Principal Operations Engineer, Controls

Socket.dev; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Generous PTO

Equity in stock options

Job summary

Fluidstack is seeking a Senior Controls Engineer to serve as the most senior technical authority for BMS, EPMS, PLC, and equipment-level controls across the fleet.

You will own changes, lead audits, and sign off on commissioning handovers, with heavy field work and 50–75% travel. Applicants should have platform-agnostic experience with Ignition, Niagara, Metasys, and EcoStruxure, plus PLC programming and strong problem solving.

Qualifications

• You've spent a career programming, commissioning, and operating controls on complex central plants and critical environments.
• You can walk into any site and own the front-end within a day.
• You know the mechanical, electrical, and fire/life safety systems they coordinate.
• You lead high-risk controls MOPs and RCA efforts to closure.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development, and execution of controls across fleet.
• Own material BMS changes and act as final technical approver for critical changes.
• Lead site audits on sequences, alarming, trending, integration health, and cybersecurity.

Skills

Site commissioning

PLC programming

Controls engineering

Field operations

Tools

Ignition

Niagara

Metasys

EcoStruxure

Job description

About Fluidstack

We exist to make humanity more free. For most of human history, you farmed or you starved. Technology gave people more time for the things they wanted to do, instead of things they had to do. Powerful AI will be the biggest lever for human choice we've ever built - but only if models are aligned with what humanity actually wants. There are groups building AI who don't share these goals. Whoever deploys frontier compute infrastructure fastest will decide whether AI expands human freedom or shrinks it.

We're singularly focused on delivering 10 to 100s of GWs of compute faster than anyone else, rethinking every layer of the stack. We acquire power, design and build data centers, and operate them - with teams spanning hardware and software. Speed and scale are our key differentiators. Come be a part of building civilization-scale infrastructure for AI.

How We Operate

• Extreme ownership. Full autonomy. Own things end to end often taking on scope outside your core role without being asked to get things done.

• Velocity. We drive everything forward as fast as possible.

• First principles. Challenge every assumption. Zero analogy thinking, no egos, the best idea wins.

• Love of the game. The frontier of AI is the most interesting problem of our time. We put in long hours at high intensity to push the frontier forward.

The Controls Team

Examples of key problems the team is working on

• Lead the design, development, and execution of 10s to 100s of GWs of data centers this decade.

• Build real-time load control systems, pushing the limits of MEP infrastructure and behind-the-meter systems.

• Automate L4/L5 commissioning and functional tests for fully modular data center builds.

• Develop autonomous robotic solutions for data center deployment.

Role Scope

• Serve as the most senior technical authority for BMS, EPMS, PLC, and equipment-level controls across the fleet.

• Own every material BMS change across the fleet and serve as final technical approver for high-consequence changes. Standardize where it matters, enforce change control everywhere it matters.

• Lead technical and operational site audits on sequences, alarming, trending, integration health, and cybersecurity, and own the remediation roadmap through closure.

• Personally sign off on controls operational readiness and the handover from commissioning to steady-state operations for every new site.

• Feed operational learnings back into design and manufacturing as we shift to repeatable, productized builds, including standing up a full BMS in two days.

• Author and approve high-risk MOPs, EOPs, and AOPs, and lead root cause analysis on significant controls events through to closure.

• Travel 50 to 75% across the fleet. The work is in the field, not at a desk.

What We're Looking For

The below is a starting point. We always make space for exceptional people, so if you don't fit this role exactly, tell us where you would.

• You've spent a career programming, commissioning, and operating controls on complex central plants and critical environments. You can walk into any site and own the front-end within a day.

• You have platform-agnostic command of modern BMS/BAS (Ignition, Niagara, Metasys, EcoStruxure) earned in the field, plus PLC programming on at least one major platform.

• You're fluent across BACnet, Modbus, SNMP, and the other major controls protocols, and you know the mechanical, electrical, and fire/life safety systems they coordinate.

• You've authored and executed high-risk controls MOPs in live critical environments, and led root cause analysis on significant events through to closure.

• You hold integrators, OEMs, and vendors to a programming and documentation standard without burning the relationship.

• You teach. Operational health assessments, RCAs, sequences, and design feedback are second nature, and you build the people around you up.

• Bonus: Hyperscale or large colocation at hundreds of MW+. EPMS platforms and DCIM. Historians and scripting in Python or SQL. OT network segmentation and cybersecurity.

Salary & Benefits

• Competitive total compensation package (salary + equity).

• Retirement or pension plan, in line with local norms.

• Health, dental, and vision insurance.

• Generous PTO policy, in line with local norms.
  

  Total compensation may also include equity in the form of stock options.

We are committed to pay equity and transparency.

Fluidstack is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans’ status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Fluidstack will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records pursuant to applicable law.

You will receive a confirmation email once your application has successfully been accepted. If there is an error with your submission and you did not receive a confirmation email, please email [e-mail] with your resume/CV, the role you've applied for, and the date you submitted your application-- someone from our recruiting team will be in touch.