Director, Mechanical Engineering

Volta; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Equity in Volta

Retirement contributions

Health, wellbeing and insurance

Job summary

Volta is seeking a Director, Mechanical Engineering to be the authoritative lead for mechanical design across our AI factory portfolio worldwide. You will own standards, drive reference designs, and build the team to scale as Volta expands.

You will balance performance, energy efficiency, and cost while mentoring engineers and collaborating with electrical, controls, and structural colleagues to deliver safe, reliable facilities for next-generation compute.

Qualifications

• Degree in mechanical or building services engineering (chartered/PE preferred).
• Significant data centre or mission critical mechanical engineering experience.
• Deep expertise in data centre cooling (chilled water, heat rejection, air side design).
• Experience creating and deploying mechanical design standards for hyperscale data centres.
• Hands-on design and delivery for high-density, liquid-cooled AI/HPC environments.
• Familiarity with ASHRAE and NFPA standards.
• Strong commercial judgment and ability to communicate trade-offs clearly.
• Collaborative style, able to mentor engineers and work with cross-disciplinary teams.

Responsibilities

• Act as mechanical SME and design authority for all AI factories (EMEA/AMER) from concept to handover.
• Develop and maintain mechanical design standards, specifications and basis of design documents.
• Provide mechanical input to Reference Design balancing performance, energy, cost and speed.
• Own liquid cooling architecture and align with rack/GPU requirements.
• Support live projects from concept through design, construction and commissioning.
• Lead mechanical design reviews and maintain design authority.
• Collaborate with electrical, controls and structural teams for optimized overall design.
• Mentor engineers and build out the mechanical team as the pipeline grows.
• Report status, risk and decisions to Senior Director, Infrastructure Engineering.

Skills

Mechanical leadership

Data centre cooling

Communication

Collaborative work style

Commercial judgment

Mentoring engineers

Education

Mechanical or building services engineering degree

Job description

About Volta

Volta is the category-defining, fully vertically integrated AI infrastructure platform – from capital to clusters to software, under a founder-led enterprise. Our mission is The Utility of Compute™: AI infrastructure as dependable and available as electricity, for every organization that needs it. Launched with a $10B strategic partnership with one of the leading frontier AI labs, a Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, and a $5B AI Infrastructure Fund, Volta is building the infrastructure layer of the AI era from the ground up. We are 100+ people across London, Palo Alto, and New York, with rapid growth expectations to hundreds.

The Role

We are looking for a Director, Mechanical Engineering to be Volta's subject matter expert and design authority for mechanical engineering across our global portfolio of AI factories. You will report directly to the Senior Director, Infrastructure Engineering within the Delivery organisation.

You will fully own all mechanical engineering input across the portfolio from Volta's design standards, Reference Design and running projects. You will move easily between technical detail and strategic perspective, weighing engineering decisions against business priorities. As the business scales, you will build and lead the mechanical engineering team.

What You Will Do

• Act as Volta's mechanical subject matter expert and design authority, owning all mechanical engineering input across every AI factory in EMEA and AMER from concept through to commissioning and handover
• Develop, deploy and maintain Volta's mechanical design standards, specifications and basis of design documents for all mechanical systems, making sure they are applied consistently across every project and region
• Provide the mechanical input to Volta's Reference Design for AI factory infrastructure, working with peers in the Design organisation to balance performance, energy and water efficiency, cost, speed of delivery and scalability
• Own Volta's liquid cooling architecture, including facility water systems, technology cooling systems and coolant distribution units, and partner with the CTO and CPO organisations to align it with rack, GPU and thermal requirements so compute turns up consistently across the portfolio
• Support live projects with mechanical expertise from concept through detailed design, construction and commissioning, resolving technical issues quickly so delivery is never held up
• Track the evolution of AI hardware and cooling technology, including rack densities, warmer water operation and emerging cooling methods, and translate it into mechanical standards that keep Volta's AI factories ready for next generation compute
• Lead mechanical design reviews and technical assurance, and act as design authority for any departure from the mechanical standard
• Work in sync with SMEs across the other disciplines, including electrical, controls and structural, so the overall design is optimised for safety, speed of delivery and cost, rather than for mechanical in isolation
• Work with Procurement to standardise specifications for long lead mechanical equipment such as chillers, dry coolers, coolant distribution units, pumps and air handling plant, enabling framework agreements, prefabrication and modular delivery at scale
• Champion safety in design, reliability, maintainability and energy and water efficiency, working with Operations to design for how our facilities will be run
• Embed lessons learned from delivery and operations back into the mechanical standards, so every AI factory builds faster, safer and more efficiently than the last
• Direct the mechanical scope of external design partners, mentor engineers and build out the mechanical engineering team as the pipeline grows
• Provide mechanical engineering status, risk and decision reporting to the Senior Director, Infrastructure Engineering

