Director, Mechanical Engineering – North America, Data Centers

Nscale is a GPU cloud company engineered for AI, providing high-performance infrastructure for AI startups and large enterprises. The Director of Mechanical Engineering will lead mechanical design ownership and engineering governance for Nscale's North America data center portfolio, focusing on high-density AI infrastructure and liquid-cooled GPU hardware.

Responsibilities:

• Own the mechanical basis of design for U.S. data centers, including cooling plant architectures, heat rejection, piping design, water treatment, and control system interfaces
• Lead concept, schematic, and detailed design reviews for new builds and expansion projects
• Establish and maintain mechanical design standards and reference architectures to enable repeatable, rapid deployment across the U.S
• Ensure designs meet availability, maintainability, and efficiency targets and are suitable for high-density AI workloads
• Lead the development of liquid cooling readiness standards, including direct-to-chip and/or rear-door heat exchanger strategies, CDU/HX integration, piping and materials strategy, water quality and treatment, leak detection, containment, and acceptance criteria
• Provide engineering support through long-lead equipment procurement, submittals, RFIs, field changes, and issue resolution during construction
• Select and manage architectural and engineering consultants throughout the design process, from schematic design through construction documents
• Enforce quality and documentation standards through drawing and specification reviews
• Lead review of internal and external third-party CFD studies to validate airflow management, temperature compliance, and thermal resilience across the site
• Partner cross-functionally with Construction, Commissioning, Operations, Procurement, and product/platform stakeholders to ensure mechanical systems meet business and customer requirements
• Implement lessons learned from deployments to improve reliability, maintainability, cooling performance, and energy efficiency
• Build and lead a high-performing team of engineers, including hiring, mentoring, performance management, and career development
• Support mechanical technical due diligence for potential greenfield, brownfield, and colocation sites
• Assess cooling architecture, redundancy, capacity headroom, maintainability, operational maturity, and fit for high-density AI workloads
• Review landlord/operator documentation, including basis of design, one-lines, P&IDs, sequences of operation, maintenance records, incident history, and commissioning reports
• Define and negotiate mechanical lease exhibits and technical schedules, including capacity commitments, metering approach, operating envelopes, maintenance windows, response SLAs, and change control requirements
• Support early-stage site screening by defining mechanical utility and constructability requirements, including cooling approach, water strategy, heat rejection constraints, climate considerations, and expansion capacity
• Assess site constraints and delivery risks, including heat rejection feasibility, plant room planning, yard requirements, equipment setbacks, and upgrade pathways

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering
• Professional Engineering License
• 5+ years of mechanical engineering experience in mission-critical facilities, with significant time in data center design
• 3+ years of engineering leadership experience, including people leadership and/or leading large multi-site programmes
• Strong understanding of cooling systems for high-density compute, including air and liquid-cooled strategies, heat rejection options, redundancy models, hydronic systems, piping design, equipment selection, and controls sequences
• Experience working with U.S. engineering firms, AHJs, and state/local code environments
• Strong presence and decision-making capability
• Pragmatic, risk-based leadership style suited to fast-paced construction environments
• High judgement in high-consequence scenarios
• Ability to challenge delivery teams while maintaining strong partnership and trust