Reinforcement Learning Engineer
About the job
- Proven experience developing and implementing reinforcement learning algorithms, demonstrated through publications in top conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, or ICLR, open-source contributions, or shipped products.
- At least 3 years of experience applying reinforcement learning to real-world problems, preferably in industrial automation, robotics, autonomous vehicles, energy systems, or other physical systems.
- Deep proficiency in Python and modern machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch, Jax, or TensorFlow.
- A Master of Science or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Operations Research, or a related field with a focus on machine learning or control theory.
- A strong theoretical background and the ability to apply reinforcement learning theory to the constraints of physical, real-world systems.
- Design and implement advanced reinforcement learning algorithms, including multi-agent reinforcement learning, model-based reinforcement learning, and deep reinforcement learning, for real-time control of data center infrastructure.
- Build and train reinforcement learning agents that can generalize to real-world physical systems.
- Lead the transition of reinforcement learning models from research and simulation to live deployment within the ORCA platform, ensuring stability and performance on mission-critical hardware.
- Analyze agent performance to continuously improve control strategies for peak shaving, workload shifting, and thermal management.
- Partner with platform engineers to define the application programming interfaces, data telemetry, and infrastructure needed to support and scale reinforcement learning agents across a global portfolio of data centers.
- Experience applying reinforcement learning in industrial automation, robotics, autonomous vehicles, energy systems, or other physical systems.
- Experience from a leading industrial or academic reinforcement learning laboratory.
- Experience with simulation platforms and reinforcement learning libraries such as Ray RLlib or Isaac Gym.
About the company
Hammerhead AI builds the ORCA platform, a software system that uses reinforcement learning to dynamically orchestrate AI workloads inside data centers within the available power budget. It optimizes the entire data-center stack—power generation, cooling, IT infrastructure, and AI jobs—to improve system-wide token productivity rather than just power efficiency. By reallocating stranded power from underutilized capacity (data centers often run at 30–50%), ORCA can boost AI output by up to 30%, helping operators deploy workloads faster and improve margins. The company targets AI factory operators, colocation providers, hyperscalers, and enterprises, differentiating by treating power as the bottleneck and delivering end-to-end power-aware orchestration to monetize idle capacity.
Company Size
11-50
Company Stage
Seed
Total Funding
$10M
Headquarters
Redwood City, California
Founded
2025
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- September 15, 2026 TD SYNNEX partnership validates ORCA as a sellable product.
- Inference growth in 2026 increases demand for faster token output per megawatt.
- September 2026 hiring for SCADA and simulation engineers signals active deployment expansion.
What critics are saying
- ORCA depends on complex site integrations; one failed deployment kills trust quickly.
- TD SYNNEX concentration creates channel risk if resellers favor Schneider Electric, Vertiv, or Dell.
- If utility interconnect queues ease, Hammerhead’s stranded-power thesis loses urgency and pricing power.
What makes Hammerhead AI unique
- ORCA orchestrates power, cooling, and compute together, not isolated PUE metrics.
- Rahul Kar and Rajeev Singh bring AutoGrid expertise from 8 gigawatts orchestrated.
- TD SYNNEX now distributes ORCA through 150,000 resellers, expanding enterprise reach.
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Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
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11%2 year growth
11%Hammerhead AI and TD SYNNEX announce strategic collaboration to bring ai-ready power capacity to market. Sep 15, 2026, 09:00 ET Distribution partnership pairs Hammerhead's ORCA power-orchestration platform with TD SYNNEX's reseller network as part of its Destination AI(TM) program to accelerate time to first token for greenfield and brownfield AI data centers REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Hammerhead AI and TD SYNNEX today announced a strategic collaboration naming TD SYNNEX as a distributor for Hammerhead's Orchestrated RL Control Agents (ORCA) software, the platform that converts stranded power in data centers into AI-ready capacity. Under the agreement, TD SYNNEX will provide solutions, integration, and resell capability for ORCA, leading go-to-market efforts through its network of more than 150,000 resellers worldwide. As part of the collaboration, TD SYNNEX will position an ORCA SKU designed to help customers locate and unlock power for new AI workloads in both greenfield and brownfield data centers. The offering targets neoclouds, AI cloud service providers, AI labs, inference providers, colocation providers, and enterprises working to bring additional AI capacity online without waiting on grid upgrades. Hammerhead and TD SYNNEX's partnership aligns with TD SYNNEX's Destination AI(TM) program, with both organizations sharing a focus on optimizing the dollar-per-million-token cost of AI infrastructure and accelerating time to market and time to first token. The companies intend to remove common bottlenecks in the design, implementation, and deployment of AI data centers through an integrated, ready-to-deploy offering. "Power is one of the most critical constraints in today's AI landscape," said Rahul Kar, CEO and Founder of Hammerhead AI. "By partnering with TD SYNNEX, we can put ORCA in front of the resellers and system integrators who are closest to the customers that need it most - neoclouds, AI labs, colos, and enterprises - and give