Data Center Controls Engineer

Element Critical•Austin, TX

4h•Onsite

About The Position

Element Critical is seeking to add a Data Center Controls Engineer to the Facility Operations team, who aligns with our company values of accountability, integrity, grit, and problem-solving. This role will be responsible for all things related to controls, including but not limited to design standards, implementation, and project management, and maintaining the company building electrical power management systems (EPMS), automation systems (BAS), and building management systems (BMS) for all Data Centers. You will develop new processes and standards while innovating in the control space. Overall desire is to create reliable and efficient controls (BAS, BMS, EPMS) that serve Operations and Customers.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
5 years of experience in data center or critical facility environment, focused on the commissioning of mechanical systems and industrial controls.
5 years of experience with Building Management Systems, PLC programming, SCADA Architecture (e.g., Modbus, BACnet, industrial networking).
Experience managing projects in a Design/Build delivery environment for mission-critical facilities, with a focus on cooling and mechanical automation.
Experience with contractors and site safety teams to ensure commissioning activities align with construction schedules and safety protocols.
Excellent communication skills.
Travel expected up to ~40%.

Responsibilities

Collaborate with design and operations teams to develop and enforce automation logic, ensuring systems meet operational standards.
Manage cross-functional partnerships with internal operations and engineering teams to troubleshoot complex control loop issues. Utilize 3rd party vendors and contractors to resolve issues.
Assist in procurement related activities including request for quotation/proposals, responding to request for information, assist in review of vendors proposals and submittal processing.
Attend project related meetings, coordinate with project leaders, and regularly report status to management.
Frequent visits to data centers to troubleshoot issues and supervise 3rd party vendor’s work to ensure compliance with the scope, design, and applicable local codes.
Create and maintain SOOs and documentation of existing controls infrastructure.
Assemble library of I&C design documents, submittals, as-builts, and O&Ms
Controls equipment inventory: sensors, valves, controllers, etc
Vendors, contacts, contracts, warranties, licenses, entitlements, passwords, 3rd party network access
Initial and periodic audit of existing implementations
Security risks
Operations risks (reliability, SLA risks)
Excessive energy or maintenance costs
Annual controls opex and capex budgeting
Critical remediation capex
Maintenance contracts
Maintenance capex: end-of-life equipment replacement
Upgrades in support of corporate goals, e.g. energy efficiency, operating efficiency, safety and reliability, reporting
Corporate design & operations standards
Develop, document, publish design guidelines
Architecture
Hardware, vendors
Operator interfaces – style guide (ISA 101)
Naming schemes (ISA 5.1)
SOOs
Monitoring
Alerting/Notifications
SME and leader for 3rd party implementations (new construction, upgrades/additions, special projects)
Lead scope definition, contractor vetting, pricing review, selection, on-boarding, progress meetings
Lead owner’s submittal and RFI review
Vet change orders
Lead QA/QC during implementation
Lead the commissioning life-cycle for data center BAS, BMS and electromechanical systems, ensuring validation of Building Automation, Building Management, and EPM System to control and monitor HVAC and electrical infrastructure effectively.
Ensure commissioning effectiveness by reviewing scripts, monitoring execution, and reviewing reports & issues
Lead owner’s punch and follow-up
Vet closeout and transition to operations
SME and leader for internal support and customer integrations (similar to IT). Collaborate with and support Facility Ops teams to enable local control within the I&C sandbox for reliability, reporting for efficiency and operations initiatives, as well as managing all training, documentation
Implement and support customer integrations as directed by Customer Ops.
Review results and action items from the quarterly maintenances for BMS and electrical systems and take actions to get them resolved.
Operate and maintain all controls hardware & software
Oversee the testing and tuning of mechanical plant controls (chillers, cooling towers, AHUs), ensuring data visibility and system redundancy are maintained through robust SCADA implementations.
Break-fix, preventive maintenance, ongoing tuning and adjustments.
Participate in on-call schedule as secondary escalation to provide immediate BMS and electrical system technical support to in-service data centers.
Troubleshoot and perform Root Cause Analysis or Corrective Action for BAS, BMS and EPMS system related issues in Element Critical’s data centers.
Per-site and global plant performance reporting
Develop and maintain maintenance program for all controls equipment
Hardware PM (calibrating sensors, stroking valves, etc)
Platform PM (patches as appropriate, backups, etc.)
Specify IT and network resources required by controls applications
Configure and manage EPMS, BAS, and BMS system alarm frameworks, optimize alarm logic, prioritization, and thresholds to reduce false alarms, improve signal-to-noise ratio, and ensure rapid, accurate response to critical infrastructure events to actionable events by the Facility Operations team.
Special projects assigned by Manager.