Sr. Staff Engineer, AI Datacenter Thermal Management & Control Plane

AItoolnavio; Santa Clara (CA); Hybrid; USD 100,000 - 500,000; Full time

Job summary

Tenstorrent, based in Santa Clara, CA, is seeking a Senior Staff / Principal Engineer to architect an intelligent thermal-management control plane for next-gen AI datacenter infrastructure. This hybrid role will coordinate cooling across servers, racks, CDUs, and facility systems, and will involve collaboration across hardware, firmware, software, and facilities.

You will lead cross-functional programs, define interfaces and telemetry, and drive reliability, safety, and production-readiness.

Qualifications

• BS/MS/PhD in Electrical, Mechanical, Computer, or Controls Eng with 12+ years of experience.
• Designed distributed control systems for datacenter infrastructure or thermal management.
• Deep knowledge of liquid cooling, CDUs, and facility cooling.
• Experience with industrial protocols Modbus, BACnet, OPC UA, MQTT.
• Ability to set direction and lead cross-functional programs.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead scalable, hierarchical thermal control-plane architecture across servers, racks, and facility cooling loops.
• Develop distributed closed-loop control and optimization for cooling resources.
• Integrate third-party CDUs and facility infrastructure with reliable operating envelopes.
• Lead control software and systems engineering, including interfaces, safety interlocks, and cybersecurity.
• Drive cross-functional integration, validation, and production readiness; plan for safe thermal protection or throttling.

Skills

Distributed control systems

Thermal management

Liquid cooling

PID control

Control theory

System architecture

Industrial protocols (Modbus/BACnet/OP

Education

BS/MS/PhD in Electrical/Mechanical/CS/Controls Engineering

Tools

OPC UA

MQTT

Ethernet-based control networks

Job description

Tenstorrent is leading the industry on cutting-edge AI technology, revolutionizing performance expectations, ease of use, and cost efficiency. With AI redefining the computing paradigm, solutions must evolve to unify innovations in software models, compilers, platforms, networking, and semiconductors. Our diverse team of technologists have developed a high performance RISC-V CPU from scratch, and share a passion for AI and a deep desire to build the best AI platform possible. We value collaboration, curiosity, and a commitment to solving hard problems. We are growing our team and looking for contributors of all seniorities.

We are seeking a highly experienced Senior Staff / Principal Engineer to architect and deliver an intelligent thermal management control plane for next-generation AI datacenter infrastructure. As AI deployments scale to multi-100 kW racks and multi-megawatt clusters, this role will coordinate cooling across compute hardware, rack-level liquid cooling, Coolant Distribution Units (CDUs), and facility infrastructure. You will set the system architecture and lead implementation across hardware, firmware, software, mechanical engineering, and datacenter infrastructure teams.

This role ishybrid, based out of Santa Clara, California, Toronto, Canada or Austin, Texas.

We welcome candidates at various experience levels for this role. During the interview process, candidates will be assessed for the appropriate level, and offers will align with that level, which may differ from the one in this posting.

Who You Are

• You have a BS, MS, or PhD in Electrical, Mechanical, Computer, or Controls Engineering, or a related technical discipline, and 12+ years of relevant engineering experience.
• You have architected and delivered complex distributed control systems, industrial automation, datacenter infrastructure, or thermal management systems, integrating multiple hardware, firmware, and software subsystems.
• You bring deep knowledge of liquid-cooling systems, including CDUs, coolant distribution networks, pumps, heat exchangers, valves, and facility cooling, as well as control theory, feedback systems, PID control, system modeling, and dynamic thermal management.
• You are experienced with industrial communication and management protocols such as Modbus, BACnet, OPC UA, MQTT, and Ethernet-based control networks, along with telemetry, real-time monitoring, and fault detection.
• You can set technical direction, make architecture decisions, and lead complex cross-functional engineering programs from concept through integration and deployment.

What We Need

• Define and lead a scalable, hierarchical thermal control-plane architecture spanning servers, racks, rows, clusters, CDUs, facility cooling loops, chillers, cooling towers, and building management systems; establish subsystem responsibilities, interfaces, APIs, protocols, and telemetry requirements.
• Develop distributed, closed-loop control and optimization strategies that allocate cooling capacity and coordinate coolant temperatures, flow, pressure, pumps, valves, CDUs, and facility resources in response to workload demand and thermal conditions.
• Integrate third-party CDUs and facility infrastructure, including technology cooling systems and facility water systems; establish operating envelopes, redundancy, failover, fault recovery, and coordination with BMS and industrial control systems.
• Lead control software and systems engineering: define device-level interfaces and state machines, safety interlocks, fault isolation, cybersecurity, availability, monitoring, alerting, and predictive thermal management; partner with firmware and embedded teams on implementation.
• Drive cross-functional system integration, validation, reliability testing, and production readiness, including thermal stability during workload changes and cooling or communications failures, and coordinate safe thermal protection or workload-throttling strategies with compute management systems.

What You Will Learn

• How to establish the thermal control-plane foundation for increasingly dense AI infrastructure, from individual racks to multi-megawatt datacenter deployments.
• How to bring compute, liquid cooling, facility systems, and workload-aware software together into a reliable, production-scale architecture.
• How to shape next-generation approaches to thermal capacity management, predictive control, fault tolerance, and cooling-energy optimization.
• How to influence technical roadmaps and integration strategies across engineering teams, equipment suppliers, datacenter operators, and infrastructure partners.
• How to help define scalable thermal management practices for diverse cooling technologies, CDU vendors, and facility configurations, with potential applications of digital twins, thermal modeling, and model-predictive control.

Compensation for all engineers at Tenstorrent ranges from $100k - $500k including base and variable compensation targets. Experience, skills, education, background and location all impact the actual offer made.

Tenstorrent offers a highly competitive compensation package and benefits, and we are an equal opportunity employer.

This offer of employment is contingent upon the applicant being eligible to access U.S. export-controlled technology. Due to U.S. export laws, including those codified in the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR), the Company is required to ensure compliance with these laws when transferring technology to nationals of certain countries (such as EAR Country Groups D:1, E1, and E2). These requirements apply to persons located in the U.S. and all countries outside the U.S. As the position offered will have direct and/or indirect access to information, systems, or technologies subject to these laws, the offer may be contingent upon your citizenship/permanent residency status or ability to obtain prior license approval from the U.S. Commerce Department or applicable federal agency. If employment is not possible due to U.S. export laws, any offer of employment will be rescinded.