them a fast, proven path to unlock the power they already have." Hammerhead's ORCA platform uses reinforcement learning agents to orchestrate power, cooling, and compute in real time, allowing operators to safely increase utilization of the power already allocated to them. Colocation providers can monetize power that currently sits idle, while enterprises and cloud providers can expand the AI workloads they support without new grid capacity. Power, Not Chips, Is Now the Bottleneck Power availability, rather than chip supply, has become the primary gating factor for new AI deployments. Utility interconnection queues in major U.S. markets are now running several years long, with transformers, switchgear, and other long-lead electrical equipment increasingly cited as the binding constraint on bringing new AI capacity online - prompting regulators, including FERC, to intervene on interconnection rules for large loads. Rather than each customer sourcing and integrating power-orchestration technology on a bespoke basis, Hammerhead and TD SYNNEX intend for the MW ORCA SKU to be an industry-leading, standardized package that resellers can quote, configure, and deploy repeatedly. This gives neoclouds, AI CSPs, AI labs, colocation providers, and enterprises a consistent way to unlock a full incremental megawatt of AI-ready power from infrastructure they already operate - without joining a multi-year interconnection queue. Riding the Shift to Inference The timing reflects a broader shift in AI workloads. Industry analysts point to inference - the ongoing work of running trained models in production - overtaking training as the majority of AI compute in 2026, a trend expected to continue as agentic applications, retrieval-augmented generation, and other production use cases multiply the number of inference calls per task. Because inference is a continuous, distributed workload rather than a one-time capital event, gains in tokens processed per megawatt translate directly into lower cost per million tokens and faster time to revenue for operators. By increasing the throughput operators can extract from their existing power allocation, ORCA is designed to help colocation providers, AI CSPs, and enterprises keep pace with inference-driven demand using the megawatts already available to them today. "Bringing AI solutions to market requires more than access to compute. Customers also need the infrastructure and expertise to address challenges across the full AI stack," said Cheryl Day, SVP, New Vendor Acquisition & Global Solutions, TD SYNNEX. "Through Destination AI, TD SYNNEX brings together technologies and capabilities from across our broad vendor ecosystem, and solutions like Hammerhead AI's ORCA platform help us give partners more options to address critical infrastructure requirements and accelerate successful AI deployments." The collaboration gives TD SYNNEX resellers a standardized path to quote, sell, and deploy ORCA alongside complementary infrastructure, shortening sales cycles and helping customers move from signed deal to first production token more quickly. Hammerhead and TD SYNNEX will continue to expand the partnership with additional SKUs and joint enablement programs for the reseller community over time. About Hammerhead AI Hammerhead turns available power into deployable inference capacity in months, helping data center operators convert underutilized assets into new AI revenue. Its software platform, ORCA, orchestrates power, cooling, and compute to unlock at least 30% more capacity from existing infrastructure. Founded by veterans who have managed over 8 GW of mission-critical assets, Hammerhead is backed by leading investors including Buoyant Ventures and SE Ventures. Learn more at hammerheadco.ai or follow HammerheadAI, Inc. on LinkedIn. About TD SYNNEX TD SYNNEX (NYSE: SNX) is a leading global distributor, solutions aggregator, and original design and contract manufacturer that plays a central role in connecting the technology ecosystem. We support more than 150,000 customers across over 100 countries with a comprehensive edge-to-cloud portfolio spanning cybersecurity, analytics, artificial intelligence, mobility, and Everything-as-a-Service. We are a Fortune 100 company that helps partners maximize the value of technology investments and achieve measurable business outcomes through our global reach, expertise and enablement capabilities. Headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, and Fremont, California, the Company's distribution business brings together a broad portfolio of IT hardware, software and systems, providing access to products across the global IT ecosystem. The Company's Hyve Solutions business partners with technology companies to design, manufacture, and deliver traditional and accelerated compute, cloud, and connected infrastructure. For more information, visit www.TDSYNNEX.com, follow our newsroom or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. Safe Harbor Statement Statements in this news release that are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to be materially different from any future performance that may be suggested in this release. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release. SOURCE Hammerhead AI
Hammerhead AI and TD SYNNEX have formed a strategic distribution partnership to expand access to Hammerhead's ORCA power-orchestration platform. TD SYNNEX will distribute ORCA through its network of over 150,000 resellers worldwide as part of its Destination AI programme. ORCA uses reinforcement learning to orchestrate power, cooling, and compute in real time, enabling data centres to convert underutilised power into AI-ready capacity. The platform targets neoclouds, AI cloud service providers, colocation providers, and enterprises seeking to deploy AI workloads without waiting for grid upgrades. The collaboration addresses power constraints that have become the primary bottleneck for AI deployments. Utility interconnection queues in major US markets now extend several years, with electrical equipment shortages increasingly limiting new AI capacity expansion.
