Refrigeration Engineer

Avida Energy; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Avida Energy is seeking a Refrigeration Engineer to serve as the internal subject-matter expert for CO₂ refrigeration systems, supporting cold rooms and freezers across global facilities.

You will lead design reviews, coordinate with contract engineering and construction firms, and provide on-site technical witnessing to ensure safety, quality, and regulatory compliance throughout the project lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering or related discipline, or equivalent hands-on industrial refrigeration experience.
• 10+ years of refrigeration experience, including direct, hands-on CO₂ refrigeration system design and operation.
• Fundamental refrigeration engineering knowledge — thermodynamics, mass flow, and CO₂ refrigeration design principles, low-temperature psychrometrics.
• Broad working knowledge across the full refrigeration project lifecycle: design, construction, startup, commissioning, operation, and maintenance.
• CO₂-specific experience: familiarity with CO₂ refrigeration vendors and equipment, and a clear understanding of what to watch for during CO₂ system installation and commissioning.
• Working knowledge of refrigeration controls, electrical systems, and networking/communications, PLC technology and refrigeration controls.
• Willingness to travel approximately 30%, as required, for on-site technical witnessing and construction oversight.
• Based in the US; fluent in English with effective written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Serve as internal SME for CO₂ refrigeration and cold room projects, reporting to the refrigeration program leader.
• Translate the company's standard refrigeration specification into project- and site-specific specs.
• Represent the company's technical interests across the full project lifecycle.
• Oversee installation ensuring compliance with specifications and standards.
• Ensure designs and installations meet safety and regulatory requirements.
• Provide on-site technical witnessing at key milestones.
• Make final internal technical calls on design and execution questions.
• Support transition from construction to operations and development of maintenance contracts.
• Work across multiple projects as a program-level resource.
• Drive continuous improvement in cold room design, construction, and operation.

Skills

CO2 refrigeration

Project lifecycle management

Technical liaison

On-site witnessing

Travel readiness

English proficiency

Mechanical reasoning

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

PLC technology

Refrigeration controls

Networking/communications

Job description

The Refrigeration Engineer serves as the company's internal subject-matter expert for industrial refrigeration, with primary expertise in CO₂ refrigeration systems supporting cold rooms and freezers across the company's global facilities. The Refrigeration Engineer reports to the refrigeration program leader as part of the company's cold room team.

This role represents the company's technical interests directly with internal and external stakeholders, including contract engineering firms and contract construction firms engaged on each project — ensuring their work meets the company's specifications and standards from initial scope development through design, construction, startup, commissioning, and turnover. The engineer carries technical authority on the company's behalf, makes the final internal calls on design and execution questions, and provides the on-site technical assurance the program requires at key project milestones. Deep CO₂ refrigeration expertise is essential to this role.

SCOPE OF WORK / KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• 1. Serve as the company's internal technical subject-matter expert for CO₂ refrigeration and cold room projects, reporting to the refrigeration program leader.
• 2. Work with contract engineering firms to translate the company's standard refrigeration specification into a project- and site-specific specification for each facility, reviewing and signing off on the resulting design and specification work.
• 3. Represent the company's technical interests with contract engineering firms across the full project lifecycle — from pre-budgetary scope of work through design, specification development, and engineering review.
• 4. Represent the company's technical interests with contract construction firms throughout installation, construction, startup, and commissioning, ensuring work is executed to the company's specifications and standards.
• 5. Ensure refrigeration system designs and installations meet the company's safety and regulatory compliance requirements.
• 6. Provide on-site technical witnessing at key project milestones — pressure testing, evacuation, controls and sequence-of-operations verification, and other core functionality the program requires a technical witness to confirm.
• 7. Make the final internal technical calls on design and execution questions as the company's on-the-ground representative.
• 8. Support the transition from construction to operations — handover, development of maintenance procedures, training and onboarding of maintenance personnel, and development of maintenance contracts with third parties.
• 9. Work across multiple concurrent projects as a program-level resource, engaging wherever CO₂ refrigeration work is underway across the company's global facilities.
• 10. Drive continuous improvement in cold room design, construction, and operation based on lessons learned across projects.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering or related discipline, or equivalent hands-on industrial refrigeration experience.
• 10+ years of refrigeration experience, including direct, hands-on CO₂ refrigeration system design and operation.
• Fundamental refrigeration engineering knowledge — thermodynamics, mass flow, and CO₂ refrigeration design principles, low-temperature psychrometrics — sufficient to create RFPs, review specifications and proposals, and support engineering authority on design decisions.
• Broad working knowledge across the full refrigeration project lifecycle: design, construction, startup, commissioning, operation, and maintenance.
• CO₂-specific experience: familiarity with CO₂ refrigeration vendors and equipment, and a clear understanding of what to watch for during CO₂ system installation and commissioning.
• Working knowledge of refrigeration controls, electrical systems, and networking/communications, including familiarity with PLC technology as well as custom and out-of-the-box refrigeration controls.
• Willingness to travel approximately 30%, as required, for on-site technical witnessing and construction oversight.
• Based in the US; fluent in English with effective written and verbal communication skills.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Direct, hands-on experience working with transcritical CO₂ systems.
• Multi-site or network-level refrigeration program experience.
• Energy management, service, and commissioning exposure.
• Genuine appetite to learn and implement new technology.
• Experience working in a formally regulated environment.