Director Data Center Infrastructure Engineering

Futura Search Partners; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Futura Search Partners is partnering with a leading provider building the AI compute infrastructure of the future. The role leads the modular infrastructure architecture, defining design philosophy and reference architectures, while remaining hands-on from concept through commissioning.

You will own end-to-end development across electrical, mechanical, thermal, and controls, shaping modular blocks adaptable to various sites.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in mission-critical infrastructure, data center engineering, modular data centers or industrial power systems.
• Proven ownership of modular, prefabricated, containerised or skid-based critical infrastructure design.
• Deep fluency across both electrical and mechanical data center systems, with the judgement to make system-level trade-offs.
• Depth in several of: MV/LV distribution and protection; UPS, backup generation, BESS and redundancy architecture; high-density compute and rack power planning; liquid cooling, CDUs and heat rejection; BMS/BAS, EPMS and SCADA; FAT, SAT and commissioning.
• Track record of turning bespoke engineering into repeatable standards, and clear communication with executive, commercial and operations stakeholders.
• Willingness to travel to suppliers, factories and deployment sites.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end development of the modular infrastructure systems: electrical, mechanical, thermal, controls, power quality and resilience.
• Design across utility and on-site power interfaces, MV/LV distribution, switchgear, transformers, generators, BESS, UPS, air and liquid cooling, CDUs, heat rejection, controls and monitoring.
• Establish modular building blocks that configure across different site sizes, climates, utility conditions and power-availability profiles.
• Translate evolving GPU and rack-level requirements into designs that absorb changing density, thermal and electrical needs.
• Manage and grow the engineering team, and set the design review processes, documentation standards, approval workflows and release gates.
• Stay hands-on through the full module lifecycle: detailed engineering, supplier engagement, fabrication, FAT, installation, commissioning and handoff.
• Own supplier strategy and technical diligence across UPS, switchgear, generators, transformers, BESS, cooling, CDUs, skids and controls.

Skills

Modular data center design

Electrical & mechanical integration

System architecture

Leadership & team management

Cross-functional collaboration

Travel readiness

Job description

Futura Search Partners is working on this search with a company building the physical and software infrastructure behind reliable, cost-efficient AI compute. It brings modular data center systems, power and site development, GPU infrastructure, networking and fleet software together in one vertically coordinated platform, with a model designed to scale across multiple sites and markets. Backed by Tier 1 venture capital.

The role

You own the modular infrastructure architecture. Working alongside the VP of Infrastructure Development, you define the design philosophy, technical standards and reference architectures every deployment is built from, and stay hands-on with them from concept through commissioning.

What you'll do

• Lead end-to-end development of the modular infrastructure systems: electrical, mechanical, thermal, controls, power quality and resilience.
• Design across utility and on-site power interfaces, MV/LV distribution, switchgear, transformers, generators, BESS, UPS, air and liquid cooling, CDUs, heat rejection, controls and monitoring, and fire and life safety.
• Establish modular building blocks that configure across different site sizes, climates, utility conditions and power-availability profiles, balancing time-to-deploy, cost, reliability, manufacturability and scale.
• Translate evolving GPU and rack-level requirements into designs that absorb changing density, thermal and electrical needs, and define when air, direct-to-chip, rear-door, immersion or hybrid cooling is the right answer.
• Manage and grow the engineering team, and set the design review processes, documentation standards, approval workflows and release gates.
• Stay hands-on through the full module lifecycle: detailed engineering, supplier engagement, fabrication, FAT, installation, commissioning and operational handoff, feeding deployment learnings back into the standards.
• Own supplier strategy and technical diligence across UPS, switchgear, generators, transformers, BESS, cooling, CDUs, skids and controls, assessing how equipment integrates with the architecture rather than whether it meets a datasheet.

What we're looking for

• 12+ years in mission-critical infrastructure, data center engineering, modular data centers or industrial power systems.
• Proven ownership of modular, prefabricated, containerised or skid-based critical infrastructure design.
• Deep fluency across both electrical and mechanical data center systems, with the judgement to make system-level trade-offs whatever your original discipline.
• Depth in several of: MV/LV distribution and protection; UPS, backup generation, BESS and redundancy architecture; high-density compute and rack power planning; liquid cooling, CDUs and heat rejection; BMS/BAS, EPMS and SCADA; FAT, SAT and commissioning.
• Track record of turning bespoke engineering into repeatable standards, and clear communication with executive, commercial and operations stakeholders.
• Willingness to travel to suppliers, factories and deployment sites.

Especially compelling

• Modular data center product development or factory-built power and cooling platforms.
• Infrastructure for AI, HPC, cloud, hyperscale or GPU-intensive deployments.
• Experience at a cloud provider, data center OEM, critical power or cooling manufacturer, or modular infrastructure company.
• Bringing a modular factory, manufacturing line or supplier ecosystem online.
• Low-PUE, high-density or liquid-cooled designs; grid-constrained, behind-the-meter or off-grid architectures.
• PE licensure and familiarity with NEC, NFPA, IEEE, ASHRAE and Uptime-style resiliency concepts are a plus, not a requirement.