  Shifting the focus of Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) cosmology to the
near-infrared (NIR) is a promising way to significantly reduce the systematic
errors, as the strategy minimizes our reliance on the empirical
width-luminosity relation and uncertain dust laws. Observations in the NIR are
also crucial for our understanding of the origins and evolution of these
events, further improving their cosmological utility. Any future experiments in
the rest-frame NIR will require knowledge of the SN Ia NIR spectroscopic
diversity, which is currently based on a small sample of observed spectra.
Along with the accompanying paper, Phillips et al. (2018), we introduce the
Carnegie Supernova Project-II (CSP-II), to follow up nearby SNe Ia in both the
optical and the NIR. In particular, this paper focuses on the CSP-II NIR
spectroscopy program, describing the survey strategy, instrumental setups, data
reduction, sample characteristics, and future analyses on the data set. In
collaboration with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA)
Supernova Group, we obtained 661 NIR spectra of 157 SNe Ia. Within this sample,
451 NIR spectra of 90 SNe Ia have corresponding CSP-II follow-up light curves.
Such a sample will allow detailed studies of the NIR spectroscopic properties
of SNe Ia, providing a different perspective on the properties of the unburned
material, radioactive and stable nickel produced, progenitor magnetic fields,
and searches for possible signatures of companion stars.
