Principal Engineer, Advanced Cooling Engineering

Flex•Austin, TX

13d•Onsite

About The Position

Flex is seeking a Principal Engineer, Advanced Cooling Engineering in Austin, TX to support SpinCo, a new independent company focused on critical digital infrastructure, delivering end-to-end power and thermal management solutions for AI data centers and other mission-critical applications. This role will lead SpinCo’s advanced thermal management strategy for next-generation AI data center infrastructure, developing the roadmap and engineering capability across various cooling technologies. This is a hands-on technical leadership role requiring the individual to be involved in generating architectures, models, specifications, and analysis, and to run a full design-build cycle. The goal is to set the technical bar by example and deliver working hardware and validated designs.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Thermal Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related technical field; Master’s or PhD preferred.
12+ years of experience in thermal systems, liquid cooling, HVAC, data center infrastructure, or advanced mechanical systems.
Demonstrated leadership in electrical, mechanical, and/or systems architecture engineering disciplines.
Demonstrated expertise in fluid dynamics, heat transfer, pumps, manifolds, valves, material compatibility, mechanical reliability, and thermal/fluid simulation.
Proven ability to lead multidisciplinary engineering teams from concept through validation and commercialization.
Strong cross-functional leadership across product management, PMO, operations, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, and customers.
Demonstrated personal track record producing thermal designs, fluid and thermal simulation, and validated hardware, not only managing teams that do.

Nice To Haves

Experience with direct-to-chip liquid cooling, CDUs, rack/server thermal design, or high-density data center cooling strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Define and lead the multi-generation cooling roadmap across rack, row, hall, and facility-level thermal management.
Lead applied R&D and prototype development for high-heat-flux cooling solutions supporting next-generation AI XPUs and high-density compute platforms.
Develop SpinCo’s integrated thermal management strategy, connecting rack-level liquid cooling, CDUs, facility cooling, containment, and controls into a coordinated platform.
Partner with Systems Architecture Engineering to ensure thermal systems are designed concurrently with power, IT infrastructure, controls, and modular product architectures.
Establish design standards, interface control documents, product specifications, and validation requirements for scalable liquid cooling platforms.
Support customer-facing technical reviews with hyperscalers, colocation providers, neoclouds, and ecosystem partners.
Drive manufacturability, reliability, cost optimization, and design-for-scale practices in partnership with operations, supply chain, quality, and manufacturing engineering.