Staff Controls Operator — Data Center Operations

Fluidstack; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 220,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Fluidstack operates data centers at hyperscale, running live facilities with complex cooling and power systems. The Data Center Operations team ensures reliable, safe, and efficient operation of BMS/SCADA/EPMS in real time.

The role focuses on real-time load and thermal control across sites coming online in pieces, plus creating standard operating procedures and alarm runbooks that become the industry standard.

Qualifications

• Experience operating live mission-critical facilities (data center, industrial, or power) and keeping systems running through faults and construction.
• Deep knowledge of BMS, SCADA, and EPMS to diagnose sequences, not just read alarms.
• Experience writing operating procedures and alarm response runbooks.
• Ability to resolve faults under pressure on a live floor with load present.
• Ability to tune control sequences and setpoints balancing reliability, efficiency, and cost.

Responsibilities

• Operate live mission-critical facilities' controls in real time.
• Own real-time load and thermal control across sites coming online in pieces.
• Write and maintain standard operating procedures and alarm runbooks.
• Diagnose and resolve faults on the data center floor before issues impact operations.
• Tune setpoints to meet PUE and reliability targets as hardware evolves.

Skills

BMS

SCADA

EPMS

Fault diagnosis

Procedure writing

Live operations

Job description

The Data Center Operations Team

Examples of key problems the team is working on

• Operate at the scale of a nation, not a building. The fleet you run will draw more power than some countries, on the way to tens of gigawatts.
• Fly the plane while it's being built. Sites come online in pieces, and you keep the live ones running flawlessly while construction continues around them.
• Write the playbook, don't inherit it. No prior operations org has run at this speed and scale, so the standards you set become the standard.

Role Scope

• Run the building management and controls systems (BMS, SCADA, EPMS) that keep live gigawatt-scale data centers cooling and powered in real time.
• Own real-time load and thermal control across sites coming online in pieces, keeping the live halls running flawlessly while construction continues around them.
• Write the operating procedures, alarm response runbooks, and control sequences that become the standard for every site that follows.
• Diagnose and resolve controls faults on the floor, from a misbehaving chiller sequence to a breaker mis-operation, before they touch a training run.
• Tune control sequences and setpoints to hold PUE and reliability targets as load ramps and hardware generations change.

What We're Looking For

• The below is a starting point. We always make space for exceptional people, so if you don't fit this role exactly, tell us where you would.
• You’ve operated the controls for live mission‑critical facilities, data center, industrial, or power, and kept them running through faults, ramps, and construction next door.
• You know BMS, SCADA, and EPMS platforms deep enough to diagnose a bad sequence or a misconfigured point, not just read the alarm.
• You’ve written operating procedures and alarm response runbooks that other operators actually run.
• You’ve resolved a real controls fault under pressure, on a live floor, with load on the line.
• You tune control sequences and setpoints and can explain the tradeoff between reliability, efficiency, and cost.
• You catch the drifting sensor or the wrong setpoint before it becomes an outage.
• Bonus: Hyperscale or colocation data center operations. Liquid cooling controls. Electrical power monitoring systems. Behind‑the‑meter generation. Building the controls standards for a new fleet.

We are committed to pay equity and transparency.

Compensation Range: $220K - $260K

Fluidstack is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans’ status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Fluidstack will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records pursuant to applicable law.