Senior Mechanical Design Engineer – Liquid Cooling Systems

Accountabilities:

• Own the end-to-end mechanical cooling and fluid-distribution architecture for modular data center platforms, defining primary, secondary, and rack-level cooling boundaries as well as pumping, flow control, pressure management, balancing, and redundancy strategies.
• Integrate heat-rejection equipment, distribution piping, coolant distribution units, rack manifolds, rear-door heat exchangers, and other cooling interfaces into scalable architectures supporting multiple configurations and deployment sizes.
• Perform and review pipe-sizing, flow, pressure-drop, pump-head, and system-volume calculations, developing hydraulic models for water- and glycol-based systems while accounting for fluid properties, fittings, valves, strainers, heat exchangers, and equipment losses.
• Define control-valve, balancing-valve, bypass, minimum-flow, and differential-pressure strategies and validate performance across normal, part-load, maintenance, startup, and failure conditions.
• Own P&IDs, mechanical schematics, equipment schedules, valve schedules, instrumentation requirements, design calculations, mechanical design criteria, basis-of-design documents, and standard details.
• Establish clear equipment and scope boundaries between plant systems, modules, CDUs, rack cooling, and field interconnections while maintaining disciplined revision control and technical traceability.
• Review vendor drawings, submittals, calculations, and equipment selections to ensure compliance with system requirements and overall design intent.
• Define mechanical interfaces between factory-built modules and field-installed infrastructure, including supply and return piping, manifolds, flexible connections, isolation valves, quick disconnects, drains, vents, and leak detection.
• Develop designs that support repeatable fabrication, assembly, inspection, testing, installation, transport, rapid deployment, and phased expansion.
• Standardize piping routes, fittings, valve assemblies, supports, connection points, and mechanical components where practical, while ensuring adequate equipment clearances, removal paths, service access, drainage, venting, and filter or strainer access.
• Partner with manufacturing teams to resolve buildability challenges and incorporate factory and field feedback into future product revisions.
• Define mechanical measurement and control requirements covering temperature, flow, pressure, differential pressure, fluid level, leak detection, pump status, and valve position.
• Collaborate with controls engineers on operating sequences, alarm strategies, pump staging, variable-speed control, minimum-flow protection, equipment enablement, and failure-response logic.
• Design systems for safe and efficient filling, flushing, venting, draining, testing, balancing, and startup, while defining isolation, bypass, temporary connection, and load-bank testing requirements.
• Develop or support factory acceptance, site acceptance, and integrated systems testing procedures and establish performance-verification criteria for flow, pressure, temperature, heat rejection, controls, alarms, and failure modes.
• Work directly with commissioning and field teams during startup and troubleshooting, identifying system issues and driving practical resolutions.
• Partner with thermal, electrical, controls, structural, manufacturing, commissioning, supply chain, and product teams to identify interface risks, design gaps, and single points of failure early.
• Coordinate with OEMs, equipment manufacturers, fabricators, and engineering partners while communicating complex system behavior clearly to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience designing mechanical cooling, hydraulic distribution, process cooling, or mission-critical infrastructure systems.
• Experience in data centers, semiconductor facilities, industrial process cooling, central utility plants, or comparable high-reliability environments.
• Strong technical knowledge of pipe sizing, pump selection, pressure-drop analysis, flow balancing, system volume, and hydraulic control.
• Proven experience developing and owning P&IDs, mechanical calculations, equipment schedules, valve schedules, and instrumentation requirements.
• Practical knowledge of chilled-water, condenser-water, glycol, or process-fluid systems.
• Experience designing systems for commissioning, maintenance, isolation, flushing, venting, draining, and service access.
• Ability to coordinate effectively across engineering, manufacturing, controls, commissioning, supply chain, and field teams.
• Strong technical judgment, ownership, problem-solving ability, and confidence working with limited oversight.
• Experience with direct liquid cooling for AI or HPC systems is highly desirable.
• Familiarity with CDUs, rack manifolds, cold plates, rear-door heat exchangers, liquid-to-liquid heat exchangers, or liquid-to-air cooling systems is a plus.
• Experience with modular, prefabricated, skid-based, or containerized infrastructure is beneficial.
• Experience using AFT Fathom, Pipe-Flo, or comparable hydraulic modeling tools is preferred.
• Familiarity with CFD, thermal modeling, or transient analysis is advantageous.
• Proficiency with AutoCAD, Revit, Plant 3D, SolidWorks, Inventor, or similar mechanical design tools is a plus.
• Experience supporting FAT, SAT, IST, or field commissioning activities is beneficial.
• A Professional Engineer license or equivalent technical depth is preferred.
• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, collaborative communication, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment are important for success.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary with U.S. geographic pay ranges:
  • Tier 1: $157,600–$185,000 for markets such as the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, and Seattle.
  • Tier 2: $137,040–$171,300 for most U.S. metropolitan areas.
  • Tier 3: $130,188–$162,735 for other U.S. cities.
  • Final compensation may vary based on experience, scope, level, skills, qualifications, and location.
  • Equity opportunity in addition to base compensation.
  • Subsidized medical, dental, and vision insurance.
  • Health Savings Account (HSA) and flexible spending account options, including dependent care FSA.
  • Retirement plan options including 401(k) and Roth 401(k).
  • Unlimited paid time off (PTO).
  • 14 paid company holidays per year.
  • Fully remote position within the United States.
  • Opportunity to work on advanced liquid cooling and modular infrastructure supporting AI and high-performance computing environments.
  • High level of ownership and autonomy with the opportunity to influence product architecture, technical standards, manufacturing practices, and commissioning strategies.
  • Cross-functional exposure across mechanical, thermal, electrical, controls, manufacturing, supply chain, and field engineering disciplines.