Staff Hardware Engineer

DigitalOcean is seeking a Staff Hardware Engineer to lead hardware design and automation initiatives across their data center infrastructure. This role involves designing server solutions, managing vendor relationships, and scaling hardware platforms to support DigitalOcean's growing cloud services. What You’ll Do Lead projects with internal stakeholders to define product requirements for hardware designs aligned with DigitalOcean’s mission Coordinate with vendors on hardware specification, qualification, onboarding, and delivery Develop and execute hardware development roadmaps to support product requirements and infrastructure scaling Serve as Tier 3 escalation for investigation and resolution of system hardware issues in the DigitalOcean fleet Improve firmware and hardware configuration automation for platforms and components such as NICs, storage, and BMCs Mentor team members on configuration management, troubleshooting, hardware design, and documentation practices What You Need Technical degree in Computer Science or Engineering, or equivalent practical experience Strong understanding of x86 server hardware architecture and subsystems Hands‑on experience designing and maintaining liquid‑cooled server solutions in data center environments Demonstrated proficiency with configuration management tools such as Ansible and Chef Experience automating server components at large‑scale using industry‑standard tooling including Redfish and IPMI Practical knowledge of PXE boot, UEFI, Linux/OS boot, BIOS distributions, OpenBMC implementations, RAID, and network stack protocols Strong proficiency with Linux or Unix operating systems Comfort with version control systems like Git and proficiency in at least one programming language such as Python or Go Ability to participate in 24/7 on‑call rotation Nice to Have Experience working with non‑x86 hardware architectures Deep understanding of benchmarking and automated test frameworks Passion for both new and legacy hardware technologies Base salary $191,000–$239,000 annually. Eligible for performance‑based bonus. Equity compensation available including stock grants and Employee Stock Purchase Program participation. Benefits include Employee Assistance Program, flexible time off, conference and training reimbursement, and access to LinkedIn Learning. #J-18808-Ljbffr Linuxcareers