Data Center Infrastructure Mechanical Engineer · OpenAI

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 12:22:47 GMT
Engineering

OpenAI · San Francisco · $257K – $327K · hybrid

We are seeking a senior mechanical infrastructure engineer to lead the development of reliable, efficient, safe, and scalable thermal architectures for high-density, liquid-cooled AI data centers.

As a Data Center Infrastructure Mechanical Engineer, you will help design, validate, and scale the cooling and mechanical systems that make high-density AI compute possible. You will work across thermal architecture, equipment development, manufacturing validation, construction, commissioning, deployment, and operations, partnering with research, hardware engineering, data center engineering, supply chain, EHS, operations, and external delivery partners.

Key Responsibilities:

Define mechanical and cooling infrastructure requirements and reference architectures for AI data center campuses, including heat rejection, chilled water, condenser water, liquid cooling distribution, air handling, containment, filtration, water treatment, controls, and metering.

Review and develop basis-of-design documents, design narratives, P&IDs, mechanical schedules, equipment specifications, thermal capacity models, hydraulic models, CFD analysis, controls sequences, and commissioning requirements.

Evaluate mechanical architectures for high-density compute, including direct-to-chip liquid cooling, CDU topology, facility water interfaces, manifolds, quick disconnects, hoses, heat exchangers, pumping strategies, leak detection, serviceability, and failure isolation.

Partner with electrical, controls, hardware, networking, construction, and operations teams to ensure cooling systems support liquid-cooled GPU rack deployments and reliable facility operation.

Develop technical specifications and acceptance criteria for chillers, cooling towers, dry coolers, evaporative coolers, pumps, heat exchangers, CDUs, manifolds, valves, filters, water treatment systems, CRAHs, air handlers, VFDs, controls panels, sensors, and monitoring devices.

Lead technical evaluation of equipment vendors, manufacturers, design consultants, commissioning agents, contractors, and testing laboratories; review submittals, P&IDs, control diagrams, performance curves, test reports, certifications, and quality documentation.

Drive factory acceptance testing, site acceptance testing, witness testing, pressure testing, leak testing, thermal performance testing, reliability testing, interoperability testing, and integrated systems testing for critical equipment and high-density rack deployments.

Help design and operate a hardware and data center infrastructure R&D laboratory used to validate new cooling equipment, liquid-cooled GPU rack designs, operating envelopes, fault scenarios, telemetry, and facility-hardware interactions.

Collaborate with hardware manufacturers to evaluate L10 and L11 test procedures, yield, throughput, reliability, serviceability, and readiness for large-scale deployment.

Define telemetry and controls requirements for mechanical and supporting electrical systems, including temperatures, flow rates, differential pressure, pump status, valve position, chiller status, CDU status, coolant quality, leak detection, alarms, control states, and rack-level thermal signals.

Analyze lab data, operational incidents, thermal excursions, flow excursions, pressure excursions, leak events, contamination events, nuisance alarms, controls alarms, and rack-level thermal failures to improve designs, procedures, vendor quality, and reliability models.

Create clear engineering documentation, standards, test procedures, commissioning scripts, operating procedures, decision records, risk registers, and executive-ready technical summaries.

Provide senior technical escalation support during design reviews, construction, manufacturing validation, commissioning, startup, production deployment, vendor testing, and operational events.

Mentor partner teams and raise the technical bar for mechanical design, thermal validation, safety, water quality, documentation, reliability, and operational rigor.