# Data Center Infrastructure Architect

**Company:** [OpenAI](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/openai)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Role:** Hardware Engineering
**Salary:** $360k – $530k/yr
**Experience:** 7+ years
**Skills:** Data Center Architecture, Power Distribution, Thermal Management, Liquid Cooling, Digital Twins, Simulation, Optimization, Python, Modelica, Matlab/Simulink, Energyplus, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Bms, Epms, Dcim
**Posted:** 2026-08-31

> Leads system-level architecture and optimization of high-density AI data center infrastructure, integrating power, cooling, controls, telemetry, and computational modeling. Requires significant hyperscale or mission-critical infrastructure experience and a technical bachelor’s degree.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Define system-level architectures for high-density AI data centers across power, cooling, IT equipment, controls, and facility infrastructure.
- Develop digital twins and computational models for data center behavior across workloads, environmental conditions, equipment configurations, and failure scenarios.
- Use design and operational data to improve PUE and optimize capacity, reliability, water consumption, cost, and deployment schedules.
- Evaluate tradeoffs involving electrical topology, cooling architecture, rack density, redundancy, controls, maintainability, constructability, and operational complexity.
- Translate AI hardware requirements into facility, rack, power, and thermal architectures.
- Establish reusable reference architectures, modeling standards, design assumptions, performance requirements, and validation methodologies.
- Connect digital models with infrastructure behavior by partnering across software, data, controls, hardware, mechanical, electrical, construction, commissioning, and operations teams.
- Integrate telemetry from BMS, EPMS, DCIM, SCADA, equipment controllers, and IT hardware into modeling and optimization workflows.
- Lead technical reviews of customer and partner designs, identify risks, and recommend quantitatively grounded changes.
- Adapt reference solutions to site-specific customer constraints while preserving performance, reliability, and efficiency objectives.
- Support pilots, commissioning, performance testing, and post-deployment analysis.
- Help shape the technical roadmap for physical-infrastructure products and engineering services.

## Requirements
- Significant experience designing or optimizing hyperscale data centers, large mission-critical facilities, or comparable infrastructure systems.
- Broad knowledge of data center electrical and mechanical systems, including power distribution, backup power, thermal management, liquid cooling, heat rejection, controls, and monitoring.
- Experience making system-level decisions across multiple engineering disciplines.
- Experience with simulation, optimization, digital-twin, or physics-based modeling for physical infrastructure.
- Strong understanding of PUE, WUE, utilization, capacity, reliability, and total cost of ownership.
- Experience using operational telemetry to translate real-world system behavior into design improvements.
- Ability to evaluate tradeoffs involving performance, reliability, cost, schedule, scalability, sustainability, and maintainability.
- Ability to lead technical work in ambiguous, rapidly changing environments.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills for explaining complex engineering decisions to customers, executives, and cross-functional teams.
- Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, systems engineering, applied physics, or a related technical discipline.

## Nice-to-haves
- Experience with high-density GPU clusters and direct-to-chip liquid cooling.
- Experience connecting facility models with workload, rack, server, or chip-level power and thermal behavior.
- Familiarity with Modelica, MATLAB/Simulink, Python, EnergyPlus, computational fluid dynamics tools, or equivalent platforms.
- Experience with BMS, EPMS, DCIM, SCADA, PLCs, data historians, or industrial controls.
- Experience developing reference designs or infrastructure architectures at a hyperscaler, data center operator, advanced engineering organization, or major design consultancy.
- Experience taking infrastructure concepts from modeling and prototype validation through deployment and operational feedback.
- Advanced degree in an engineering or scientific discipline.

## Compensation
- Annual salary range: $360,000–$530,000 USD.

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