Fire Protection Engineer
About The Position
OpenAI's Industrial Compute organization delivers infrastructure for frontier AI models. Within Infrastructure Delivery, the team develops safe, reliable, operational AI campuses through collaboration across design, construction, utilities, commissioning, operations, and external partners. The fire protection function establishes life-safety and property-protection strategies and connects code requirements and engineering standards to design, construction, testing, incident readiness, and long-term operations. The Fire Protection Engineer will lead owner-side fire and life-safety engineering across large-scale data center programs. The role establishes design criteria, reviews complex fire protection systems, coordinates with authorities and delivery partners, and ensures requirements are clear from early design through construction, commissioning, and operational handover. It calls for technical judgment across detection, alarm, suppression, smoke control, water supply, emergency response, and code compliance, working with engineering, construction, safety, security, commissioning, and operations teams to resolve risks while protecting life safety, reliability, and schedule.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Fire Protection Engineering or a related engineering discipline, or equivalent practical experience delivering fire and life-safety systems.
- 8+ years of fire protection engineering experience supporting data centers, industrial facilities, advanced manufacturing, energy infrastructure, or other mission-critical environments.
- Strong knowledge of applicable building and fire codes and standards, including IBC, IFC, NFPA requirements, and local authority approval processes.
- Technical depth in fire alarm and detection, water-based suppression, special-hazard suppression, fire pumps and water supply, smoke control, egress, and integrated life-safety systems.
- Experience reviewing fire protection designs, specifications, hydraulic calculations, equipment submittals, testing procedures, and commissioning results.
- Demonstrated ability to work with authorities having jurisdiction, engineering consultants, contractors, insurers, vendors, and internal stakeholders.
- Experience resolving field issues and design changes while maintaining code compliance, safety, quality, schedule, and documentation.
- Strong written and verbal communication, sound engineering judgment, and the ability to create clarity when requirements or ownership are ambiguous.
- Professional Engineer licensure in Fire Protection Engineering, or the ability to obtain licensure in relevant jurisdictions.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with hyperscale data centers, high-density compute environments, or global multi-site infrastructure programs.
- Experience with battery rooms, energy-storage systems, generator plants, fuel systems, high-voltage substations, or other campus utility infrastructure.
- Familiarity with performance-based design, fire and smoke modeling, quantitative risk assessment, or fire-hazard analysis.
- Experience leading integrated testing and coordinating fire alarm, suppression, controls, security, mechanical, and electrical interfaces.
- Experience developing reusable standards, design templates, commissioning requirements, and incident-prevention programs across multiple sites.
Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain fire protection and life-safety design criteria, technical standards, and review requirements for self-build data center campuses.
- Review fire protection drawings, specifications, code analyses, fire and life-safety narratives, hydraulic calculations, equipment submittals, and sequences of operation across project phases.
- Provide owner-side engineering direction for fire detection and alarm, automatic suppression, fire pumps and water storage, smoke control, emergency communication, and related life-safety systems.
- Integrate fire protection requirements with architectural, structural, electrical, mechanical, controls, security, hardware, and operational systems.
- Partner with code officials, authorities having jurisdiction, insurers, consultants, contractors, and equipment vendors to resolve code interpretations and approval risks.
- Support constructability reviews, RFIs, submittals, field inspections, deficiency resolution, and change management during construction.
- Define commissioning, integrated-system testing, acceptance, turnover, and operational-readiness criteria for fire and life-safety systems.
- Assess fire and life-safety risks associated with high-density compute, battery and energy-storage systems, generators and fuel systems, utility infrastructure, cooling systems, hazardous materials, and construction activities.
- Support incident response, root-cause reviews, corrective actions, and lessons learned, translating operational findings into improved designs and standards.
- Maintain records of design decisions, code positions, approvals, testing results, open risks, and turnover requirements.
- Travel regularly to project sites to support design reviews, field execution, testing, commissioning, and operational readiness.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
