Director, Controls and Electrical Engineering

Nortek•Shakopee, MN

About The Position

Maximize your potential. Minimize your footprint. Nortek Data Center Cooling is a Madison Industries company. Madison Industries is one of the largest and most successful privately held companies in the world and has a robust portfolio of indoor air quality solutions. Madison builds entrepreneurially driven, branded market leaders that are committed to making the world safer, healthier and more productive by creating innovative solutions that deliver outstanding customer value. At Nortek Data Center Cooling, we’re shaping the future by Creating a Better Tomorrow Every Day! We are a premier HVAC company offering energy efficient and sustainable products and solutions that exceed customer expectations through our employees’ commitment to quality, customer experience and operational excellence. Nortek Data Center Cooling. is an equal employment opportunity and afﬁrmative action employer and all qualiﬁed applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a qualiﬁed individual with a disability or any other characteristic protected by law. Nortek Air Management and its divisions offer a comprehensive compensation and benefits package. Our benefits package includes Health, Dental, Vision, Life, STD, LTD, FSA, HAS and 401(k) Plan with company contributions. To apply, please visit our career site at www.nortekair.com/careers. Other Benefits: Making NexGen Products - Cooling the World’s Ever Expanding Data Centers Airconditioned work environment Benefits start day one 401K match First year, 4 weeks’ vacation (accrued) Job Summary We are a rapidly growing data center cooling technology company seeking a Director of Controls & Electrical Engineering who will provide technical leadership and strategic direction for all controls systems and electrical engineering activities across the company’s data center cooling products. This role owns the controls function directly and serves as the functional (dotted-line) leader for electrical engineering, ensuring alignment to common standards, architectures, and best practices across programs and product lines. The Director will partner closely with mechanical engineering, product management, manufacturing, and field teams to deliver scalable, reliable, and compliant solutions for mission-critical data center environments.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Controls Engineering, or a related field.
15+ years of engineering experience, including leadership of multidisciplinary engineering teams.
Experience with controls systems (e.g., PLCs, industrial controls, automation, or embedded systems).
Strong organizational and communication skills, including experience hosting and supporting customer engagements.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Controls Engineering, or a related field.
Experience in data center infrastructure, HVAC, thermal systems, or industrial cooling.
Familiarity with liquid cooling, high-density computing, or advanced thermal systems.
Experience scaling engineering teams or platforms in a growth-stage company.

Responsibilities

Lead and develop the controls engineering team, ensuring the right skills, structure, and capacity are in place to meet current and future needs.
Mentor and coach engineers, building a strong technical culture and clear career development paths.
Drive standardization, reuse, and modularity across controls platforms to improve speed, reliability, and scalability.
Lead development and standardization of PLC, embedded, and supervisory control systems.
Oversee simulation, testing, commissioning, and field support activities.
Provide technical oversight for electrical system design including power distribution, motor controls, VFDs, sensors, instrumentation, and control panels.
Review and approve electrical architectures to ensure compliance with NEC, UL, IEC, CE, CSA, and data center standards.
Partner with direct-line engineering managers on prioritization, staffing needs, and capability development.
Drive consistency in electrical design quality, documentation, and compliance across programs.
Define and execute a controls growth strategy, aligning controls architecture, standards, and capabilities with the company’s long-term product roadmap.
Define integration strategies with BMS and customer-specific control environments.
Develop and maintain the controls and electrical technology roadmap aligned with product strategy and customer requirements.
Balance platform standardization with customer-specific customization.
Serve as the technical escalation point for controls and electrical topics during customer meetings, design reviews, FATs, and SATs.
Support sales and applications teams on controls and electrical requirements, proposals, and differentiators.
Collaborate with manufacturing and supply chain to improve panel design, build quality, and cost effectiveness.