Mechanical Engineer - Thermal

The Opportunity

Data centers are evolving rapidly as AI, high-density compute, and sustainability demands push thermal infrastructure beyond traditional designs. In this role, you will work on the products and designs that help customers deploy mission-critical infrastructure at megawatt scale with speed and efficiency. You will collaborate with manufacturing, product management, suppliers, and customer-facing teams to turn early concepts into practical product solutions

Job Summary

The Mechanical Engineer - Thermal will work within Vertiv’s global new product development team to design critical infrastructure products for next-generation data centers. This role focuses on thermal and mechanical system design for new products, platforms, and customer-driven solutions, including liquid cooling, HVAC integration, heat rejection, airflow management, and emerging cooling technologies.

This engineer will own mechanical and thermal design activities from concept through release, including system architecture, equipment and component selection, thermal and fluid calculations, BIM/3D modeling, CFD and FNM coordination, BOM generation, prototype support, design verification, and production readiness. The role requires strong technical judgment, passion for innovation, cross-functional collaboration, and the ability to balance performance, cost, manufacturability, reliability, serviceability, and schedule to deliver solutions at speed.

What You Will Do

• Develop conceptual, detailed, and production-ready thermal designs for new data center infrastructure products and platforms.
• Translate customer requirements, product roadmaps, and business needs into engineering requirements, system architectures, and practical design solutions.
• Design and integrate liquid cooling, HVAC, heat rejection, airflow management, and other mechanical subsystems into complete data center infrastructure solutions.
• Perform thermal, fluid, airflow, energy, and component selection calculations to guide product decisions and validate design performance.
• Create BIM/3D models, drawings, schematics, specifications, bills of material, and release documentation for prototypes, production release, and customer-facing deliverables.
• Drive prototype learning, CFD and fluid-network modeling coordination, laboratory testing, design verification, and corrective actions.
• Collaborate with electrical, controls, structural, manufacturing, procurement, quality, service, product management, and sales teams to deliver integrated and scalable product solutions.
• Support supplier selection, component sourcing, technical bid evaluation, and manufacturability reviews for critical mechanical and thermal components.
• Provide production and field support during prototype builds, factory integration, testing, customer projects, and R&D activities.
• Lead and participate in design reviews, technical tradeoff discussions, and stakeholder presentations.
• Research emerging data center cooling technologies, construction methods, and infrastructure architectures to influence future product direction.

What Will Make You Successful (Minimum Qualifications)

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related engineering discipline; advanced degree preferred.
• 3-5 years of relevant engineering experience in product development, data center infrastructure, HVAC systems, thermal systems, modular infrastructure, or mission-critical facilities.
• Strong understanding of thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, refrigeration cycles, airflow management, and mechanical component selection.
• Experience developing engineering drawings, 3D models, mechanical assemblies, schematics, specifications, BOMs, and release documentation.
• Proficiency with BIM/CAD tools such as Revit, Inventor, AutoCAD, Creo, SolidWorks, or similar platforms.
• Experience working with suppliers, manufacturing teams, quality teams, and cross-functional engineering groups to launch new products or complex engineered systems.
• Strong communication, problem-solving, innovation, curiosity, and technical decision-making skills.
• Ability to work independently, manage multiple priorities, and make sound engineering tradeoffs in a fast-paced product development environment.

How To Stand Out

• Experience with modular data center products, prefabricated infrastructure, liquid cooling, CDUs, chillers, CRAHs, dry coolers, pumps, heat exchangers, piping, or heat rejection systems.
• Experience with CFD or fluid-network modeling tools such as Cadence Reality DC, Ansys, Flownex, GT-Suite, Modelica, or similar platforms.
• Masters or PhD with thermodynamic, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, or related discipline.
• Familiarity with ASHRAE guidance, energy codes, and design practices for critical infrastructure environments.
• Experience supporting prototype builds, laboratory testing, factory acceptance testing, design validation, and production launch.
• Demonstrated ability to innovate within real-world constraints and communicate technical recommendations to engineering leaders, customers, and business stakeholders.

Who Will Thrive In This Role

This role is well suited for an engineer who enjoys solving open-ended technical problems, learning emerging cooling technologies, working hands-on with prototypes, and translating analysis into products that can be manufactured and deployed at speed and scale for mission-critical customers.

Travel Requirements

• Travel up to 15-25% may be required to support supplier reviews, prototype builds, factory integration, customer project support, and R&D activities.