Principal Design Engineer
About The Position
Crusoe is a vertically integrated AI Factory company with a mission to accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence. Our competitive advantage—"Speed is the only moat"—is directly tied to our ability to rapidly design, manufacture, and deploy our own modular power and compute infrastructure. We are seeking a Principal Design Engineer to own the full-lifecycle engineering design of our "Spark" modular data center (MDC) product line. You will be the technical authority across electrical, mechanical, thermal, and structural domains and the primary engineering interface to our external design and contract manufacturing partners. You will translate aggressive product roadmap requirements into manufacturable, deployable, and safe physical systems that power the next generation of AI workloads.
Requirements
- Education: Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related discipline. A Master’s degree and an active Professional Engineer (PE) license are strongly preferred.
- Experience: 10+ years of progressive engineering experience in data center design, modular infrastructure, or industrial power systems.
- Partner Management: 10+ years of demonstrated experience managing external design engineering partners with direct accountability for budget and schedule.
- Technical Depth: Mastery across medium-voltage power distribution, structural analysis for containerized systems, heat transfer fundamentals, and seismic/wind load calculations.
- Safety Mastery: Expert knowledge of electrical safety standards (NFPA 70E), arc flash hazard analysis, and UL/CE compliance.
- Software Proficiency: Proficiency with CAD/BIM platforms, electrical single-line design tools, and/or thermal simulation software.
Nice To Haves
- Familiarity with the physical layer requirements of high-performance computing (HPC) and large-scale AI workloads.
- Experience with agency certification strategies for modular electrical equipment in multiple global jurisdictions.
- Track record of scaling a physical product from prototype through high-volume production.
Responsibilities
- Design Ownership & First-Principles Engineering: Drive the medium- and low-voltage electrical architecture, structural enclosure design, and thermal management for Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC/CDU).
- Design for Manufacturing (DFM): Embed DFM best practices into every design revision, ensuring engineering packages are optimized for high-volume production at Crusoe Industries and external manufacturing partners.
- Safety & Compliance: Ensure all designs comply with applicable safety standards including UL, CE, NEC, NFPA, and OSHA for modular and containerized electrical equipment.
- Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT): Own the development and continuous improvement of FAT protocols to verify electrical distribution, protection, UPS performance, and structural integrity before unit release.
- External Partner Management: Serve as the primary engineering contact for all external design firms and specialty consultants, owning scope definition, deliverable quality, and schedule accountability.
- Liquid Cooling Transition: Lead systems-level engineering for the shift from air-cooled units to DLC/CDU architectures, managing integration impacts on power density and structural loads.
- Technical Documentation: Own the complete engineering design package for each Spark version, including drawings, specifications, BOMs, and interface control documents ready for manufacturing hand-off.
Benefits
- Industry competitive pay
- Restricted Stock Units in a fast growing, well-funded technology company
- Health insurance package options that include HDHP and PPO, vision, and dental for you and your dependents
- Employer contributions to HSA accounts
- Paid Parental Leave
- Paid life insurance, short-term and long-term disability
- Teladoc
- 401(k) with a 100% match up to 4% of salary
- Generous paid time off and holiday schedule
- Cell phone reimbursement
- Tuition reimbursement
- Subscription to the Calm app
- MetLife Legal
- Company paid commuter benefit; $300/month
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Principal
