Hardware Failure Analysis Engineer (AI Infrastructure)

Location: Memphis, Tennessee, or Southaven, Mississippi, United States

Company

xAI develops AI systems designed to understand the universe and support humanity's pursuit of knowledge.

What you will do

• Analyze firmware packages and hardware specifications for compatibility, performance, reliability, security vulnerabilities, and safety risks before deployment.
• Investigate hardware failures, including ambiguous and intermittent grey failures, using rigorous testing and data analysis.
• Manage vendor relationships, RMA claims, negotiations, and resolution tracking.
• Collaborate with data center operations technicians to troubleshoot, repair, and optimize servers, GPUs, networking equipment, and related systems.
• Build monitoring tools, scripts, and processes that detect hardware anomalies and reduce downtime.
• Document failure modes, root-cause analyses, reliability models, RMA outcomes, and hardware evaluations.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• At least 2 years of experience in hardware reliability engineering, preferably in high-performance computing or data center environments.
• Expertise in firmware analysis, hardware specification review, and release validation.
• Experience with RMA processes, vendor negotiations, and complex hardware failure diagnosis.
• Proficiency in Python and Bash scripting, plus general experience with C, C++, Java, Rust, or a similar systems language.
• Ability to work collaboratively with operations technicians and participate in on-call rotations and hardware incident response.

Nice to have

• Experience with AI/ML infrastructure or supercomputing environments.
• Knowledge of NVIDIA, Dell, HP, or Supermicro vendor ecosystems and supply chain management.
• Hardware engineering or reliability certifications such as CRE or CompTIA Server+.
• Experience in a fast-paced startup or technology company.

Culture & Benefits

• Work in a small, highly motivated organization focused on engineering excellence.
• Contribute directly through a hands-on role and a flat organizational structure.
• Collaborate across functions with strong emphasis on concise, accurate communication.
• Participate in on-call rotations supporting data center operations.