Principal Mechanical Engineer (Data Centers)

Job Description

Principal Mechanical Engineer -- Data Center Cooling Infrastructure

Position Overview

A Houston EPC company is developing a mission-critical facilities group and needs a Principal Mechanical Engineer to lead its mechanical engineering capability. The role centers on the design of scalable and dependable thermal infrastructure for high-density computing environments. As the mechanical technical authority, this engineer will set design expectations, guide project teams, advise clients, and help shape the organization’s approach to both conventional and next-generation cooling. The position will have meaningful influence over engineering methods, supplier relationships, project pursuits, and staff development.

Key Accountabilities

• Define mechanical design criteria, standard details, specifications, calculations, and review procedures for data center projects.
• Lead the evaluation and design of chilled-water plants, air-cooled systems, cooling towers, pumping systems, CRAH and CRAC units, heat exchangers, and associated controls.
• Develop cooling architectures that meet project requirements for availability, maintainability, scalability, and phased expansion.
• Apply N, N+1, 2N, and other redundancy strategies based on the consequences of equipment or distribution-system failure.
• Evaluate air cooling, rear-door heat exchangers, direct-to-chip liquid cooling, and other high-density thermal solutions.
• Coordinate heat rejection, water use, electrical demand, control sequences, and emergency operating modes with other disciplines.
• Optimize system performance using lifecycle cost, climate, load profile, water availability, energy efficiency, and operational risk.
• Support project energy targets and realistic power usage effectiveness objectives without sacrificing resilience.
• Lead mechanical design reviews, equipment-layout studies, model reviews, constructability sessions, and commissioning planning.
• Engage clients to define technical requirements, compare system options, and communicate trade-offs.
• Prepare or review equipment specifications and lead technical evaluations for chillers, cooling towers, pumps, air-handling equipment, and packaged cooling systems.
• Work with manufacturers and fabricators on modular plants, cooling skids, and other prefabricated assemblies.
• Provide senior technical support during construction, start-up, functional testing, and integrated systems testing.
• Contribute to proposals, interviews, project estimates, and market-development activities.
• Mentor mechanical engineers and create a consistent technical foundation for the growing practice.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering.
• At least 15 years of progressive mechanical engineering experience.
• Meaningful experience designing mission-critical cooling or other high-availability mechanical infrastructure.
• Strong knowledge of large central plants, chilled-water distribution, air-cooled equipment, controls, and redundancy planning.
• Working knowledge of ASHRAE guidance and environmental requirements applicable to data center equipment.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate complex mechanical systems with electrical, controls, architectural, structural, and construction teams.
• Strong client-facing communication and technical leadership skills.
• Ability to direct work across multiple projects with aggressive delivery schedules.

Preferred Experience

• Professional Engineer license.
• Hyperscale or colocation data center design.
• Application of ASHRAE TC 9.9 guidance.
• Direct-to-chip liquid cooling or other high-density thermal-management technologies.
• Modular and prefabricated mechanical infrastructure.
• EPC or design-build delivery.
• Commissioning and integrated testing of mission-critical facilities.

Leadership Mandate

The selected engineer will be expected to build a durable mechanical engineering practice---not simply complete individual designs. That includes establishing standards, developing staff, improving execution, and delivering cooling systems that remain dependable as computing loads and thermal technologies evolve.