Product Engineer II - Rack Integration

Ahead; Libertyville (IL); On-site; USD 100,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance

401(k)

Paid holidays

Paid time off

Parental and caregiver leave

Job summary

AHEAD is seeking a Product Engineer I to design and implement enterprise-grade rack integration solutions. You will own rack-level design from concept through installation, including elevations, BOMs, power and cooling analysis, and cabling layouts.

Travel up to 10% may be required to support rack delivery and installation with clients. Collaborate with internal teams and clients, produce complete design documentation, and assist in pre-sales assessments.

Qualifications

• 5+ years building and designing computer components into custom built systems.
• 5+ years designing enterprise level systems including Networking, Compute and Storage hardware.
• 5+ years with Linux and Windows operating systems.
• 5+ years creating and maintaining BOMs.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain rack elevations and BOMs for integrated solutions.
• Perform power and cooling analyses for integrated racks.
• Design cabling matrices and labeling schemes for power, networking, and storage.
• Create installation runbooks and work instructions for production teams.
• Support on-site rack delivery and installation activities.

Skills

Customer collaboration

Documentation

Problem solving

Communication

Rack design

Education

Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering or CS

Tools

Dell servers

Supermicro

HPE

Lenovo

Whitebox systems

Job description

AHEAD builds platforms for digital business. By weaving together advances in cloud infrastructure, automation and analytics, and software delivery, we help enterprises deliver on the promise of digital transformation.

AtAHEAD, we prioritize creating a culture of belonging,where all perspectives and voices are represented, valued, respected, and heard. We create spaces to empower everyone to speak up, make change, and drive the culture at AHEAD.

We are an equal opportunity employer,anddo not discriminatebased onan individual's race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, maritalstatus,or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived.

We embraceall candidatesthatwillcontribute to the diversification and enrichment of ideas andperspectives atAHEAD.

As a Product Engineer I – Rack Integration Services, you will be instrumental in designing and implementing integrated rack solutions for enterprise-grade data center hardware. You will own rack-level design from concept through installation, including rack elevations, rack-level BOMs, power and cooling analysis, and cabling design. Your responsibilities include defining installation and integration steps, creating cable maps and routing plans, building labeling standards, and producing complete rack design documentation that supports accurate builds, labor estimation, and pre-sales assessments. You will collaborate with internal teams and clients and may travel on-site to support rack delivery and installation.

Essential Functions

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

General Functions

• Collaborate on quoting requests with other Product Engineers, Sales Engineers, Project Managers, external client facing teams, and directly with the client as necessary for complete and accurate quotes.
• Collaborate on cross training with the Product Engineering Team.
• Collaborate with the Sales Engineering team to scope and design Foundry services as necessary.
• Collaborate with Manufacturing Engineering, System Verification engineering, to ensure proper documentation and automation in in place for projects.
• Support Production as needed throughout the course of projects.
• Create and assemble hardware quotes when Foundry is driving the design of enterprise products or racks.
• Manage the revision control of product and Bill of Materials throughout a product’s lifecycle when necessary.
• Participate in the launch of new solutions, ensuring successful delivery to customers.
• Diagnose and resolve hardware, firmware, and software compatibility issues in coordination with customers and vendors.
• Respond to and resolve advanced customer technical inquiries in a timely manner.
• Mentor and provide guidance to other Product Engineers to support team development.

Rack Integration Engineering Functions

• Develop and maintain rack elevations and rack-level BOMs for integrated solutions, ensuring all mechanical and electrical constraints are met.
• Perform power and cooling analyses for integrated racks, including PDU selection, power strip layout, input load balancing, and airflow considerations (air and liquid cooling where applicable).
• Design cabling matrices, cable routing paths, and labeling schemes for power, networking, storage, and management fabrics.
• Collect and document rack integration requirements from customers and internal stakeholders (space, power, cooling, access, cable entry/exit, labeling, documentation expectations).
• Create installation runbooks and work instructions for production teams, detailing step-by-step rack assembly, device installation, cabling, labeling, and QA checks.
• Support production builds of integrated racks, clarifying design intent, addressing mechanical or routing issues, and driving continuous improvement.
• Support on-site rack delivery and installation activities, including site readiness checks, layout verification, and hand-off documentation.
• Drive rack design standards (cabling colors, labeling, documentation templates, photos) and contribute to Foundry rack integration best practices.

Competencies (knowledge, skills, and abilities)

• Excellent communication and listening skills with the ability to collaborate effectively with customers, technical resources, and team members to deliver successful projects.
• Proven ability to understand, gather, and document customer requirements.
• Expertise with engineering disciplines and revision control, including engineering change management, product lifecycle management (PLM), and end-of-life (EOL) processes.
• Expertise with enterprise-grade compute, storage, networking, PDU and rack hardware power, cooling (air and liquid), build methodologies, cabling, connectivity and build standards.
• Expertise of x86 and ARM computer architectures, server hardware components, and computer standards.
• Expertise with enterprise Gen AI use cases and hardware used for core inference and training.
• Knowledge of quality control and computer assembly methods.
• Expertise with collaborating effectively with external vendors.
• Demonstrated critical thinking, problem-solving, planning, and organizational skills, with the ability to make decisions under pressure.
• Adaptability and resilience in dynamic environments.
• Expertise with risk management and new product introduction (NPI).
• Excellent attention to detail and documentation skills.
• Network+ and Server+ certifications are a plus.

Physical Demands

Occasionally this position requires lifting servers weighing up to 50lbs.

Position type and expected hours of work

This is a full-time position, and hours of work and days are typically Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. Occasional evening and weekend work may be required as job duties demand.

Travel

This position requires up to 10% travel and may include Integrated Rack delivery at customer locations.

Required education and experience

• 5+ years of experience building and designing computer components into custom built systems.
• 5+ years of experience building and designing enterprise level systems including Networking, Compute and Storage hardware.
• 5+ years of experience with Linux and Windows operating systems.
• 5+ years of experience creating and maintaining bills of materials (BOMs).
• 5+ years of experience configuring Dell, Supermicro, HPE, Lenovo, and Whitebox systems
• Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.

$100,000 - $160,000 a year

The compensation range indicated in this posting reflects the On-Target Earnings (“OTE”) for this role, which includes a base salary and any applicable target bonus amount. This OTE range may vary based on the candidate’s relevant experience, qualifications, and geographic location.

Why AHEAD:

Through our daily work and internal groups like Moving Women AHEAD and RISE AHEAD, we value and benefit from diversity of people, ideas, experience, and everything in between.

We fuel growth by stacking our office with top-notch technologies in a multi-million-dollar lab, by encouraging cross department training and development, sponsoring certifications and credentials for continued learning.

USA Employment Benefits include:

• - Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• - 401(k)
• - Paid company holidays
• - Paid time off
• - Paid parental and caregiver leave
• - Plus more! See benefits https://www.aheadbenefits.com/ for additional details.

Use of AI:

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, assessing responses, or to capture recordings and create transcriptions or summaries during interviews. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans.

If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please refer to the Candidate Privacy Notice or contact us at [e-mail].

You may opt-out of the review or analysis of your application and resume by AI tools by using the General Application. Please include the role you wish to apply for in the Additional Information field. You may also choose to opt-out of recording and transcription at any time, including after joining an interview. Candidates will not be penalized for choosing to opt-out.