What You Will Bring

• A degree in mechanical or building services engineering, with chartered or professional engineer status (for example CEng or PE) preferred
• Significant experience in data centre or mission critical mechanical engineering, including senior technical leadership of mechanical design on large scale programmes
• Deep technical expertise in data centre cooling, including chilled water and heat rejection systems, air side design, hydraulic design and cooling control philosophy
• A track record developing and deploying mechanical design standards, reference designs or basis of design documents for a hyperscale, colocation or large scale data centre developer
• Hands on experience designing and delivering high density and liquid cooled environments for AI and HPC workloads, including direct to chip cooling, coolant distribution units and facility water systems, and an understanding of how GPU cluster thermal requirements drive facility design
• Familiarity with the codes and standards that govern data centre mechanical design in Europe and North America, such as ASHRAE guidelines and NFPA standards
• Strong commercial judgement, balancing capex, schedule, reliability and operability in mechanical design decisions
• Confident communication, able to explain complex technical trade offs clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders, including executives
• A collaborative style that builds trust with peers across partner teams, and the conviction to hold the line on standards

What We Offer

At Volta, we believe people do their best work when they feel supported, trusted and able to grow. We're building a company where you can make an impact, keep a healthy balance between work and life, and build a career you're proud of.
As a global team, we do our best to provide great benefits wherever you're based. While some benefits vary by country due to local regulations, we believe looking after our people is simply the right thing to do.

• Competitive salary based on the work you do here, not your previous salary
• Equity in Volta, giving you the opportunity to share in the company's long-term success
• Retirement/pension contributions
• Comprehensive health, wellbeing and insurance benefits
• Generous number of vacation days each year

Additional Information

Background Checks

All offers of employment at Volta are conditional on the satisfactory completion of pre-employment screening, which includes confirmation of your right to work, verification of your employment history and a criminal record check, where this is permitted by local law. Screening is carried out by Zinc, an accredited third-party provider, after an offer is made and all information is handled confidentially and in accordance with applicable data protection law.

Equal Opportunity

Volta is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team and make employment decisions based on skills, qualifications, experience and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic.

Accessibility

Volta is committed to providing an accessible recruitment experience for all candidates. If you require accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the application or interview process, please contact us at [e-mail]. We will work with you to identify reasonable accommodations that enable you to participate fully in the hiring process.

Candidate Privacy Notice

By applying, you consent to the processing of your personal data for recruitment purposes in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including the UK GDPR, EU GDPR and relevant US state privacy regulations. Your data will be shared only with those involved in the hiring process and will not be used for unrelated purposes. For details, see our Recruitment & Candidate Privacy Notice.

Note to Recruitment Agencies

Volta does not accept unsolicited CVs or candidate profiles from recruitment agencies. Any unsolicited submissions, including those sent directly to hiring managers or employees, will be treated as the property of Volta. No agency fees will be payable unless a valid, signed recruitment agreement is in place, and the agency has been specifically engaged for the relevant vacancy.