Head of Corporate Strategy, Lambda
$300-450k
More information about location
4 days a week in office (San Francisco, CA or San Jose, CA)
Deep learning infrastructure company
Open for applications
Deep learning infrastructure company
501-1000 employees
Open for applications
$300-450k
More information about location
4 days a week in office (San Francisco, CA or San Jose, CA)
501-1000 employees
Company mission
To make compute as ubiquitous as electricity and give everyone in America the power of superintelligence.
Role
Who you are
- 10+ years of experience across strategy consulting (McKinsey, BCG, Bain, or equivalent), investment banking, and/or corporate strategy at a high-growth or publicly traded technology company
- Deep expertise in AI, cloud infrastructure, or data center markets; ability to independently develop and own market models, competitive landscapes, and investment theses
- Demonstrated track record of independently translating ambiguous, high-stakes strategic questions into boardroom-ready frameworks and executive recommendations
- Experience leading large, cross-functional strategic initiatives with direct C-suite accountability and material impact on company direction
- Familiarity evaluating AI software, hardware, or infrastructure technologies for strategic fit; ability to engage credibly with technical teams on architecture and capability assessments
- Prior role as a right-hand strategic partner to a CCO, CRO, or President in a commercial strategy capacity is valued
- Track record of building, mentoring, or managing strategy teams; ability to develop junior talent and scale team output
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; proven ability to develop and deliver board-level strategy materials
- Operates with VP-adjacent ownership—sets the agenda, manages ambiguity, and builds the function rather than just executing within it
- Bachelor's degree in Economics, Finance, Business, or related field required
- MBA from a top-tier institution strongly preferred
- Prior experience in a structured analytical training program (consulting, banking, or equivalent) strongly preferred
- You do not need to match all of the listed expectations to apply for this position. We are committed to building a team with a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and skills
What the job involves
- We're looking for a Head of Corporate Strategy to serve as a key strategic thought partner to the SVP of Commercial Strategy and Lambda's senior leadership team
- As we scale rapidly across GPU cloud, data center infrastructure, and AI systems, we need a seasoned strategist who can independently own Lambda's corporate strategy function—synthesizing market intelligence, competitive dynamics, and internal data into clear strategic choices—and drive high-priority cross-functional initiatives from concept to execution
- This role sits at the intersection of long-range planning, commercial strategy, M&A and technology evaluation, executive communication, and will have high visibility with the CEO and C-suite
- Own Lambda's annual and multi-year strategic planning process, synthesizing input from commercial, product, finance, and operations into a cohesive corporate strategy
- Identify and size emerging opportunities in AI infrastructure, GPU cloud, and adjacent markets; develop strategic frameworks to guide investment and build/buy/partner decisions
- Lead competitive intelligence efforts—tracking hyperscalers, co-location providers, GPU cloud competitors, and AI-native challengers—and translate insights into executive recommendations
- Partner with the CFO and Finance to align the long-range strategic plan with the financial model and capital allocation priorities
- Develop board-level strategy materials and CEO decision-support documents
- Drive alignment across senior leadership on strategic priorities; create clear frameworks to resolve competing resource and investment decisions
- Prepare the CEO and SVP for external strategy conversations, including customer EBRs, partner discussions, and industry forums
- Support Commercial Strategy
- Partner with the SVP of Commercial Strategy on go-to-market architecture, pricing strategy, and large deal structuring for enterprise and hyperscaler accounts
- Lead cross-functional projects on behalf of the SVP, ensuring workstreams deliver on time and at C-suite quality bar
- Own the framework for evaluating long range strategic technology areas that maybe synergistic with Lambda’s current business —from initial screening and thesis development through diligence and recommendation. This includes assess emerging technologies, AI software platforms, hardware capabilities, and infrastructure tooling for strategic fit, competitive differentiation, and build/buy/partner trade-offs
- Develop and maintain a structured pipeline of potential partnership opportunities in AI infrastructure, silicon, networking, and adjacent software markets while working closely with the corporate development team on potential M&A fit
- Lead financial and strategic diligence workstreams: market sizing, competitive positioning, synergy modeling, integration risk assessment, and long-range value creation scenarios
- Build Market & Organizational Intelligence
- Build and maintain Lambda's strategic market model—tracking TAM/SAM, competitive positioning, win/loss patterns, and customer segment dynamics
- Synthesize signals from Sales, Product, Data Center Ops, and Finance into strategic insight for senior leadership
- Develop Lambda's perspective on macro trends shaping AI infrastructure demand: model training workloads, inference at scale, sovereign AI, and enterprise adoption curves
- Mentor and develop strategy analysts and associates; scale team output as the function grows
Our take
Lambda is a leading provider of deep learning GPU cloud services and computing hardware, founded to aid in providing a solution to the difficult problem of teaching machines how to see and learn.
Their customers include Apple, Intel, Microsoft, Linkedin, and Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft and Amazon Research, so it's no coincidence that Lambda GPU Cloud ranks number three on a google search for 'GPU cloud', behind only NVIDIA and Google itself.
After a successful 2025, the company is now looking at an initial public offering in the second half of 2026. This comes after the company signed a multi-billion-dollar contract with Microsoft to provide the hyperscaler with access to its GPUs, and it's also believed to have signed a $1.5B lease-back deal with Nvidia. This, coupled with significant funding put Lambda in a very good position for future growth.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
26% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Nov 2025
$1.5bn
SERIES E
Feb 2025
$480m
SERIES D
Total funding: $2.4bn
Company benefits
- Health, dental vision
- 401k match
- 5 sick days and 12 paid holidays
- Flexible PTO
- Paid parental, medical, and caregiver leave
Company HQ
Financial District, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Michael Balaban
(Co-Founder & CTO)Graduating with a BS in Discrete Mathematics and Computer Science, Michael is experienced in software engineering and previously worked for Nextdoor as part of its infrastructure team.
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