real-time orchestration.

The ideal candidate has deep technical fluency across multiple engineering domains and thrives in fast-moving startup environments where ownership, adaptability, and execution matter. You will take ownership of evolving an existing prototype and architecture into a secure, scalable, production-grade platform while helping establish the technical foundation for future engineering growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Take technical ownership of the platform architecture and make critical engineering decisions across infrastructure, deployment, scalability, and system reliability.
• Lead the transition of the platform from prototype to production-ready deployment.
• Design, implement, and maintain cloud infrastructure and hosting environments.
• Build and manage CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, and DevOps workflows to support reliable deployment and operations.
• Develop and maintain backend systems, APIs, orchestration services, and operational tooling.
• Collaborate across software, infrastructure, thermal, and systems engineering domains to support real-time optimization and control workflows.
• Support implementation and operationalization of optimization and machine-learning systems involving multi-objective decision-making.
• Contribute to systems involving thermal management, liquid cooling infrastructure, power systems, battery orchestration, and closed-loop control processes.
• Establish engineering best practices for security, uptime, observability, monitoring, and incident response.
• Help define technical standards, development workflows, and long-term platform scalability strategies.
• Operate effectively in a startup environment by wearing multiple hats and driving execution across both strategic and hands-on technical work.
• Support future team growth through technical mentorship, hiring input, and engineering leadership.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, infrastructure engineering, DevOps, platform engineering, or related technical leadership roles.
• Proven experience taking complex technical products or platforms from prototype/MVP stage to production deployment.
• Strong hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Deep experience with DevOps tooling, CI/CD pipeline implementation, infrastructure automation, and production operations.
• Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Strong backend engineering and API development experience.
• Experience designing and operating highly available, high-uptime production systems.
• Strong understanding of security best practices, infrastructure hardening, and compliance-oriented engineering environments.
• Startup or high-growth company experience with demonstrated ability to operate independently and manage ambiguity.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technically while remaining hands-on in implementation and execution.
• Strong cross-disciplinary technical fluency and systems-thinking mindset.

Candidates should possess meaningful technical understanding in several of the following areas:

• Optimization systems and machine learning infrastructure
• Multi-objective optimization and operational decision systems
• Thermal or mechanical systems related to cooling infrastructure
• Power systems, battery systems, or energy orchestration
• Real-time controls and closed-loop operational systems
• Infrastructure telemetry, monitoring, and operational analytics

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working within AI infrastructure, data centers, energy systems, industrial automation, or mission-critical infrastructure environments.
• Experience with real-time orchestration systems, distributed infrastructure, or edge computing environments.
• Familiarity with optimization frameworks, MILP solvers, or operational AI systems.
• Experience supporting liquid cooling systems, thermal optimization, or power-aware infrastructure operations.
• Experience with battery management systems, power electronics, or energy dispatch systems.
• Experience building platforms requiring high reliability, resilience, and operational safety.
• Prior experience as a founding engineer, technical lead, or early-stage engineering leader.
• Experience helping scale engineering organizations and technical processes.
• Familiarity with security and compliance frameworks such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, or similar operational standards.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts across multidisciplinary teams.

What We Offer

• Base salary: commensurate with experience.
• Performance bonus tied to project milestones.
• Extended health and dental benefits.
• Stock options.