Data Center Electrical R&D Design Engineer

OpenAI•San Francisco, CA

7d•$257,000 - $327,000

About The Position

OpenAI is seeking an experienced Data Center Electrical R&D Design Engineer to develop and validate next-generation power architectures for high-density AI infrastructure. The role focuses on research, advanced design, modeling, prototyping, and technical validation rather than ongoing facility operations. The engineer will investigate emerging electrical technologies, develop system-level architectures, and evaluate approaches to utility integration, power distribution, backup generation, energy storage, controls, and rack-level power delivery. The position works across research, engineering, infrastructure, and deployment, collaborating with compute hardware, mechanical, controls, construction, commissioning, operations, and external technology partners. The work includes creating reusable reference designs that can progress from concept and simulation through pilot testing and large-scale deployment, while documenting validated designs, technical decisions, operating envelopes, lessons learned, and deployment guidance.

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, including the ability to explain complex engineering decisions to technical and executive audiences.
Experience directing engineering consultants, equipment manufacturers, and external technology partners.
Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or a related engineering discipline.

Nice To Haves

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.

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, including medium-voltage distribution, solid-state power conversion, advanced UPS systems, energy storage, alternative generation, and direct-current architectures.
Compare competing design approaches for reliability, efficiency, scalability, cost, constructability, maintainability, and deployment speed.
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.