Hammerhead AI raises $10M to tackle the AI energy crisis in data centers. The extensive energy demands of artificial intelligence are causing a bottleneck in data centers, and Hammerhead AI Inc. wants to do something about it after raising $10 million in seed funding today. The oversubscribed round was led by Buoyant Ventures and saw participation from SE Ventures, which is backed by the French energy management giant Schneider Electric SE, as well as AINA Climate AI Ventures, MCJ Collective, Wovenearth Ventures, Bombellii Ventures, Clearvision Ventures, Stepchange and Acclimate Ventures. The AI energy crisis is no joke. Big data center operators such as Microsoft Corp., Amazon Web Services Inc., Google LLC and Oracle Corp. are all desperate for energy as they scramble to build out their infrastructure to support the AI revolution. With data centers springing up across the country, there simply isn't enough electricity to power them all, as grid queues in some locations can stretch for years. The result is that many so-called AI factories, which are packed full of powerful graphics processing units, typically run at only 30% to 50% utilization, the startup says. That means thousands of GPUs, amounting to megawatts of computational power, are left sitting on the sidelines. Hammerhead's solution to AI's energy conundrum is to use AI agents to optimize the token processing capacity and power utilization of individual GPUs. By doing this, the startup reckons, it's able to boost output by as much as 30%. It says its Orchestrated RL Control Agents dynamically orchestrate AI workloads within existing energy budgets, which enables data center operators to deploy much faster than otherwise and utilize much more of their available computational capacity. Whereas other solutions are focused on increasing power utilization efficiency, or PUE, the ORCA agents target system-wide token productivity. They optimize every aspect of the data center - so not just the GPUs, racks and servers, but also related equipment such as the chillers and cooling distribution units, and sometimes even the actual AI workload. By doing this, they can increase the token throughput of each GPU, which means they can speed up processing as well as deployment times. "With ORCA, we're enabling AI factory operators to achieve greater output from existing resources," said Hammerhead co-founder and Chief Executive Rahul Kar. "Our investors recognize the potential for AI factories to transform their business models and move beyond the limits of grid infrastructure." Kar isn't joking when he promises to "transform" the business models of data center operators, for the ORCA agents can deliver some serious efficiency gains, potentially freeing up megawatts of idle computing capacity. And in constrained markets, that additional processing power can generate revenue in the region of $20 million to $50 million per year, he said. He should know. Kar has spent years working on energy optimization, having previously founded and scaled up a startup called AutoGrid, which pioneered novel power orchestration technologies and was later acquired by Schneider Electric. Alongside co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Rajeev Singh, he has helped to orchestrate more than 8,000 megawatts of energy assets across more than 20 countries. Holger Mueller of Constellation Research told SiliconANGLE that Hammerhead AI provides yet more evidence that AI is the solution to many of AI's problems - in this case, its almost unquenchable energy requirements. "It doesn't provide more energy, but it does allow AI to run much more efficiently than before, orchestrating workloads in coordination with user's cost budgets," the analyst said. "Hammerhead will go up against single AI infrastructure players, and it's task now is to prove how valuable it can be to enterprises running AI factories." Hammerhead has a bit of a head start in this thanks to its close relationship with Schneider Electric, having graduated from SE Venture's first accelerator program. Its ORCA agents have already been deployed in some of the energy giant's own facilities. SE Ventures Global Head and Managing Partner Amit Chaturvedy said Hammerhead's ORCA agents immediately stood out for its focus on optimizing infrastructure to enhance token processing for AI. "There is an opportunity to launch reference designs for future AI factories," he said. "It's the only company positioned to boost data center operators' revenue through its unique token maximization approach." Hammerhead said it will use today's funding to accelerate the development of its Orca agents and deepen its ties with AI factory operators as it bids to reshape data center economics. Image: siliconangle/meta AI. A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE: Support its mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE's Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities. * 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more * 11.4k+ theCUBE alumni - Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network. SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. 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Hammerhead AI has emerged from stealth with $10M in seed funding to enhance AI factory deployment by optimizing power utilization for AI workloads. The funding round was led by Buoyant Ventures, with participation from SE Ventures and others. Hammerhead's Orchestrated RL Control Agents (ORCA) platform aims to increase token processing capacity and power utilization, boosting output by up to 30%, addressing the power limitations faced by AI factories.