Role: Thermal/Cooling Architect – (Data Center Thermal/Cooling Architecture)
Location: Plano, TX | Fremont, CA (5 Days Onsite)
Type: Fulltime/Permanent
Base salary: $170K–$200K Base +Benefits +Bonus
About the Role
Thermal/Cooling Architect for Data Center Infrastructure to lead the development of next-generation thermal management and cooling architectures supporting hyperscale and enterprise data center platforms. This role will drive system-level cooling strategies that enable efficient, scalable, and reliable thermal management across facility, rack, and component levels.
The ideal candidate brings deep experience designing thermal infrastructure for data centers, including air and liquid cooling architectures, rack-level thermal design, and system-level thermal optimization. This individual will influence platform direction across internal engineering teams, hyperscale customers, and ecosystem partners.
Key Responsibilities
- Define and drive end-to-end data center thermal architecture spanning facility cooling systems, row-level cooling, rack-level thermal management, and component-level heat dissipation.
- Lead the development of next-generation cooling strategies for hyperscale and AI/HPC data center platforms, including both air-based and liquid cooling technologies.
- Architect high-efficiency cooling and thermal management systems supporting modern compute platforms with rapidly increasing power densities.
- Collaborate closely with system engineering, product management, silicon partners, and hyperscale customers to define future data center cooling and thermal infrastructure requirements.
- Translate AI, cloud, and high-performance computing workload trends into thermal design requirements at the facility, row, rack, and component levels.
- Drive reference cooling architectures and system design guidelines for next-generation data center platforms.
- Evaluate and optimize advanced cooling approaches, including:
- Direct-to-chip liquid cooling
- Rear door heat exchangers
- Immersion cooling
- Cold plate technologies
Advanced air cooling strategies
- Lead thermal trade-off analysis across efficiency, scalability, reliability, serviceability, and cost to determine optimal cooling architectures.
- Develop architectural strategies supporting high-density racks (100kW+), AI clusters, and advanced accelerator platforms.
- Collaborate with internal and external teams to develop proof-of-concept cooling systems and reference designs validating new thermal management approaches.
- Provide technical leadership across engineering teams and influence product roadmaps aligned with evolving hyperscale infrastructure requirements.
- Stay current on industry trends in data center cooling technologies, including liquid cooling ecosystems, high-density rack thermal design, and emerging thermal management innovations.
Technical Expertise
- Deep knowledge of data center thermal architecture and cooling infrastructure
- Experience designing data center cooling systems for hyperscale environments
- Expertise in air cooling and liquid cooling architectures
- Experience with:
- Direct-to-chip liquid cooling
- Immersion cooling systems
- Rear door heat exchangers
- Cold plate and manifold designs
- Rack-level cooling distribution
- Strong understanding of thermal challenges in high-density compute environments, including AI and GPU clusters
- Experience with thermal modeling and simulation tools (CFD, thermal analysis)
- Familiarity with server and accelerator platform thermal requirements
- Understanding of high-speed compute platforms, CPGPUs, and system architecture implications on thermal design
- Knowledge of modern data center technologies, including:
- PCIe
- CXL
- Ethernet
- InfiniBand
- NVMe / NVMe-oF
- Ability to evaluate system-level thermal efficiency, reliability, and operational tradeoffs
Minimum Qualifications
- BS, MS, or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Thermal Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related discipline
- 10–15+ years of experience in thermal architecture, cooling systems, or thermal design
- Extensive experience designing cooling infrastructure for data center platforms
- Demonstrated expertise in high-density rack cooling and thermal management for AI/HPC systems
- Strong background in thermal analysis, heat transfer, and cooling system design
- Proven ability to influence system architecture decisions across cross-functional teams
- Experience working with hyperscale data center operators, server OEMs, or infrastructure vendors
Personal Attributes
- Strong analytical and system-level thinking skills
- Ability to translate complex thermal challenges into scalable architecture strategies
- Excellent collaboration and communication skills across engineering and business teams
- High attention to detail and commitment to technical excellence
- Self-driven with the ability to lead initiatives in fast-moving environments
- Strong problem-solving and critical thinking capabilities
