Job Type
Full-time
Description
Fermi America is seeking a Senior Data Center Technical Specialist to serve as the technical authority for all data center engineering and infrastructure systems across Fermi's hyperscale program. This role oversees the full spectrum of technical engineering within the data center environment-including electrical, mechanical, controls, fire protection, and building management systems-ensuring that design standards, equipment specifications, and vendor commitments produce constructible, maintainable, and reliable infrastructure.
The Senior Data Center Technical Specialist serves as Fermi's design liaison, connecting Fermi's technical standards with the consultants, integrators, and engineering partners responsible for meeting them. This role reviews design deliverables for conformance with Fermi's basis of design, drives technical standardization across all building packages, and ensures that engineering decisions translate into field-ready solutions. When a tenant encounters design or engineering challenges, this role leads the technical resolution while protecting Fermi's design integrity.
The Senior Data Center Technical Specialist draws discipline-specific expertise from Fermi's campus-wide Engineering Team, which includes the DC Electrical Subject Matter Expert, DC Mechanical Subject Matter Expert, and DC Controls & Operational Technology Lead. This role also owns the vendor-management strategy for critical data center equipment, ensuring that technical specifications and vendor-capacity commitments align with construction delivery schedules and customer requirements.
Owning the standard is what makes it enforceable. Under lump-sum turnkey delivery-where the design-build partner controls both design and construction-this role serves as Fermi's technical check on that partner. The Senior Data Center Technical Specialist holds the design-builder, consultants, and integrator accountable to Fermi's basis of design throughout construction and commissioning, not solely during design review.
The role maintains the technical thread from design development through installation, commissioning, and turnover, ensuring that issues created early in the process are not discovered late.
This role reports to the Head of DC Service & Delivery and works closely with the Director of DC Construction, DC Facility Operations Manager, Procurement, Preconstruction, Construction, Safety, Quality, and Project Controls teams.
Fermi operates in a matrix environment where success depends on influence and partnership as much as direct authority. The right technical leader will build strong, collaborative relationships across every function and foster a culture of transparency, shared accountability, and mutual respect.
Key Responsibilities- Serve as Fermi's technical authority across all data center MEP disciplines, including electrical distribution, mechanical cooling, controls and automation, fire protection, and building management systems. Ensure that design and construction decisions meet Fermi's performance, reliability, and redundancy standards.
- Hold the design-build partner, design consultants, and integrator accountable to Fermi's basis of design and technical standards throughout construction-not solely during design review-and escalate deviations before they are built.
- Verify installed work against approved design documents, submittals, and vendor data through field walkdowns and installation reviews rather than relying on document review alone.
- Identify, document, and drive the resolution of technical nonconformances, with the authority to reject work that does not meet design-intent, redundancy, or reliability requirements.
- Carry open technical issues across the design, construction, and commissioning phases. Maintain a single technical-issues register so that problems created during design are not discovered during commissioning.
- Own operability and turnover readiness from a technical perspective, confirming before acceptance that as-built systems can be operated, maintained, and supported safely by the operations and maintenance provider.
- Act as the design liaison between Fermi and external design consultants, integrators, and engineering firms. Review design deliverables for conformance with Fermi's basis of design, technical standards, and applicable industry codes and standards, including those issued by the Uptime Institute, ASHRAE, NFPA, NETA, and TIA-942.
- Own and maintain Fermi's data center basis-of-design and technical-standards documentation. Drive consistency across all building packages and ensure that standards evolve as the program scales and technology advances.
- Interface with tenant technical representatives regarding design and engineering challenges. Provide technical support, evaluate the effects of proposed modifications on facility systems, and ensure that resolutions protect Fermi's design integrity without compromising redundancy, reliability, or other tenants' infrastructure.
- Own the technical-specification and vendor-qualification processes for critical data center equipment, including medium-voltage switchgear, uninterruptible power supply systems, power distribution units, generators, cooling distribution units, chillers, and building management systems.
- Direct the involvement of the campus-wide Engineering Team-including the DC Electrical Subject Matter Expert, DC Mechanical Subject Matter Expert, and DC Controls & Operational Technology Lead-across active and upcoming building packages. Establish technical-review priorities for design reviews, factory witness testing, and commissioning without holding direct supervisory authority.
- Establish and maintain vendor-capacity tracking systems that monitor supplier production schedules, factory acceptance testing, and delivery commitments.
- Drive technical standardization across the data center program by defining preferred equipment platforms, approved-vendor lists, and standard specification packages that reduce design variability and accelerate procurement.
- Partner with the QA/QC Commissioning Manager on commissioning and technical readiness. Provide technical guidance concerning performance goals, redundancy-validation protocols, and testing sequences to ensure every building is energized safely and meets its design intent before tenant load is introduced.
- Serve as the technical escalation point for equipment-related requests for information, substitution requests, design conflicts, and field issues arising during construction and commissioning.
- Partner with Procurement to negotiate technical terms, evaluate vendor proposals, and conduct factory visits and production-readiness assessments.
- Coordinate with the design lead for each building package to ensure that equipment specifications are accurately reflected in design documents and vendor data is incorporated into construction-ready packages.
