Senior Staff Applications Engineer - Spark

Crusoe•Denver, CO

3d•$190,000 - $215,000•Onsite

About The Position

Crusoe is seeking a Senior Staff Applications Engineer to own how Spark answers the question of technical fit. This role involves building and maintaining the evaluation framework for site, partnership, or commercial opportunity viability for Spark's modular data center (MDC) and Spark-Liquid (DLC) product lines. The engineer will support the Energy Development Group (EDG), business development, and partner teams in applying this framework. They will act as the Spark team's point of contact for complex, unconventional, or contested opportunities, answering difficult product questions and delivering technical verdicts. Spark aims to deploy hundreds of megawatts of modular capacity, and this role is crucial in converting the pipeline into deployable capacity through sound judgment on product application.

Requirements

10+ years of progressive engineering experience spanning data center infrastructure, power generation or utility interconnection, industrial capital projects, or modular and containerized systems.
Working fluency across data center infrastructure disciplines including electrical (MV/LV distribution, switchgear, transformers), mechanical/thermal (DLC, CDUs, heat rejection), and civil/structural (foundations, seismic/wind loading, rigging).
Track record of making feasibility calls from first principles under incomplete information, with direct accountability for recommendations carrying real capital consequences.
Proven ability to hold technical credibility with external developers, utilities, enterprise customers, and executives while keeping opportunities moving rapidly.
Ability to connect engineering decisions directly to $/MW, capex, PUE, and deployment schedules.
Demonstrated depth on a specific engineered product or platform, where you were the person others relied on for an authoritative answer on capabilities and limits.
Relentless technical rigor, comfort with ambiguity, a safety-first culture, the judgment to say no early, and the discipline to make calls when perfect information is unavailable.
Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related engineering discipline.

Nice To Haves

Experience with modular, containerized, or prefabricated infrastructure product lines.
Familiarity with agency certification and AHJ coordination for modular electrical equipment across varied jurisdictions.
Deep familiarity with energy development, interconnection processes/queues, and behind-the-meter site configurations.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain the standardized screening criteria, scoring model, decision thresholds, and report format that define what makes a site or opportunity viable for Spark deployments.
Keep the qualification framework current as the product roadmap evolves, and maintain a record of past calls and their rationale.
Equip EDG, business development, and partner teams to apply the framework themselves on standard opportunities through training and documentation.
Serve as the Spark team's point of contact for opportunities the framework cannot resolve, including undefined sites, non-standard configurations, and contested calls, delivering a clear fit, conditional fit, or no-fit verdict with engineering rationale.
Turn around escalated feasibility assessments in days, not weeks.
Identify where an opportunity requires deviation from the standard Spark configuration, quantify the engineering cost and schedule impact, and route it to the responsible engineering discipline for disposition.
Evaluate technical fit for non-standard applications such as edge deployments, distributed energy assets, co-located industrial sites, and third-party colocation and shell-rent arrangements, and define what the product would need to change to serve them.
Feed recurring field constraints back to Spark design engineering and R&D as prioritized product requirements.
Serve as Spark's dedicated technical counterpart to the Energy Development Group across the full site pipeline, from initial screen through definitive agreement.
Evaluate candidate sites and opportunities against Spark module requirements, covering power, thermal, civil, and physical interface, and define what the site must deliver at the module boundary.
Conduct site walks alongside EDG, developers, and utility counterparties, converting observations into Spark product requirements and a maintained risk register.
Provide the technical inputs that Finance requires to model an opportunity, including module configuration, power and cooling assumptions, and site-specific efficiency and derate factors.
Translate multi-discipline engineering tradeoffs into clear go/no-go decision frameworks for commercial and executive stakeholders.