Controls Engineer, R&D
About The Position
Fluidstack is seeking a Controls Engineer for their R&D team. This role is crucial in developing and implementing control architectures for advanced cooling systems designed to manage the immense heat generated by AI compute infrastructure. The company is focused on delivering gigawatts of compute power and is rethinking every layer of the stack to achieve this goal. The R&D team is tackling significant challenges, including rejecting over 10 gigawatts of heat, designing and building custom machinery due to market limitations, and owning all thermofluids problems within the fleet. This position offers the opportunity to own the control architecture for machines and test rigs, write critical safety interlocks, deliver advanced capacity control, validate systems through hardware-in-the-loop testing, and integrate controls into production environments.
Requirements
- Written control logic for rotating machinery and were present during its first run.
- Designed interlocks where a fault means destroyed hardware or an injured person, and can justify every one of them from first principles.
- Run hardware-in-the-loop testing that caught something real before it reached commissioning.
- Tuned loops on a live machine and worked out why the model and the plant disagreed.
- Handed a control system to people who did not write it, with documentation they could actually use at three in the morning.
Nice To Haves
- Propulsion or vehicle test controls (engine sequencing, abort and safing logic).
- Variable-speed drives and high-speed motor control (VFDs, magnetic bearing controllers).
- Refrigeration and chiller control (superheat, head pressure, capacity staging).
- Industrial control platforms (Beckhoff, Siemens, Allen-Bradley, CODESYS).
- Model-based development and HIL (Simulink, dSPACE, NI VeriStand).
Responsibilities
- Own the control architecture for the machine and the test rigs, spanning the compressor, the motor drive, the expansion turbine and the loop around them.
- Write the safety interlocks and fault handling for a machine whose working fluid can cross its critical point inside the normal operating range, taking the control problem with it.
- Deliver capacity control through motor and turbine speed rather than throttling valves, keeping the process fluid path free of valves at the design point.
- Validate the control system against hardware-in-the-loop before it ever touches the real machine, and prove the interlocks fire.
- Carry the controls out of the test cell and into the production chiller, including integration with site BMS and the wider plant.
Benefits
- Commitment to pay equity and transparency.
- Equal Employment Opportunity Employer status.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
