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Position SummaryThe Solutions Architect is a senior technical leader within Daikin Applied's Data Center of Excellence (CoE). This role leads the development of standardized reference architectures and drives technical strategy across the full data-center thermal value chain-from chip to chiller.
The Solutions Architect will have direct customer engagement and work closely with data center owners, developers, hyperscalers, integrators, and Neo-Cloud operators to shape design standards, influence solution selection, and guide purchasing decisions aligned with Daikin Data Center Solutions.
This is a highly visible role that blends engineering depth with commercial impact. This role directly enhances Daikin's competitive position by strengthening market credibility and customer trust with best-in-class technical engagement and increasing design wins through direct customer influence. Reducing technical and commercial risk via validated architectures and PoC testing. Accelerating product innovation through real-world performance insights and solution leadership.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities- Technical Leader and expert in the Data Center Solutions specialty to develop and govern standardized cooling reference architectures for AI-focused data center deployments.
- Define system-level topology across liquid cooling, air cooling, plant design, and heat rejection strategies.
- Architect integrated solutions that align thermal systems, electrical constraints, controls philosophy, and operational resilience.
- Establish design guardrails, scalability boundaries, and redundancy strategies.
- Support proof-of-concept testing, performance benchmarking, interoperability validation, and technical demonstrations within the Data Center CoE Innovation Lab in San Diego.
- Lead cross-functional architecture reviews across engineering, product, service, and commercial teams.
- Drive techno-economic trade studies balancing performance, reliability, footprint, manufacturability, and cost.
- Define control philosophy and system orchestration standards across plant equipment and distribution systems.
- Incorporate field performance feedback and commissioning lessons into architecture evolution to make improvements to products
- Support customer-facing technical discussions with hyperscale, enterprise, and colocation stakeholders.
- Contribute to long-term product and platform strategy alignment.
- Engage selectively with external stakeholders to position Daikin solutions early in design cycles.
- Strong ability to articulate both system-level architecture and product-level technical detail in executive and customer-facing settings.
- Sales-aware mindset with the ability to influence customer design decisions and guide solution alignment.
- Excellent communication skills, emotional intelligence, and executive presence in customer and partner interactions.
- Highly collaborative and effective in cross-functional environments, aligned with CoE team culture.
- Ability to travel to the San Diego Innovation Lab, customer sites, partner facilities, and internal meetings as required.
Preferred Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities- Experience contributing to or governing formal reference architectures or system design standards.
- Exposure to AI-focused or high-density computing infrastructure.
- Experience supporting proof-of-concept validation, performance benchmarking, or interoperability testing.
- Familiarity with system modeling, energy analysis, or simulation tools.
- Experience presenting technical strategy to executive stakeholders.
Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities- BSc Mechanical, electrical, systems, industrial, or automation engineering
- 10+ years' experience
- Technical expert in at least one major data center domain (mechanical systems, thermal cooling, controls, integration, or systems architecture), with the ability to think across domains at the system level.
- Experience in mission-critical infrastructure system design.
- Demonstrated expertise in liquid cooling integration and central plant architectures.
- Strong understanding of redundancy models and high-availability system design.
- Working knowledge of plant control strategies and integrated system operation.
- Demonstrated business acumen with experience evaluating architecture decisions through lifecycle cost, capital efficiency, operational impact, and market positioning.
- Experience conducting or contributing to structured technical and commercial trade studies.
Benefits Daikin Applied offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:
- Multiple medical insurance plan options + dental and vision insurance
- 401K retirement plan with employer contributions matching 100% of the first 3% of employee contributions and 50% of the next 2% of employee contributions
- Company provided life insurance + optional employee-paid voluntary life insurance, dependent life coverage, and voluntary accident coverage
- Short-term and long-term disability
- 3 weeks of paid time off for new employees + 11 company-paid holidays
- Vacation accrues on a monthly basis, unless applicable federal, state, and local law requires a faster accrual
- Paid sick time in accordance with the federal, state, and local law
- Paid parental leave and tuition reimbursement after 6 months of continuous service
The typical annual base salary for this position ranges from 109K - 188.7K. The range displayed represents the pay range for all positions in the job grade which this position falls. Individual base pay will depend on a wide range of factors including your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.
If you're looking for an engaging career with growth opportunities in a supportive environment, you'll love a career at Daikin Applied!
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