Customer Systems Architect - Data Center Solutions

Celestica; San Jose (CA); Remote; USD 102,000 - 135,000; Full time

Job summary

Celestica is seeking a Customer Systems Architect to bridge enterprise clients with our modular data center platforms. You will lead technical discovery, capture complex requirements, and translate them into standardized design boundaries that enable CTO configurations over bespoke ETO solutions.

You will talk shop with hyperscale designers, guide interfaces across power, thermal, and controls domains, and coordinate with Sales for robust, scalable, factory-built architectures that meet customer

Qualifications

• 8+ years in a high-touch, technically demanding, customer-facing engineering role.
• Experience negotiating engineering trade-offs with hyperscale or large providers.
• Ability to translate customer site requirements into manufactured industrial products.

Responsibilities

• Lead multi-disciplinary technical workshops with hyperscale, colocation, and enterprise teams to extract requirements.
• Define the boundaries between customer site infrastructure and modular systems.
• Partner with Sales to generate technically rigorous layouts and power-flow architectures.
• Coordinate design hand-offs to internal engineering teams and support validation and site commissioning.

Skills

Power & thermal

Controls & networking

CAD & BIM

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical/Mechanical/Systems Engineering

Master's degree or PE credential (preferred)

Tools

Revit

AutoCAD

SolidWorks

Job description

Req ID: 138475

Remote Position: Yes

Region: Americas

Country: USA

Summary

To rapidly scale the deployment of modular data centers and supporting power systems, we must bridge the gap between custom site architectures and scalable factory-built product platforms. We are seeking a high-gravity, technically authoritative Customer Systems Architect to serve as the critical interface between our enterprise/hyperscale clients and our internal product development engines.

In this highly visible, customer-facing role, you will lead deep-dive technical discovery, capture complex customer requirements, and translate them into standardized design boundaries. You will possess the engineering depth to "talk shop" with lead hyperscale infrastructure designers, paired with the strategic acumen to steer clients toward configure-to-order (CTO) solutions rather than costly, bespoke engineer-to-order (ETO) deviations. You are the ultimate gatekeeper of our modular product platform's scalability and our customers' operational success.

Key Responsibilities

1. Technical Discovery & Requirement Synthesis

• Customer Interface & Intake: Lead multi-disciplinary technical workshops with hyperscale, colocation, and enterprise engineering teams. Extract ambiguous customer requirements and transform them into clear, traceable interface specifications.

• Interface Boundary Mapping: Define the physical, electrical, thermal, and logical demarcation boundaries between the customer's civil/utility site infrastructure and our modular systems

• Technical Proposal Engineering: Partner with the Sales team to generate technically rigorous, customized conceptual layouts, system block diagrams, and multi-MW power flow architectures that demonstrate solution feasibility.

2. Platform Protection & Standard Governance (CTO vs. ETO)

• Design Standardization Guardrails: Champion the standardized capabilities of our modular product lines. Proactively guide customers toward pre-engineered platform configurations to accelerate lead times and minimize non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs.

• Variance Risk Assessment: When custom features are necessary, author clear, structured delta requirements. Evaluate the engineering risk, cost impact, and regulatory footprint of these requests before routing them to internal product development teams.

3. Cross-Functional Engineering Translation

• Engineering Scope Hand-off: Translate validated customer site requirements into rigorous design inputs for the internal Systems, Mechanical, Electrical, and Controls engineering teams.

• BIM & Space Coordination: Collaborate with customer site planners to ensure seamless physical routing, clearance envelope compliance (NEC/OSHA), and structural anchoring designs.

• Factory-to-Site Support: Support product validation, factory acceptance testing, and initial site commissioning phases, acting as the primary escalation point for design variance resolutions.

4. Strategic Product Feedback Loop

• Market-Driven Innovation: Document recurring customer customizations and emerging technical trends to directly influence our long‑term product development roadmap.

• Competitive Analysis: Keep a pulse on competitor modular configurations to ensure our product interfaces and technical capabilities remain industry-leading.

Technical Expertise

• Power & Thermal Topologies: Holistic understanding of MV/LV power systems, automatic transfer switches, liquid/air cooling loops, and integrated fire suppression.

• Controls & Networking Protocols: Solid familiarity with SCADA, BMS, and EMS system integrations, including communication protocols such as Modbus, BACnet, and SNMP.

• CAD & BIM Competency: Proficiency in navigating and reviewing Revit, AutoCAD, or SolidWorks assemblies to verify site installation clearances and physical dimensions.

Physical Demands

• Duties of this position are performed in a normal office environment.

• Duties may require extended periods of sitting and sustained visual concentration on a computer monitor or on numbers and other detailed data.

• Repetitive manual movements (e.g., data entry, using a computer mouse, using a calculator, etc.) are frequently required.

• Occasional travel may be required.

Salary

The stated range includes Base Salary. A comprehensive benefits package is offered in addition to this range.

The range described in this posting is an estimate by the Company, and may change based on several factors, including but not limited to a change in the duties covered by the job posting, or the credentials, experience or geographic jurisdiction of the successful candidate.

Base Salary: $102K - $135K

Typical Experience

• 8+ Years in a high-touch, technically demanding, customer-facing engineering role (e.g., Solutions Architect, Applications Engineer, Technical Sales Engineer) in the critical power, utility‑scale renewables, or modular data center infrastructure sectors.

• Proven experience successfully negotiating complex engineering trade-offs with hyperscale (AWS, Microsoft, Meta, Google) or Tier III/IV colocation providers (Equinix, Digital Realty, etc.).

• Demonstrated history of converting customer site-specific single lines and mechanical plot plans into manufactured industrial products.

Typical Education

• Required: Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a highly related technical field.

• Preferred: Master’s degree in an engineering discipline or Professional Engineer (PE) credential.

Notes

This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities of the position. Employees are held accountable for all duties of the job. Job duties and the % of time identified for any function are subject to change at any time.

Celestica is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, pregnancy, genetic information, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected category under applicable federal, state, and local laws.

This policy applies to hiring, promotion, discharge, pay, fringe benefits, job training, classification, referral and other aspects of employment and also states that retaliation against a person who files a charge of discrimination, participates in a discrimination proceeding, or otherwise opposes an unlawful employment practice will not be tolerated. All information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Celestica is an E-Verify employer.

Location: This is a remote position, with travel as necessary. We are open to considering candidates close to any of our US locations in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Texas, Arizona, Oregon or California as well as locations near major airports such as the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest and Pacific Coast.