Product Engineer II - Rack Integration

AHEAD•Libertyville, IL

7d•$100,000 - $160,000

About The Position

AHEAD builds platforms for digital business by combining cloud infrastructure, automation, analytics, and software delivery to help enterprises pursue digital transformation. The company emphasizes belonging, inclusion, and equal opportunity. The role focuses on designing and implementing integrated rack solutions for enterprise-grade data center hardware. The engineer owns rack-level design from concept through installation, including rack elevations, rack-level bills of materials (BOMs), power and cooling analysis, cabling design, installation and integration steps, cable maps and routing plans, labeling standards, and complete rack design documentation. This documentation supports accurate builds, labor estimation, and pre-sales assessments. The role collaborates with internal teams and clients and may travel to customer sites to support rack delivery and installation. The position contributes to quoting, product launches, revision control, production support, customer issue resolution, and rack integration standards. It also works with Sales Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, System Verification Engineering, Production, customers, and vendors to scope and deliver solutions. This is a full-time position, typically Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with occasional evening and weekend work as duties demand, and up to 10% travel. The listed compensation range is $100,000–$160,000 in on-target earnings, including base salary and any applicable target bonus.

Requirements

At least 5 years of experience building and designing computer components into custom-built systems.
At least 5 years of experience building and designing enterprise-level systems, including networking, compute, and storage hardware.
At least 5 years of experience with Linux and Windows operating systems.
At least 5 years of experience creating and maintaining bills of materials (BOMs).
At least 5 years of experience configuring Dell, Supermicro, HPE, Lenovo, and white-box systems.
Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, computer science, or a related field.
Excellent communication and listening skills, including the ability to collaborate with customers, technical resources, and team members.
Ability to understand, gather, and document customer requirements.
Expertise in engineering disciplines and revision control, including engineering change management, product lifecycle management (PLM), and end-of-life (EOL) processes.
Expertise with enterprise compute, storage, networking, PDU and rack hardware, power, air and liquid cooling, build methodologies, cabling, connectivity, and build standards.
Expertise in x86 and ARM computer architectures, server hardware components, and computer standards.
Expertise with enterprise generative AI use cases and hardware used for inference and training.
Knowledge of quality control and computer assembly methods.
Ability to collaborate effectively with external vendors.
Critical thinking, problem-solving, planning, and organizational skills, including the ability to make decisions under pressure.
Adaptability and resilience in dynamic environments.
Expertise in risk management and new product introduction (NPI).
Strong attention to detail and documentation skills.
Ability to occasionally lift servers weighing up to 50 pounds.

Nice To Haves

Network+ certification.
Server+ certification.

Responsibilities

Collaborate on quoting requests with Product Engineers, Sales Engineers, Project Managers, external client-facing teams, and clients to prepare complete and accurate quotes.
Participate in cross-training with the Product Engineering Team.
Collaborate with Sales Engineering to scope and design Foundry services as needed.
Work with Manufacturing Engineering and System Verification Engineering to ensure appropriate project documentation and automation.
Support Production throughout projects as needed.
Create and assemble hardware quotes when Foundry drives the design of enterprise products or racks.
Manage product and BOM revision control throughout a product’s lifecycle when necessary.
Participate in launching new solutions and help ensure successful customer delivery.
Diagnose and resolve hardware, firmware, and software compatibility issues with customers and vendors.
Respond to and resolve advanced customer technical inquiries in a timely manner.
Mentor and guide other Product Engineers.
Develop and maintain rack elevations and rack-level BOMs for integrated solutions while ensuring mechanical and electrical constraints are met.
Analyze power and cooling for integrated racks, including PDU selection, power-strip layout, input-load balancing, and airflow considerations for air and liquid cooling where applicable.
Design cabling matrices, cable-routing paths, and labeling schemes for power, networking, storage, and management fabrics.
Gather and document rack integration requirements from customers and internal stakeholders, including space, power, cooling, access, cable entry and exit, labeling, and documentation expectations.
Create installation runbooks and production work instructions covering rack assembly, device installation, cabling, labeling, and quality checks.
Support production builds of integrated racks by clarifying design intent, resolving mechanical or routing issues, and driving continuous improvement.
Support on-site rack delivery and installation, including site-readiness checks, layout verification, and hand-off documentation.
Drive rack design standards for cabling colors, labeling, documentation templates, and photos, and contribute to Foundry rack integration best practices.