Data Center Electrical R&D Design Engineer
OpenAI
Summary
We are seeking an experienced Data Center Electrical R&D Design Engineer to develop and validate next-generation power architectures for high-density AI infrastructure. This role is focused on research, advanced design, modeling, prototyping, and technical validation rather than ongoing facility operations.
Job description
About the Role
We are seeking an experienced Data Center Electrical R&D Design Engineer to develop and validate next-generation power architectures for high-density AI infrastructure. This role is focused on research, advanced design, modeling, prototyping, and technical validation rather than ongoing facility operations.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop advanced electrical architectures for high-density AI data centers, from utility interconnection through rack-level power delivery.
- Translate evolving compute-platform requirements into electrical capacity, topology, redundancy, power-quality, protection, and control requirements.
- Create conceptual designs, basis-of-design documents, specifications, one-line diagrams, design standards, and reusable reference architectures.
- Model electrical-system performance, capacity, efficiency, reliability, fault conditions, transient behavior, and failure scenarios.
- Evaluate emerging technologies such as medium-voltage distribution, solid-state power conversion, advanced UPS systems, energy storage, alternative generation, and direct-current architectures.
- Build technical and economic comparisons across competing design approaches.
- Develop prototypes, test plans, acceptance criteria, and validation frameworks for new electrical technologies and system architectures.
- Lead laboratory, factory, pilot-site, and field testing to validate design assumptions and identify performance or integration gaps.
- Partner with mechanical and thermal engineers to optimize power and cooling architectures as an integrated system.
- Collaborate with AI hardware and compute teams to understand workload behavior, rack density, utilization, power variability, and future platform requirements.
- Work with controls and software teams to define instrumentation, telemetry, protection, monitoring, and automated-control requirements.
- Partner with construction, commissioning, and operations teams to ensure new designs can be safely built, tested, operated, and maintained.
- Engage equipment manufacturers, utilities, engineering consultants, and research partners to evaluate capabilities and accelerate technology development.
- Investigate system failures and unexpected test results, identify root causes, and translate findings into design improvements.
- Document validated designs, technical decisions, operating envelopes, lessons learned, and deployment guidance.
- Provide technical direction and design-review leadership across internal teams and external engineering partners.
Qualifications
- 10+ years of experience in electrical engineering, power-system design, data-center infrastructure, industrial power, or another critical-infrastructure environment.
- Deep expertise in electrical power distribution, including medium- and low-voltage systems, substations, transformers, switchgear, protection, UPS systems, generators, and rack-level power delivery.
- Demonstrated experience developing electrical designs for large, complex, or high-availability facilities.
- Strong understanding of power-system modeling, short-circuit analysis, load flow, coordination studies, arc-flash analysis, power quality, grounding, and reliability.
- Experience translating uncertain or evolving technical requirements into testable engineering concepts and system architectures.
- Experience designing experiments, prototypes, pilots, or validation programs for new equipment or infrastructure technologies.
- Ability to reason across electrical, mechanical, controls, compute hardware, construction, commissioning, and operational boundaries.
- Experience evaluating engineering tradeoffs using quantitative analysis, simulation, testing, and field data.
- Strong technical writing and communication skills.
- Experience directing engineering consultants, equipment manufacturers, and external technology partners.
- Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering or a related engineering discipline.
Preferred Skills
- Master's degree or PhD in electrical engineering, power systems, power electronics, energy systems, or a related field.
- Professional Engineer license or equivalent professional certification.
- Experience supporting high-density data centers, AI infrastructure, semiconductor manufacturing, advanced industrial facilities, or hyperscale computing environments.
- Experience with ETAP, SKM, EasyPower, PSCAD, MATLAB/Simulink, or comparable power-system analysis tools.
- Experience with power electronics, energy storage, microgrids, alternative generation, or advanced grid-interconnection technologies.
- Familiarity with digital twins, hardware-in-the-loop testing, real-time simulation, and data-driven infrastructure optimization.
- Experience carrying a new technology from research or prototype through qualification, commissioning, and scaled deployment.
- Knowledge of electrical codes, utility requirements, safety standards, and regulatory requirements across multiple geographies.
- Published research, patents, technical standards contributions, or demonstrated invention in electrical or critical-infrastructure systems.
Requirements
- 10+ years of experience in electrical engineering, power-system design, data-center infrastructure, industrial power, or another critical-infrastructure environment
- Deep expertise in electrical power distribution, including medium- and low-voltage systems, substations, transformers, switchgear, protection, UPS systems, generators, and rack-level power delivery
- Demonstrated experience developing electrical designs for large, complex, or high-availability facilities
- Strong understanding of power-system modeling, short-circuit analysis, load flow, coordination studies, arc-flash analysis, power quality, grounding, and reliability
- Experience translating uncertain or evolving technical requirements into testable engineering concepts and system architectures
- Experience designing experiments, prototypes, pilots, or validation programs for new equipment or infrastructure technologies
- Ability to reason across electrical, mechanical, controls, compute hardware, construction, commissioning, and operational boundaries
- Experience evaluating engineering tradeoffs using quantitative analysis, simulation, testing, and field data
- Strong technical writing and communication skills
- Experience directing engineering consultants, equipment manufacturers, and external technology partners
- Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering or a related engineering discipline
Benefits
- Medical, Dental & Vision
- Health Savings Accounts
- Health FSA
- Dependent Care FSA
- Commuter Expenses
- 401(k) Retirement Plan
- Paid Parental Leave
- Paid Medical Leave
- Paid Caregiver Leave
- Flexible PTO
- Paid Company Holidays
- Paid Sick Time
- Mental Health Support
- Life & Disability Coverage
- Learning & Development Stipend
- Daily Meals
- Relocation Support
- Charitable Donation Matching
Company overview
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research laboratory and company based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2015 by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, Wojciech Zaremba, and John Schulman, OpenAI initially operated as a non-profit research organization before transitioning to a capped-profit model. The company's mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. OpenAI has developed groundbreaking AI technologies including GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) models, DALL-E for image generation, and Codex for programming assistance. Their most notable product, ChatGPT, has revolutionized human-AI interaction and brought large language models to mainstream audiences. OpenAI conducts cutting-edge research in machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and reinforcement learning, while also developing practical AI applications that are transforming industries worldwide.