Principal Mechanical Engineer - CDU

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.•Plano, TX

55d•Hybrid

About The Position

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. (MHIA) is seeking a Principal Mechanical Engineer to serve as a core technical leader for its data center liquid cooling systems, initially focusing on Coolant Distribution Units (CDUs). Based in MHIA’s Plano, Texas office in a hybrid role, this position is the primary mechanical engineering authority across product design, customer technical engagement, supplier coordination, and service readiness. The engineer will help ensure solutions are scalable, reliable, manufacturable, and commercially viable for U.S. deployment, from concept through mass production and lifecycle support. The role bridges customer requirements, supplier engineering capabilities, and internal productization goals. It leads and reviews mechanical design work, supports alignment among customers and suppliers, assesses supplier readiness and production capabilities, and contributes to service offerings and lifecycle support. The position requires at least 12 years of experience, including at least 7 years in mechanical system design and supplier-facing technical leadership for industrial or packaged equipment. This role involves 25% travel and a standard Monday-through-Friday work week. Weekend or late-night work may be required if applicable. MHIA cannot sponsor employment visas or consider individuals on time-limited visa status.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, or equivalent experience.
At least 12 years of experience, including at least 7 years in mechanical system design and supplier-facing technical leadership for industrial or packaged equipment such as pumps, heat exchangers, HVAC systems, skid-mounted units, or thermal management systems.
Ability to read, review, and interpret technical specifications and drawings, including P&IDs, general arrangements, and mechanical schematics.
Experience working across design, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and service organizations.
Strong negotiation and coordination skills to support pre-award alignment on scope, schedule, responsibilities, and commercial assumptions.
Project management capabilities, including action, risk, and issue tracking, escalation management, and alignment across internal and external stakeholders.
Knowledge of data center cooling systems, including centrifugal chiller applications and MCP/Dry Cooler configurations at a system and interface level.
Ability to triage customer and supplier specifications, define scope and interface boundaries, and transition aligned inputs to internal engineering teams.
Ability to collaborate and communicate effectively with Japanese stakeholders and team members in a global, cross-cultural working environment.
Must not require employment visa sponsorship or hold time-limited visa status, as MHIA cannot sponsor employment visas or consider individuals on time-limited visa status.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of CDUs, liquid cooling systems, or data center thermal management solutions.
Experience supporting Hyperscalers or large-scale data center customers.
Experience contributing to service design or lifecycle cost optimization.
Familiarity with applicable U.S. standards and certifications, such as UL/CSA, ASME, NFPA, and NEC, and their impact on system configuration and supplier deliverables.
Experience with factory and site activities, including FAT/SAT, commissioning, and field troubleshooting support.
Supplier audit or development experience, such as SQA/SDE activities, including evaluation of technical capability, quality systems, and execution readiness.
Familiarity with U.S.-based tendering, RFQ, and proposal workflows, including technical clarification and alignment during bid phases.

Responsibilities

Serve as the technical authority for CDU mechanical system design, including pumps, heat exchangers, piping, valves, sensors, and skid/enclosure integration.
Review CDU mechanical designs, drawings, specifications, and calculations, providing technical feedback and approval direction.
Lead product design from concept and proof of concept through pilot builds and mass-production design, applying design-for-manufacturing and design-for-service principles.
Assess CDU performance in areas including redundancy and reliability, safety and compliance, controllability and load-following under dynamic AI workloads, operability, maintainability, durability, and compliance with requirements.
Lead and support customer technical discussions about CDU architecture, performance, and integration.
Translate customer technical requirements into actionable design inputs and specifications, and propose solutions aligned with customer needs.
Capture Voice of Customer feedback and incorporate it into product design and roadmap decisions.
Coordinate technical alignment between customers and suppliers, clarifying responsibilities and resolving gaps.
Engage with Hyperscaler/GAFAM customers and support technical reviews, RFIs/RFPs, and design clarifications.
Evaluate supplier engineering capabilities, design maturity, quality and inspection processes, certifications, compliance readiness, and mass-production scalability.
Collaborate with supply chain teams on inventory strategy, lead times, and production capacity aligned with sales and order forecasts.
Align engineering requirements with manufacturing processes and schedules to support production planning.
Lead or support supplier technical issue resolution, root cause analysis, and corrective-action follow-up.
Drive cost-down and value-engineering initiatives while maintaining performance, reliability, and safety.
Support logistics and transportation considerations that affect CDU mechanical design and packaging.
Contribute to definition of CDU service offerings, including scope, service content, and boundary conditions.
Review Installation, Operation, and Maintenance (IOM) manuals and coordinate technical alignment and revisions with suppliers.
Support development of service revenue models and evaluate service profitability and cost structures.
Gather customer service needs and coordinate with suppliers and service partners to ensure readiness.
Support development and proposal of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) aligned with customer expectations and product capability.
Perform other relevant duties as assigned.