Mechanical Engineer, Power Generation

OpenAI, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a Mechanical Engineer to design and integrate power-generation and balance-of-plant systems for large AI data center campuses. You will work across prime movers, fuel systems, exhaust, ventilation, cooling, water treatment, heat recovery, acoustics, and plant auxiliaries.

Travel: 50%. Requirements include 8+ years in mechanical engineering, a BS in mechanical engineering, and knowledge of ASME/API/NFPA standards.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of mechanical engineering experience in power generation, oil and gas, or mission-critical projects.
• Strong knowledge of rotating equipment, piping, heat transfer, ventilation and mechanical auxiliaries.
• Experience with ASME, API, NFPA, ASHRAE and environmental requirements.
• Ability to translate load profiles into equipment sizing and control needs.

Responsibilities

• Develop basis-of-design documents, P&IDs, specs, calculations and equipment requirements for power facilities.
• Design and review prime-mover auxiliaries, fuel systems, exhaust, cooling and heat-recovery.
• Evaluate thermal, hydraulic, vibration, acoustics and emissions performance.
• Translate load profiles into equipment sizing and control envelopes.
• Review vendor data, test plans and lifecycle tradeoffs.
• Support procurement, commissioning and root-cause investigations.
• Coordinate interfaces with electrical, controls and environmental teams.
• Create repeatable mechanical reference designs for future deployments.

Skills

Rotating equipment

Piping systems

Heat transfer

Ventilation design

Gas turbine experience

Education

Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering

Job description

About the Team

OpenAI, in close collaboration with our capital and delivery partners, is building the infrastructure required to support frontier AI systems. The Data Center Engineering team defines repeatable technical standards and carries them through design, construction, commissioning, and operational readiness. The team works across data center facilities, power generation, compute infrastructure, construction, procurement, and operations to deliver reliable capacity at unprecedented scale and speed.

About the Role

We are seeking a Mechanical Engineer to design and integrate power-generation and balance-of-plant systems for large AI data center campuses. You will work across prime movers, fuel systems, exhaust, ventilation, cooling, water treatment, heat recovery, acoustics, fire interfaces, and plant auxiliaries. The role combines first-principles engineering with practical vendor and field execution to deliver systems that are safe, efficient, maintainable, and ready for demanding operating profiles.

Travel: 50%

Key Responsibilities

• Develop mechanical basis-of-design documents, process flow diagrams, P&IDs, specifications, calculations, and equipment requirements for power generation facilities.
• Design and review prime-mover auxiliaries, fuel gas or liquid fuel systems, exhaust, ventilation, cooling, lubrication, compressed air, water treatment, and heat-recovery systems.
• Evaluate thermal performance, hydraulic behavior, pressure drop, vibration, acoustics, emissions interfaces, redundancy, and maintenance requirements.
• Translate generation duty cycles and data center load profiles into equipment sizing, operating envelopes, and control requirements.
• Review OEM and EPC proposals, equipment selections, test plans, failure modes, service strategies, and lifecycle tradeoffs.
• Support procurement, factory acceptance testing, construction, startup, commissioning, performance testing, and root-cause investigations.
• Coordinate interfaces with electrical, controls, CSA, fuel supply, environmental, fire protection, and data center mechanical teams.
• Create repeatable mechanical reference designs and standards for future generation deployments.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of mechanical engineering experience on power generation, oil and gas, industrial utilities, central plants, or mission-critical projects.
• Strong knowledge of rotating equipment, piping, heat transfer, fluid systems, thermal performance, ventilation, and mechanical auxiliaries.
• Experience with combined heat and power, heat recovery, modular generation, or microgrids.
• Experience with gas turbines, reciprocating engines, generators, or comparable large industrial equipment.
• Ability to evaluate vendor data, equipment curves, operating scenarios, failure modes, and maintenance constraints.
• Experience carrying designs through construction, startup, commissioning, and performance validation.
• Knowledge of applicable ASME, API, NFPA, ASHRAE, and environmental requirements.
• Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering or a related field.

Preferred Skills

• Professional Engineer license.
• Experience with process simulation, hydraulic modeling, CFD, or equipment-performance modeling.
• Experience supporting high-density data center loads and rapid infrastructure deployment.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affiramtive Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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