Principal Critical Facilities Engineer (SME)
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Nov 1, 2026. First seen by Alion on Aug 18, 2026. Salute Mission Critical scores B on the Alion truth index.
Job Summary
The Principal Critical Facilities Engineer (PCFE) serves as the senior technical advisor to the
Director of Operations and Critical Facilities Manager (CFM). The PCFE provides enterprise-level
technical leadership for all Critical Facilities Engineering operations by establishing engineering
standards, maintenance strategies, reliability programs, technical governance, and operational
excellence across the campus. The role serves as the site's highest technical authority, providing
expert consultation, approving maintenance procedures, supporting incident response, and
partnering with customer engineering to maximize uptime, reliability, and efficiency.
Technical Leadership
- Serve as the senior technical authority for all critical infrastructure systems.
- Advise the Director and CFM on engineering strategy, reliability, and technical risk.
- Provide 24/7 technical consultation during major incidents and outages.
- Support commissioning, expansions, and operational readiness.
Operational Readiness & Maintenance Governance
- Own the site's Maintenance Readiness Program, ensuring all planned maintenance activities
are fully prepared for safe and successful execution.
- Lead daily and weekly maintenance readiness reviews with Operations, Planning, Customer
Engineering, and Vendors.
- Verifying all work packages include approved procedures, outage requests, permits, risk
assessments, switching plans, required documentation, and contingency plans.
- Ensure qualified personnel, vendors, tools, calibrated test equipment, spare parts, materials,
and support equipment are available prior to scheduled work.
- Partner with the Critical Facilities Manager to resolve schedule conflicts, resource
constraints, and operational risks.
- Validate CMMS work package quality and readiness before maintenance execution.
Monitor maintenance execution performance and drive continuous improvement through
post-work reviews and lessons learned.
Engineering Governance
- Final technical approver for SOPs, MOPs, EOPs, and maintenance procedures.
- Oversee development and continuous improvement of maintenance processes.
- Review and approve elevated-risk maintenance activities.
- Ensure engineering documentation accuracy and standardization.
Maintenance Strategy & Reliability
- Develop equipment maintenance scopes and inspection frequencies.
- Lead creation of the site's 52-week maintenance schedule.
- Optimize PM, PdM, CBM, and RCM programs.
- Improve equipment reliability and lifecycle performance.
Training & Technical Development
- Partner with Training leadership to develop the CFE training and qualification program.
- Develop technical standards and qualification requirements.
- Deliver advanced technical instruction and mentor engineers.
Incident Response & RCA
- Lead technical support during SEV events.
- Lead root cause analysis and corrective actions.
- Validate mitigation strategies.
Critical Systems Excellence
- Optimize system reliability and performance.
- Oversee quality of maintenance on mechanical systems.
- Manage technical vendor relationships.
- Develop mechanical operating standards.
Energy & Continuous Improvement
- Monitor PUE and identify energy-saving initiatives.
- Lead engineering optimization projects.
Minimum Requirements
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
- 12+ years in mission-critical engineering.
- Expert knowledge of electrical, mechanical, EPMS/BMS, Fire Life Safety and reliability
engineering.
Desired
- 15+ years in hyperscale data centers.
- Experience supporting Microsoft, AWS, Google, Meta, or Oracle.
- PE, CMRP or equivalent certification
If you are a motivated and results-driven individual with a passion for data center services and a knack for building strong client relationships, we want to hear from you. Join us in revolutionizing the data center industry and apply today!
Salute is an equal opportunity employer committed to celebrating diversity, creating an inclusive environment for all employees, and providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants; if you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform essential job functions, or receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact our Human Resources department for more information.
Compensation & Benefits Disclosure
The base salary range for this role is $149,000.00 per year. This range reflects a good-faith estimate of what we reasonably expect to pay upon hire, based on factors such as skills, experience, education, and market/location. Our comprehensive benefits include health, dental, and vision insurance, Health Savings Account (HSA), gym discount, mental health, Discounted Group Life & AD&D, Discounted Group Short & Long-term Disability, 401(k) retirement matching, PTO/paid holidays, and parental leave. Final compensation will be determined by job-related factors consistent with applicable law.