Mechanical Controls Engineer

What You’ll Do

• Own controls standards and reference architectures for mechanical systems supporting large-scale AI data centers.
• Develop control narratives, sequences of operation, points lists, alarm matrices, cause-and-effect diagrams, and controller requirements.
• Define automation for central cooling plants, heat-rejection systems, pumps, heat exchangers, CRAHs, CDUs, liquid-cooling loops, valves, and associated equipment.
• Design system behavior for startup, shutdown, maintenance, component failure, utility loss, and recovery.
• Establish requirements for sensors, actuators, meters, control panels, PLCs, DDC controllers, gateways, and operator interfaces.
• Define BMS integration, mechanical telemetry, trending, alarming, data retention, and interfaces with other operational systems.
• Review partner designs, vendor submittals, control drawings, network architectures, and equipment packages for compliance with Lambda standards.
• Coordinate controls requirements across mechanical, electrical, network, hardware, construction, commissioning, and operations teams.
• Support factory testing, site acceptance testing, commissioning, integrated systems testing, and cooling-system bring-up.
• Troubleshoot control-loop instability, sensor errors, communication failures, nuisance alarms, and sequence deficiencies.
• Incorporate commissioning results and operating lessons into future designs and control standards.
• Travel to project sites, manufacturers, and partner facilities as needed.

You

• Have experience designing or commissioning mechanical controls for data centers, mission-critical facilities, central plants, or industrial environments.
• Understand chilled-water, condenser-water, heat-rejection, air-cooling, and liquid-cooling systems.
• Can develop and review sequences of operation, P&IDs, control diagrams, wiring diagrams, points lists, and functional test procedures.
• Understand PLC, DDC, and BMS architectures and common protocols such as BACnet, Modbus, and OPC UA.
• Have experience with instrumentation, sensor selection, control loops, alarms, interlocks, and equipment safeties.
• Understand how mechanical systems should respond during equipment failures, power events, and changing thermal loads.
• Can translate operational requirements into clear, testable control behavior.
• Communicate effectively with engineers, programmers, vendors, commissioning teams, and facility operators.
• Hold a bachelor’s degree in mechanical, electrical, controls, or systems engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice to Have

• Experience with hyperscale, colocation, HPC, or AI data centers.
• Experience controlling high-density liquid-cooling systems, CDUs, or warm-water cooling loops.
• Familiarity with platforms from Siemens, Schneider Electric, Johnson Controls, Honeywell, Rockwell, or Tridium.
• Experience with OT networking, controls cybersecurity, controller redundancy, or high-availability automation.
• Familiarity with EPMS design, electrical systems SOOs and monitoring
• Experience with factory acceptance testing, integrated systems testing, and live facility bring-up.
• Familiarity with ASHRAE, ISA, and data center controls standards.
• Experience using trend data or analytics to diagnose and optimize mechanical-system performance.