Manager - Forward-Deployed AI Engineering (m/w/d)

Do you want to work with high-caliber professionals in a dynamic and growing company? Are you entrepreneurial, hard-working, and collegial? Join us at SB Energy, a leading infrastructure company backed by SoftBank Group and Ares Infrastructure, pairing cutting-edge innovation with best-in-class execution. Our mission is to deliver reliable and secure data center and power infrastructure to strengthen America's future.

Founded in 2019, SB Energy is a SoftBank Group company headquartered in Redwood City, California. In 2026, SoftBank Group and OpenAI announced a $1 billion investment to support SB Energy as their leading development and execution partner for data center campuses, while Ares Infrastructure continues its long-standing support of the company's growth. SB Energy develops, builds, owns, and operates some of the largest and most technically advanced energy and data center infrastructure projects in the United States. Since its founding, the company has rapidly grown into a top-tier integrated platform with more than 3 gigawatts (GW) in operation and a multi-GW pipeline of energy and data center infrastructure nationwide.

SB Energy also leverages a strong culture of innovation to identify and integrate new technologies into its projects, including its AI-based digital platform, delivering energy infrastructure that is local, reliable, and matched to load. We are building the energy and infrastructure future-today.

Come join us in accelerating the energy and infrastructure transition!

Basic Function

Build useful AI systems that people rely on in daily work. SB Energy is looking for a hands-on builder who enjoys writing code, learns unfamiliar problems quickly, and stays with a solution through deployment, debugging, and adoption.

The Manager - Forward-Deployed AI Engineering will partner with SB Energy teams, learn the workflows with domain experts, find the bottleneck, and build a practical solution. Combine deep Codex fluency with Azure engineering to ship reliable software, integrations, and personalized skills that employees actually use. Own delivery and ongoing improvement while preserving each team's context and controls. Success means better workflow quality, less manual effort, and measurable results sustained after launch.

Responsibilities

• Use Codex to create reusable, personalized skills, plugins, and agents that combine instructions, context, tools, and examples for teams and users. Version them, document limits, and improve them as needs change.
• Connect approved systems, documents, and data through APIs and Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools, with clear contracts, permission-aware retrieval, robust error handling, and authorized actions.
• Deploy Azure solutions with sound identity, access, secrets, and networking practices. Build in monitoring and recovery, balancing reliability, delivery speed, and operating cost.
• Test representative tasks and failure scenarios. Trace issues across code, data, model behavior, sites, plugins, agents, spaces, dots, and integrations; fix root causes and prevent recurring failures.
• Use Codex to explore repositories, implement features, diagnose failures, and review code. Inspect generated changes, run meaningful tests, and remain accountable for correctness.
• Write, ship, and maintain applications, services, data workflows, and agent integrations. Choose the simplest effective approach and carry prototypes through testing, deployment, and support.
• Launch with users and make adoption part of delivery. Provide usable guides, training, and support; observe real work and resolve friction exposed by feedback.
• Learn workflows, constraints, and sources of truth alongside domain experts. Turn ambiguous requests into practical scope and acceptance criteria agreed with the business owner.
• Agree on baselines and measure quality, cycle time, manual effort, adoption, and reliability. Report verified outcomes and shared reusable improvements with the engineering team.

Qualifications/Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Data Engineering, or a related technical field required. Master's or a PhD degree in Computer Science, AI/ML, Data Systems, Information Systems, or a related field preferred.
• 5-8+ years of experience in data center engineering, energy infrastructure, forward-deployed engineering, data engineering, software engineering, technical product development, project systems, digital project delivery, enterprise AI, or decision-support systems.
• Demonstrated ability to build, deploy, debug, and maintain useful software. Show shipped work, explain technical choices, and describe failures resolved and user outcomes.
• Strong coding ability in Python, TypeScript, or a comparable language, with practical command of APIs, data handling, Git, testing, and integration.
• Expert practical fluency with Codex: structuring tasks and repository context, authoring skills, using tools and execution environments, reviewing diffs, and testing results. Explain and correct the code it produces.
• Deep hands-on Azure experience delivering applications or integrations, including authentication, permissions, secrets, deployment, observability, and troubleshooting across service boundaries.
• Experience with MCP, tool calling, retrieval, or comparable AI integration patterns. Constrain tool authority, handle untrusted inputs, and evaluate behavior before release.
• Curiosity and persistence in unfamiliar domains. Ask precise questions, learn from specialists, work through incomplete documentation, and pursue difficult problems to usable solutions.
• Work effectively with technical and non-technical colleagues, explain tradeoffs plainly, and earn trust through delivery. Respect domain expertise, confidentiality, and business controls.

Location : Redwood City, CA; San Diego, CA; Denver, CO; Phoenix, AZ; Austin, TX

The position may require up to 10% domestic travel.

Base Pay - $140000-$165000

The pay range mentioned above is a guideline. We tailor each offer based on your unique skills, experience, location, and market benchmarks-while ensuring internal parity across our teams. The compensation range provided reflects base pay. Total rewards may also include performance-based bonuses, equity grants, and a market leading comprehensive health and wellness benefits package. Final details will be discussed during the later stages of the hiring process.

Our Health & Wellness Benefits

At SB Energy, we invest in our people and their families with benefits designed for flexibility, support, and peace of mind. Full-time employees enjoy:

• 100% Company-Paid Medical, Dental & Vision (for employees and dependents)
• 401(k) with Company Match
• Generous Paid Time Off + 11 Paid Holidays
• 12 Weeks Paid Parental Leave
• Life, AD&D & Long-Term Disability Coverage
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) for Medical, Dependent Care, Transit & Parking (with company contributions)
• Mental, Physical & Social Wellness Support (with company contributions)
• Flexible Work Arrangements & Hybrid Office Setup Benefits
• Monthly Reimbursement for Phone, Internet & Data
• Optional Legal & Pet Insurance Plans
• Device Purchase Support

At SB Energy, the success of our projects is driven by a desire to see our projects benefit as many people as possible. We work to serve local communities through volunteering, fundraising, and much more. For example, we're proud to support access and opportunity in engineering and clean energy through impactful mentorship programs and workforce training. When you join SB Energy, you can become a part of these efforts, collaborating with team members who share a vision of building a better future now!

SB Energy is built on a foundation of collaboration and inclusion. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, or any other legally protected class.

To learn more about us, visit www.sbenergy.com.