Manager Applications Engineering Data Center Cooling

Pkaza•Ashburn, VA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Manager Applications Engineering will lead, develop, and grow the Applications Engineering organization supporting an expanding data center air-cooling and liquid-cooling business. The company is an OEM and manufacturer of industrial air-cooled and liquid-cooled equipment for critical facilities, serving enterprise, colocation, hyperscale, AI/HPC, and Bitcoin customers. Its offerings combine thermal-management capabilities into standardized, customer-ready data center and AI infrastructure solutions. This hands-on leadership role is responsible for building a high-performing team that delivers accurate, competitive, and timely equipment selections, performance data, submittals, technical proposals, and application support across the company’s cooling portfolio. The Manager is the primary technical partner to Sales, manufacturers’ representatives, customers, consulting engineers, and internal engineering and product teams, supporting solutions throughout the sales and project lifecycle. Alongside managing and developing the team, the Manager personally supports complex and strategic opportunities, resolves technical escalations, improves application processes and tools, and establishes scalable standards. The position is based in Ashburn, Virginia, with a hybrid remote arrangement and monthly travel onsite to the company location. Travel to customer, consulting-engineer, representative, and project sites is expected as required, approximately 25%.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related engineering discipline.
At least 8 years of applications, sales, or systems engineering experience with HVAC, refrigeration, precision cooling, or thermal equipment, including direct experience with chillers and heat rejection equipment.
At least 5 years as a Design Manager.
Demonstrated command of precision cooling applications, including capacity and efficiency ratings, part-load and ambient performance, fluid/glycol considerations, refrigerant circuits, redundancy configurations, hydronics, and controls interfaces.
Experience preparing and defending submittal packages, equipment schedules, and technical responses to consulting engineers, contractors, and end users.
Demonstrated ability to lead, coach, or formally supervise technical staff, or clear readiness to take on first-line people management.
Working knowledge of applicable industry standards and rating methods, with the ability to substantiate published performance claims.
Ability to translate complex technical concepts into business value for customers, engineers, contractors, and non-technical stakeholders.
Willingness and ability to travel to customer, consulting-engineer, representative, and project sites as required, approximately 25%, and onsite monthly to the company location.
Team-oriented approach and ability to build relationships with individuals involved in the business-development process.
Excellent communication skills, including the ability to translate complex technical concepts into business value for clients.
Proficiency with MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, etc.) and CRM platforms such as Salesforce.
Strong organizational and project-management skills, with the ability to manage multiple clients and opportunities simultaneously.

Nice To Haves

Professional Engineer (PE) license or Certified Energy Manager credential.
Direct experience with data center cooling applications, including hyperscale, colocation, or enterprise facilities.
Experience with liquid cooling, coolant distribution units (CDUs), fan walls, rack-level thermal products, or heat-reuse applications.
Experience supporting an independent manufacturers’ representative channel.
Experience building or substantially improving selection software, performance libraries, or applications engineering processes.
Experience supporting new product introduction from an applications engineering position.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and develop the Applications Engineering team; establish performance expectations, priorities, and development plans; recruit, onboard, and develop engineers as the business grows.
Allocate resources and balance workloads according to sales priorities, project requirements, and deadlines; build organizational depth and succession planning.
Own the accuracy, completeness, competitiveness, and timely delivery of equipment selections, sizing, performance calculations, technical proposals, drawings, schedules, and submittals.
Establish and manage standard turnaround times for selections and budget-pricing support; review and approve technical deliverables before release.
Establish consistent engineering processes, review procedures, and quality controls across the team.
Personally lead complex, strategic, and high-risk applications and provide technical guidance on chillers, heat rejection, CRAH/FanWall systems, liquid cooling, CDUs, hydronics, and controls.
Support non-standard operating conditions, system configurations, redundancy strategies, and application challenges; serve as the escalation point for complex technical issues.
Serve as the primary technical resource for Sales and manufacturers’ representatives, supporting opportunity development through selections, system-design guidance, competitive comparisons, technical presentations, and value-engineering responses.
Participate in customer and consulting-engineer meetings, support specifications, and provide training to Sales and channel partners on routine technical questions.
Develop and improve selection tools, calculation methods, performance databases, templates, and standard technical details.
Establish scalable processes, document control, and version management while maintaining quality and turnaround times as sales volume increases.
Work with Product Management, Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Service to resolve technical, configuration, capacity, quality, and lead-time issues.
Provide market and customer feedback to Product Management and Engineering to influence product development and roadmap priorities.
Support new product introductions by ensuring selections, performance data, submittals, training, and application tools are ready at launch.
Ensure applications work complies with applicable industry standards, certification programs, and rating methods, and that published performance claims are substantiated and defensible.
Maintain records, calculations, and issued documentation so released selections can be reconstructed and defended.
Travel to customer, consulting-engineer, representative, and project sites as required, approximately 25%, and travel onsite monthly to the company location.