Mechanical Design Engineer

Role Overview

• Lead and support mechanical design efforts across the full project lifecycle—from concept development through commissioning—focused on chilled water systems, air distribution, and equipment layout for data centers.
• Coordinate closely with Development, Procurement, Construction, and Operations teams, as well as Engineers of Record (EoRs), consultants, and contractors to resolve design issues and maintain alignment across disciplines.
• Research and develop emerging trends and advanced technologies to improve thermal management, HVAC systems, and mechanical infrastructure for enhanced performance and energy efficiency in data centers.
• Review and manage mechanical design documentation, including drawing sets, piping schematics, airflow diagrams, shop drawings, submittals, and commissioning reports.
• Ensure all mechanical systems comply with project requirements, internal standards, ASHRAE guidelines, and local building codes.
• Track and report on design progress, holding partners accountable to key milestones and deliverables. Proactively identify schedule risks and recommend solutions to stay on track.
• Support cost estimation and change management for mechanical scope, including evaluating value engineering proposals and reviewing EoR scopes and resources.
• Participate in factory witness testing, site inspections, TAB, and commissioning activities to confirm system readiness and integration with building management systems.
• Collaborate with other engineering disciplines to ensure mechanical systems are well-integrated with electrical, structural, and controls designs.
• Maintain accurate project records, track technical decisions, and provide routine updates to internal stakeholders.
• Contribute to project risk assessments by identifying mechanical-related risks and mitigation strategies.
• Assist in onboarding new team members and sharing design standards, workflows, and technical best practices.
• Support continuous improvement by incorporating lessons learned and contributing to updates of internal design tools, templates, and processes.
• Partner with the construction team during field execution to provide technical guidance and resolve installation challenges.
• Work with the operations team to support system handover, provide design intent context, and help ensure maintainability and operability of mechanical systems post-turnover.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis on data center mechanical systems and mission-critical facilities.
• Revit BIM design experience required, including coordination of large-scale mechanical rooms, central plants, and equipment layouts.
• Proficiency in data center cooling system design, including air-based and liquid-based cooling strategies, chilled water plants, DX systems, rear-door heat exchangers, and direct-to-chip cooling.
• Experience performing thermal load calculations, airflow modeling, and energy analysis using tools such as HAP, TRACE, IES, CFD software, or similar platforms.
• Strong background in the design, construction, testing, and commissioning of mission-critical mechanical systems, including chillers, pumps, cooling towers, AHUs, CRAH/CRAC units, and associated control systems.
• Preferred qualifications include a Professional Engineering (PE) license.
• Demonstrated experience with redundancy strategies (N, N+1, 2N), maintainability, and fault-tolerant design for data center environments.
• Knowledge and experience in estimating, mechanical system design, operation, and commissioning of data center cooling plants, including integrated systems testing (IST) and development of MOPs and SOPs.
• Familiarity with data center performance metrics, including PUE, WUE, and strategies to optimize energy and water efficiency.
• Minimum 5 years’ experience in the A/E industry, with direct experience supporting hyperscale, colocation, or enterprise data center projects preferred.
• Comprehensive understanding of professional services from conceptual planning and site selection through detailed design, construction administration, and project close-out.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, organizational skills, and the ability to lead, mentor, and develop technical staff.
• Familiarity with sustainable and resilient design approaches, including free cooling, heat recovery, and climate-responsive system selection.
• Passion for improving delivery speed, standardization, and repeatable design solutions for data center programs.
• Proficient with Microsoft Productivity Suite products.

Tech Stack

• Airflow