Senior Data Center Engineer

IDR, Inc.; Buffalo Grove (IL); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

IDR, Inc. is seeking a Senior Data Center Engineer to join a leading client in Buffalo Grove, IL. You will provide technical leadership for data center deployments, including solution design, build, and validation.

This role requires translating customer requirements into detailed designs, maintaining engineering documentation, and ensuring rack builds, cabling, and connectivity meet approved designs, with a focus on reliability and scalability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, IT, CS, or related field or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years designing/configuring enterprise technology environments.
• Experience supporting data center environments (enterprise/colocation/hyperscale).
• Rack-build and physical data center architecture experience.
• Ability to translate requirements into technical designs and validation.
• Strong understanding of rack integration, cabling and physical connectivity.
• Ability to read and work from rack elevations, BOMs, cable matrices, and diagrams.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical discovery to gather requirements, constraints, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.
• Translate customer requirements into detailed, executable technical designs and serve as primary technical contact.
• Develop and maintain solution designs and engineering documentation (rack designs/elevations, BOMs, cabling matrices, patch schedules, diagrams).
• Apply knowledge of physical data center architecture, rack builds, structured cabling, and power/grounding.
• Review rack builds, configurations, test results, and deliverables against approved designs.

Skills

Data center design

Rack builds & integration

Documentation & BOMs

Network diagrams & patching

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field

Tools

Visio

CAD

BOM software

Job description

IDR is seeking a Senior Data Center Engineer to join one of our top clients for an opportunity in Buffalo Grove, IL. This role involves providing technical leadership for customer data center deployments, including solution design, build, and validation. The organization specializes in enterprise and hyperscale data center infrastructure, offering a dynamic environment for technical growth and project delivery.

Position Overview for the Senior Data Center Engineer:

• Lead technical discovery to gather, validate, and document customer requirements, constraints, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.
• Translate customer requirements into detailed, executable technical designs and serve as a primary technical contact throughout the deployment lifecycle.
• Develop and maintain solution designs and engineering documentation, including rack designs/elevations, BOMs, cabling matrices, patch schedules, network diagrams, implementation workbooks, and configuration specifications.
• Apply strong knowledge of physical data center architecture, rack builds, rack integration, structured cabling, fiber/copper connectivity, equipment placement, cable routing, patching, port mappings, cross-connects, labeling, power, and grounding.
• Review completed rack builds, configurations, test results, and technical deliverables against approved designs.

Requirements for the Senior Data Center Engineer:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field; or equivalent professional experience.
• 5+ years of experience designing, configuring, implementing, or supporting enterprise technology environments.
• Proven experience supporting enterprise, colocation, hyperscale, or similar data center environments.
• Demonstrated rack-build and physical data center architecture experience.
• Experience translating customer requirements into technical designs supporting deployment and validation.
• Strong understanding of rack integration, structured cabling, fiber/copper infrastructure, and physical connectivity.
• Ability to read, create, review, and work from rack elevations, BOMs, cable matrices, patch schedules, network diagrams, and related documentation.