Senior Data Center Engineer

Computacenter AG & Co. oHG; Livermore (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Computacenter is seeking a Project Engineer in the United States to provide end-to-end technical leadership for customer deployments, from requirements discovery through build, validation, and closure. You will translate customer needs into executable designs and serve as the technical contact through the deployment lifecycle.

The role emphasizes hands-on data center infrastructure, rack builds, and physical architecture, working with cross-functional teams and traveling for deployments as

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent relevant professional experience.
• 5+ years of experience designing, configuring, implementing, or supporting enterprise technology environments.
• Meaningful experience supporting enterprise, colocation, hyperscale, or similar data center environments.
• Demonstrated rack-build and physical data center architecture experience.
• Experience translating customer requirements into detailed technical designs and supporting solutions through build, validation, and acceptance.

Responsibilities

• 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, configuration specifications, and related technical documentation.
• 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.
• Provide technical direction and support to teams assembling, configuring, integrating, and testing customer solutions.
• Review completed rack builds, configurations, test results, and technical deliverables against approved designs.
• Participate in First Article Builds (FABs), Proofs of Concept (POCs), validation reviews, and other technical checkpoints as required.
• Identify and resolve design discrepancies, omissions, integration issues, and technical questions discovered during build and deployment.
• Lead technical closure by validating completed work against approved requirements and acceptance criteria, obtaining technical signoff where required, and ensuring final documentation accurately reflects the delivered solution.
• Communicate technical status, risks, dependencies, decisions, and recommendations to customers and project leadership.
• Partner closely with Project Managers, Program Managers, Field Engineering, Integration Centers, consultants, vendors, and customer technical teams throughout delivery.
• Lead technical contributors through influence, establishing direction and driving accountability without direct reporting authority.

Skills

rack builds

data center architecture

requirements gathering

technical leadership

customer-facing

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field

Tools

Visio

AutoCAD

Revit

Smartsheet

MS Project

Job description

About the role

The Project Engineer provides end-to-end technical leadership for customer deployments, from requirements discovery and solution design through build, integration, validation, and technical closure. This is a customer-facing, consultative engineering role that translates customer requirements into accurate, executable technical designs and ensures completed solutions align with approved specifications and engineering standards. The Project Engineer serves as a key technical liaison among customers, project leadership, engineering teams, Integration Centers, Field Engineering, and other delivery functions. While the role is focused primarily on technical leadership and project delivery rather than traditional Field Engineering implementation or pre-sales, candidates must have strong hands-on knowledge of physical data center infrastructure. Rack-build and physical-architecture experience are key requirements, including an understanding of how data center solutions are physically assembled, cabled, integrated, tested, and validated.

Annual Salary Range

$110,000 - $140,000

What you'll be doing

• 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, configuration specifications, and related technical documentation.
• 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.
• Provide technical direction and support to teams assembling, configuring, integrating, and testing customer solutions.
• Review completed rack builds, configurations, test results, and technical deliverables against approved designs.
• Participate in First Article Builds (FABs), Proofs of Concept (POCs), validation reviews, and other technical checkpoints as required.
• Identify and resolve design discrepancies, omissions, integration issues, and technical questions discovered during build and deployment.
• Lead technical closure by validating completed work against approved requirements and acceptance criteria, obtaining technical signoff where required, and ensuring final documentation accurately reflects the delivered solution.
• Communicate technical status, risks, dependencies, decisions, and recommendations to customers and project leadership.
• Partner closely with Project Managers, Program Managers, Field Engineering, Integration Centers, consultants, vendors, and customer technical teams throughout delivery.
• Lead technical contributors through influence, establishing direction and driving accountability without direct reporting authority.

Core Technical Experience

Candidates should bring strong experience across physical data center infrastructure and project delivery, including:

• Enterprise, colocation, hyperscale, or similar data center environments
• Rack builds, rack integration, and physical data center architecture
• Rack elevations and equipment layouts
• Server, storage, and networking hardware
• Structured cabling and physical connectivity
• Copper and fiber infrastructure, including single-mode and multimode fiber
• Cable routing, patching, port mappings, and cross-connects
• Fiber plant design and documentation
• Data center networking and connectivity
• BOMs, cabling matrices, patch schedules, network diagrams, and technical documentation
• Testing, validation, QA/QC, and technical closeout

What you have

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent relevant professional experience.
• 5+ years of experience designing, configuring, implementing, or supporting enterprise technology environments.
• Meaningful experience supporting enterprise, colocation, hyperscale, or similar data center environments.
• Demonstrated rack-build and physical data center architecture experience.
• Experience translating customer requirements into detailed technical designs and supporting solutions through build, validation, and acceptance.
• Strong understanding of rack integration, structured cabling, fiber/copper infrastructure, physical connectivity, and data center infrastructure.
• Ability to read, create, review, and work from rack elevations, BOMs, cable matrices, patch schedules, network diagrams, and related technical documentation.
• Strong requirements-gathering, solution-design, technical-documentation, and configuration-management capabilities.
• Ability to identify technical or design discrepancies, assess their impact, and drive issues through resolution.
• Strong customer-facing communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical information to both technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Ability to lead technical discussions and contributors without direct reporting authority.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and follow-through skills.
• Ability to manage multiple deployments, priorities, dependencies, and deadlines.
• Ability to work regularly onsite at the assigned Integration Center and travel intermittently based on customer and business needs.
• Must be legally eligible to work in the United States.

Preferred Qualifications

• CCNA / CCNP or comparable networking certification
• BICSI-related certifications such as BICSI Technician or RCDD
• Fiber/cabling testing certifications, including Fluke/EXFO
• Experience with Visio, AutoCAD, Revit, Smartsheet, MS Project, or similar engineering/project tools
• Experience with enterprise data center networking technologies such as Cisco, Arista, Juniper, Palo Alto, or comparable platform

What you can expect

There's so much more to enjoy about being at Computacenter than just having a rewarding career. In addition to offering competitive compensation plans and long-term career opportunities, we provide an attractive mix of benefit plans to contribute to your good health, future financial security, and peace of mind.

About us

Computacenter is a leading independent technology partner, trusted by large corporate and public sector organizations. We help our world-renowned customers to source, transform, and manage their IT infrastructure to deliver digital transformation, enabling users and their business. We're a public company quoted on the London FTSE 250 (CCC.L) and employ over 21,000 people worldwide. In the US, we support some of the country’s best-known businesses with regional hubs in San Francisco and Irvine, CA; Norcross, GA; Plano, TX; and New York City; and Integration Centers in Silicon Valley and Atlanta. www.computacenter.com/us