Infrastructure Strategy & Delivery Manager

Who we are

Kentik is the network intelligence platform for modern infrastructure teams. Unlike traditional monitoring and observability tools, we demystify complex network operations, enabling organizations to deliver applications and innovation at scale. Built by network experts to make critical insight accessible to every engineer, Kentik is the real-time source of truth that understands every network in context — from data center to cloud to the internet. This single platform unifies and correlates cloud, device, flow, and synthetic data to turn telemetry into action. Market leaders like Akamai, Booking.com, Dropbox, and Zoom rely on Kentik to run, manage, and optimize their networks.

• Hardware Standards & Certification: Architect and curate the "Kentik Certified Hardware" standard. You will evaluate customer-provided hardware against our requirements and define the "Gold Standard" for both our on-prem product and our internal SaaS bare-metal footprint.
• Infrastructure Strategy & Sourcing: Own vendor relationships and the complexity of global hardware sourcing. This includes BOM (Bill of Materials) validation, procurement, and managing logistics to ensure gear hits the data center floor, on time and to spec, anywhere in the world.
• Technical Delivery Orchestration: Act as the air traffic controller for product deployment. You will coordinate cross-functionally with SRE, Product Engineering, and customer-facing teams (and often the customer directly) to ensure the environment is ready and the installation of the Kentik application is executed successfully.
• Internal Infrastructure Programs: Beyond customer delivery, you will perform similar tasks for our SaaS environment. You'll help manage our own data center footprint and bare-metal lifecycle, ensuring our internal ops are as rigorous as our customer-facing ones.
• Technical Debt & Operational Excellence: Identify and curate the technical debt that hinders our delivery speed or complicates maintenance. You will prioritize and drive the "burn-down" of this debt to make our product more maintainable, stable, and scalable from an SRE perspective.

What you'll bring

Studies have shown that some candidates tend to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. We encourage you to apply if you meet most of the criteria - even if you don’t match all of the qualifications, your skills and experience could be valuable in this role!

• 8+ years of experience in infrastructure operations, technical sourcing, or data center or technical program management.
• Deep technical knowledge of data center infrastructure:
• Server Hardware: Experience with any or all of Dell, HPE, and Supermicro as vendors, and the configuration tradeoffs between CPU, RAM, and storage.
• Network & Connectivity: Solid understanding of switches, routers, and basic network architecture.
• Colocation Operations: Experience managing power, cooling, space planning, and cross-connect logistics.
• Supply Chain & Logistics: Proven ability to manage hardware sourcing, BOM validation, and global delivery logistics.
• Execution & Orchestration: Ability to map complex dependencies and drive prioritization across multiple engineering and SRE teams.
• Influential Leadership: Strong cross-functional skills with the ability to drive alignment and "burn down" technical debt without direct authority.
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills; comfortable interfacing with both internal engineers and customer leadership.
• Deep Infrastructure Roots: You have a background in data center operations, network engineering, or NOC/Systems administration. You can talk deeply about CPU/RAM trade-offs, NIC performance, and Linux internals.
• Delivery Mastery: You have experience managing high-risk, company-wide technical programs. You know how to guide multidisciplinary teams through complex execution plans without losing the thread or resorting to "status update" bureaucracy.
• Startup Scrappiness: You thrive in an environment where you need to build the playbook while you’re playing the game. You are an IC today, but you have the seniority and vision to eventually build and lead a small team.
• Strategic & Analytical: You understand that "shipped" is only half the battle. You advocate for long-term operational health and can push back on engineering or sales when a delivery path creates unsustainable technical debt.

Nice to haves

• Bare-Metal SaaS Experience: Background in SaaS or service provider environments running on private, bare-metal infrastructure.
• System Architecture: Familiarity with distributed systems concepts and how software interacts with physical infrastructure.
• Infrastructure Tooling: Hands-on experience with Netbox (or similar DCIM), JIRA, and monitoring tools like Grafana.
• FinOps & Budgeting: Exposure to technology budgeting, CapEx/OpEx management, or infrastructure FinOps.
• Domain Expertise: Familiarity with network observability (e.g., Kentik) or large-scale enterprise/service provider network environments.

Our tech stack

• Our core data engine and platform are primarily written in Go
• We use Node.js + Express for application serving, and React as our primary UI framework
• We also use some JS and Python for tooling/scripting
• In addition to our own database, we use Postgres, Kafka, Mysql, and Redis
• Internal and public APIs expose both rest/json and gRPC endpoints
• Haproxy, Envoy for API traffic routing and balancing
• Github for source control, PRs, issues
• Jenkins for automated builds

What we offer

Kentik is a fully remote company that operates globally. We seek professionals that will help us thrive as an organization, and in turn, to broaden and enhance your career. We’re very thorough in the interview process to understand your skills and how they will relate to your successful growth here at Kentik. Our compensation philosophy encompasses a fair program for all in order to attract, engage and retain talented individuals who will drive our business and wow our customers.

The compensation range for this position is: $163,000 – $220,000. This range reflects the low and high end of the U.S. compensation range Kentik reasonably and generally expects to pay the hired candidate in this role. The actual compensation offered may be lower or higher than the stated range depending on various factors, including but not limited to:

• Experience with the skill sets required for success
• Demonstrated competencies and potential 
• A geographic market-based approach

In addition to a great career opportunity, Kentik offers stellar benefits for our employees, which include:

• 100% of premiums are paid by company for health, vision and dental coverage for you and your dependents
• Additionally, an annual Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) of $3,000 for an individual or $4,500 for a family
• Paid family & medical leave 
• Open PTO, a quarterly Wellness Day, and a minimum of 10 paid holidays
• 401(k) retirement account
• Home office reimbursement 
• Stock options

Note: Benefits are as listed for all US full-time employees. For compensation, international applicants will be treated equitably in relation to the laws applicable within the countries in which we operate.

Come work with us

The true meaning of Kentik is visibility. We’re committed to making sure everyone feels empowered to use their voice, has a sense of belonging, and is represented at Kentik. 

We don’t look for individuals who fit the culture, but those who will continue to add to the culture.
We encourage everyone to apply, especially those individuals who are underrepresented in the industry: people of color, LGBTQI+ community, women, individuals with disabilities (both seen and unseen), veterans, and people of any age or family status. 

Kentik is committed to creating an inclusive interview process. If you require a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please reach out to recruiting@kentik.com.

Come as you are!
You will be working at a fast-growing, well-funded startup alongside industry thought leaders and network aficionados as we build the future of observability and set the high bar for how network operations and digital businesses should run. With a competitive salary and amazing benefits on top of the meaningful and challenging projects you’ll take on, we’re sure you’ll enjoy joining the Kentik team.

#li-remote