Senior Mechanical Infrastructure Engineer

DigitalOcean
Kansas City, US
On-site

Who this role is best for

Strong fit for mechanical engineers with hands-on cooling infrastructure expertise who thrive in collaborative, mission-critical environments.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with deep cooling system experience and leadership capabilities in data center environments
    — “primary SME for all cooling-related engineering topics at DigitalOcean”
  • Individuals passionate about thermal management and infrastructure innovation at scale
    — “passion for constant improvement”
  • Candidates who have led and mentored teams in high-pressure, mission-critical settings
    — “Lead, hire, train, mentor and develop a high-performing team”

Things to consider

  • This role requires on-site presence in Kansas City, with no remote flexibility indicated
    — “*This is a onsite role”
  • The position involves significant cross-functional coordination across infrastructure teams
    — “Work closely with Infra teams such as DC Operations and Machine Design”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience leading cooling infrastructure projects in high-density environments
    — “lead design, deployment, and monitoring of next-generation cooling infrastructure”
  • Emphasize your ability to evangelize and influence technical decisions across teams
    — “Evangelize cooling technologies throughout the Infra organization”
  • Showcase your expertise in both air and liquid cooling technologies with specific examples
    — “Inform facility design requirements with best practices for both air and liquid cooling”
  • Demonstrate your track record in developing thermal monitoring systems and alerting frameworks
    — “Develop cooling monitoring tooling and systems to aggregate thermal monitoring information”
  • Demonstrate your ability to coordinate with vendors and colocation teams on system designs
    — “Liaise with colocation facility engineering teams regarding mechanical system designs”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • design, deployment, and monitoring of next-generation cooling infrastructure in high-density datacenter environments
Typical background
mechanical engineering or related field

Skills & requirements

Required

Technical Degree In Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Or Manufacturing EngineeringHands-on Experience Deploying And Operating Cooling Infrastructure At ScaleExperience With Leading, Mentoring And Developing StaffIn-depth Understanding Of Facility Cooling TechnologiesStrong Understanding Of Thermal Management Principles In Mission Critical EnvironmentsClear Communication And Collaboration Across Key Stakeholders

Preferred

Liquid Cooling Systems Experience

Stack & domain

Cooling InfrastructureFacility Cooling LoopsPumpsChiller SystemsHeat ExchangersCdusDirect Liquid CoolingRear-door Heat ExchangersCommunicationCollaborationData Center EngineeringThermal Management

About the role

Original posting from DigitalOcean

Dive in and do the best work of your career at DigitalOcean. Journey alongside a strong community of top talent who are relentless in their drive to build the simplest scalable cloud. If you have a growth mindset, naturally like to think big and bold, and are energized by the fast-paced environment of a true industry disruptor, you’ll find your place here.  We value winning together—while learning, having fun, and making a profound difference for the dreamers and builders in the world. 

We want people who are passionate about optimizing and troubleshooting data center hardware at mega-scale so our customers don’t have to worry!

Reporting to the Director of Datacenter Engineering, you will lead design, deployment, and monitoring of next-generation cooling infrastructure in high-density datacenter environments. The ideal candidate will be eager to face new challenges as DigitalOcean continues to scale its data center footprint and explore new technologies to bring to our customers.

What You’ll Be Doing:

Act as primary SME for all cooling-related engineering topics at DigitalOcean

Act as secondary SME for all power-related engineering topics at DigitalOcean

Evangelize cooling technologies throughout the Infra organization and company

Develop and maintain standards and practices for DigitalOcean datacenter facilities

Inform facility design requirements with best practices for both air and liquid cooling

Liaise with colocation facility engineering teams regarding mechanical system designs

Liaise with vendor hardware engineering teams regarding hardware solution designs

Lead selection of liquid cooling systems during the hardware design, ensuring designs not only meet our current needs but can scale with us

Develop cooling monitoring tooling and systems to aggregate thermal monitoring information and provide alerting capabilities

Coordinate with operations on monitoring thresholds, failure modes and alerting

Assist in troubleshooting cause of failures and work to prevent them in the future

Work closely with Infra teams such as DC Operations and Machine Design to ensure facility readiness for next-generation solutions

What We’ll Expect From You:

Technical Degree (BS Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or Manufacturing Engineering) or equivalent practical experience 

Hands-on experience deploying and operating cooling infrastructure at scale (including experience with facility cooling loops and designs, pumps, chiller systems, heat exchangers, CDUs(Cooling Distribution Units), Direct Liquid Cooling, rear-door heat exchangers, etc.)

An in-depth understanding of facility cooling technologies (free-air/adiabatic, closed loop air, cold aisle/hot aisle containment strategies, direct liquid cooling, immersion cooling, etc.)

Strong understanding of thermal management principles in mission critical environments and knowledge of best practices around thermal monitoring and alerting

Clear communication and collaboration across key stakeholders

An insatiable passion for constant improvement

Compensation Range: 

$130,000 - $160,000

*This is a onsite role

JR: 2026-7651

#LI-Onsite

Why You’ll Like Working for DigitalOcean

We innovate with purpose. You’ll be a part of a cutting-edge technology company with an upward trajectory, who are proud to simplify cloud and AI so builders can spend more time creating software that changes the world. As a member of the team, you will be a Shark who thinks big, bold, and scrappy, like an owner with a bias for action and a powerful sense of responsibility for customers, products, employees, and decisions.

We prioritize career development. At DO, you’ll do the best work of your career. You will work with some of the smartest and most interesting people in the industry. We are a high-performance organization that will always challenge you to think big. Our organizational development team will provide you with resources to ensure you keep growing. We provide employees with reimbursement for relevant conferences, training, and education. All employees have access to LinkedIn Learning's 10,000+ courses to support their continued growth and development.

We care about your well-being. Regardless of your location, we will provide you with a competitive array of benefits to support you from our Employee Assistance Program to Local Employee Meetups to flexible time off policy, to name a few. While the philosophy around our benefits is the same worldwide, specific benefits may vary based on local regulations and preferences.

We reward our employees. The salary range for this position is based on market data, relevant years of experience, and skills. You may qualify for a bonus in addition to base salary; bonus amounts are determined based on company and individual performance. We also provide equity compensation to eligible employees, including equity grants upon hire and the option to participate in our Employee Stock Purchase Program.

DigitalOcean is an equal-opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.

Application Limit: You may apply to a maximum of 3 positions within any 180-day period. This policy promotes better role-candidate matching and encourages thoughtful applications where your qualifications align most strongly.

Source: DigitalOcean careers

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