- Monitor data center technology trends-including high-density cooling, liquid-cooling architectures, advanced power distribution, and energy storage-to inform Fermi's technical roadmap and the continued development of its design standards.
- Build and sustain strong, collaborative relationships across Procurement, Construction, Design, and Project Controls, fostering open communication, mutual accountability, and trust.
AI-Enabled Execution PhilosophyFermi America integrates artificial intelligence and advanced analytics into its core project-delivery workflows. The Senior Data Center Technical Specialist will be expected to embrace and champion this philosophy by:
- Deploying AI-driven vendor-risk assessment models to monitor supplier financial health, production capacity, and delivery reliability across the equipment supply chain.
- Using predictive analytics to identify equipment procurement and delivery risks before they affect construction milestones, enabling proactive resolution.
- Leveraging AI-powered specification-analysis and design-review tools to accelerate equipment evaluations, validate conformance with Fermi's basis of design, and ensure technical compliance across concurrent building packages.
- Supporting the development of automated equipment-tracking dashboards that integrate vendor-production data with project-schedule and logistics systems.
- Championing AI-assisted technical document reviews for submittals, operations and maintenance manuals, design deliverables, and factory test reports to reduce review-cycle times and improve quality.
- Collaborating with Project Controls to integrate equipment cost and schedule data into AI-driven forecasting models, providing portfolio-level visibility.
Requirements
Relevant Experience- 15+ years of experience in data center engineering, technical program management, or critical-infrastructure delivery, including at least eight years in hyperscale or mission-critical environments.
- Deep technical knowledge across all data center MEP disciplines, including critical-power distribution architectures such as 2N, N+1, and catcher systems; air-cooled, liquid-cooled, and hybrid cooling-system designs; fire protection; controls and automation; and building management systems.
- Substantial construction-phase experience on data center or mission-critical projects, including an active field presence during installation, startup, and commissioning-not solely design or consulting experience.
- Demonstrated experience serving as an owner's technical representative and holding design-build partners, engineering, procurement, and construction contractors, or general contractors accountable to owner standards, including issuing and resolving technical nonconformances.
- Experience with lump-sum turnkey or design-build delivery models, where the contractor controls design and construction and the owner maintains leverage through technical standards, review rights, and commissioning acceptance.
- Demonstrated experience serving as a technical authority or design liaison on multibillion-dollar data center or mission-critical infrastructure programs, with direct responsibility for reviewing and approving design deliverables against owner standards.
- Strong understanding of data center basis-of-design development, technical-standards governance, and the translation of customer technical requirements into constructible specifications.
- Experience managing vendor relationships and critical-equipment procurement, including specification development, factory acceptance testing, and commissioning oversight.
- Proven ability to provide technical direction to discipline engineers and subject matter experts across multiple concurrent projects or building phases, including shared-resource or matrixed arrangements without direct supervisory authority.
- Demonstrated experience working with tenant technical representatives to resolve design and engineering challenges while maintaining design integrity and facility reliability.
- Experience partnering with commissioning teams on hyperscale or mission-critical facilities, including providing technical input concerning performance testing, redundancy validation, and integrated-systems testing.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for commercial, construction, and executive stakeholders.
- Proven ability to operate effectively in a matrix organization where influence, alignment, and partnership are as important as direct authority.
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical discipline. An advanced degree is preferred.
Preferred Qualifications- Direct experience with hyperscale data center programs for major technology companies-such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, or Oracle-or leading data center developers, including Equinix, Digital Realty, QTS, Compass Datacenters, or EdgeCore.
- Professional Engineer licensure in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering.
- BICSI Data Center Design Consultant certification or equivalent expertise in data center design standards.
- Familiarity with emerging data center technologies, including direct-to-chip liquid cooling, rear-door heat exchangers, high-density power distribution, and advanced building and electrical power monitoring systems.
- Experience with Uptime Institute Tier III or Tier IV certification processes and concurrent-maintainability requirements.
- Working knowledge of NETA acceptance-testing standards, arc-flash analysis, and critical-power commissioning sequences.
- Comfort working in a high-growth organization where this role will help define technical standards and vendor strategies as the platform expands.
Work Requirements- This is a 100% on-site position based at Fermi's campus in Amarillo, Texas, with periodic travel to vendor facilities, fabrication shops, and partner offices as needed.
- Ability to work on active construction sites, including walking job sites, climbing ladders, and navigating unfinished structures in varying weather conditions.
- Willingness to wear all required personal protective equipment while on site, including a hard hat, safety glasses, high-visibility vest, steel-toe boots, and hearing protection.
- Flexibility to work extended hours during critical construction milestones, commissioning events, or schedule-recovery efforts as needed.
Why This Role MattersTechnical engineering excellence is the foundation of everything Fermi builds. From power distribution and cooling architecture to controls integration, every system must be designed correctly, built according to that design, and proven before it carries a load.
Under turnkey delivery, the partner controls both design and construction. This makes an independent owner-side technical authority the difference between accepting what was promised and accepting what was convenient.
Fermi needs a senior technical leader who establishes the standard, carries it into the field, and holds partners accountable to it-from the first design review through final turnover.
