OpenAI

Mechanical Commissioning Project Engineer

OpenAI$110K — $130K *
Technical Services
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years in mechanical commissioning or related fields on complex projects.
  • Strong knowledge of mechanical systems including HVAC, hydronics, and controls.
  • Experience with reviewing commissioning specifications and functional test scripts.
  • Ability to coordinate execution among contractors and QA/QC teams.
  • Strong judgment regarding safety, readiness, and performance validation.
  • Experience in dynamic construction environments with tight schedules.
  • Clear technical writing skills for maintaining logs and records.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and maintain commissioning scope and test execution plan.
  • Review mechanical design packages for commissionability and risks.
  • Coordinate QA/QC inspections with contractors and vendors.
  • Own the development and review of commissioning procedures.
  • Support readiness for various mechanical systems throughout the project.
  • Lead reviews of mechanical test results and corrective actions.
  • Maintain commissioning dashboards and status inputs for project leads.

Benefits

  • Collaborative work environment with diverse teams.
  • Opportunities to oversee complex technical projects.
  • Professional development and growth opportunities.
  • Ability to influence project outcomes significantly.
Full Job Description
About the Role

The Mechanical Commissioning Project Engineer owns mechanical commissioning planning, readiness, quality coordination, and test execution oversight for the project. This role ensures mechanical systems are installed, inspected, started, balanced, controlled, and tested in a way that supports reliable integrated facility performance.

Reports to the Commissioning Project Lead and partners closely with mechanical contractors, equipment vendors, design/engineering teams, the electrical commissioning lead, controls stakeholders, and vendor field/test engineers.

Key Responsibilities
  • Develop and maintain the mechanical commissioning scope, readiness criteria, inspection strategy, and discipline test execution plan.
  • Review mechanical design packages, specifications, submittals, method statements, controls narratives, sequence assumptions, and testing requirements for commissionability and risk.
  • Coordinate mechanical QA/QC inspections with contractors and vendor field/test engineers, including installation checks, pre-functional readiness, deficiency capture, and closeout tracking.
  • Own mechanical commissioning procedure development and review, including equipment startup, functional testing, controls verification, balancing prerequisites, failure mode validation, and integrated systems testing inputs.
  • Coordinate with equipment vendors on factory/site acceptance requirements, startup support, test prerequisites, documentation packages, and vendor participation during critical tests.
  • Support readiness and execution for cooling, ventilation, hydronic, pumping, heat rejection, controls, and other project-specific mechanical systems.
  • Lead discipline-level review of mechanical test results, deficiencies, corrective actions, retest requirements, trend logs, and acceptance evidence.
  • Maintain mechanical commissioning dashboards and status inputs for the Commissioning Project Lead, including risk items, resource needs, test readiness, and issue aging.
  • Partner with the Electrical Commissioning Lead on cross-discipline dependencies, including power availability, controls integration, emergency modes, heat load scenarios, and integrated testing sequences.
  • Support turnover by confirming mechanical documentation, as-built evidence, test records, trend data, and outstanding issue disposition are complete and usable by operations.

Qualifications
  • 8+ years of mechanical commissioning, mechanical construction, field engineering, startup, testing, balancing coordination, controls verification, or owner representative experience on complex technical infrastructure projects.
  • Strong knowledge of mechanical system startup, functional performance testing, controls interfaces, cooling or ventilation systems, hydronic systems, and equipment/vendor startup workflows as applicable to the project scope.
  • Experience reviewing commissioning specifications, inspection checklists, functional test scripts, vendor startup procedures, test reports, and trend evidence.
  • Ability to coordinate field execution across contractors, equipment vendors, QA/QC teams, commissioning partners, and project leadership.
  • Strong practical judgment around readiness, safety, sequencing, test prerequisites, performance validation, and risk escalation.
  • Comfort working in construction environments with evolving schedules and multiple parallel work fronts.
  • Clear technical writing skills and discipline in maintaining logs, test evidence, issue records, and decision history.
  • Ability to be present at the project site during critical mechanical installation, startup, controls checkout, functional testing, and integrated testing windows.

Preferred Skills
  • Owner-side or commissioning agent experience on mission-critical, industrial, manufacturing, data center, or other high-reliability facilities.
  • Professional engineering, commissioning, controls, balancing, or equivalent field qualification.
  • Experience with integrated systems testing and coordination between mechanical, electrical, controls, and operations teams.
  • Familiarity with digital issue tracking, commissioning management platforms, schedule tools, trend tools, and field reporting workflows.
  • PE license
  • Commissioning certification eg. QCxP, CxA, BCxP, CCP


About OpenAI

OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research laboratory consisting of the for-profit corporation OpenAI LP and its parent company, the non-profit OpenAI Inc. The company was founded in 2015 by a group of technology leaders, including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and John Schulman. OpenAI's mission is to develop and promote friendly AI for the betterment of humanity. The company has developed a number of cutting-edge AI technologies, including GPT-3, a language processing system that can generate human-like text. OpenAI has received funding from a number of high-profile investors, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and venture capitalist Peter Thiel.
Learn more about OpenAI
Size
100 employees
Industry
Founded
2015

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