Data Center Solutions Architect

Join the world's largest HVAC company, named by Forbes as one of America's Best-In-State Employers 2025! This role is a senior technical leader within Daikin Applied’s Data Center of Excellence (CoE), leading the development of standardized reference architectures and driving technical strategy across the full data-center thermal value chain—from chip to chiller.

About the role

This highly visible role blends engineering depth with commercial impact, directly enhancing Daikin’s competitive position by strengthening market credibility and customer trust through best-in-class technical engagement. The Solutions Architect will engage directly with data center owners, developers, hyperscalers, integrators, and Neo-Cloud operators to shape design standards, influence solution selection, and guide purchasing decisions aligned with Daikin Data Center Solutions.

Responsibilities

• Technical leader and expert in Data Center Solutions, developing and governing standardized cooling reference architectures for AI-focused data center deployments.
• Define system-level topology across liquid cooling, air cooling, plant design, and heat rejection strategies.
• Architect integrated solutions aligning thermal systems, electrical constraints, controls philosophy, and operational resilience.
• Establish design guardrails, scalability boundaries, and redundancy strategies.
• Support proof-of-concept testing, performance benchmarking, interoperability validation, and technical demonstrations within the Data Center CoE Innovation Lab in San Diego.
• Lead cross-functional architecture reviews across engineering, product, service, and commercial teams.
• Drive techno-economic trade studies balancing performance, reliability, footprint, manufacturability, and cost.
• Define control philosophy and system orchestration standards across plant equipment and distribution systems.
• Incorporate field performance feedback and commissioning lessons into architecture evolution to improve products.
• Support customer-facing technical discussions with hyperscale, enterprise, and colocation stakeholders.
• Contribute to long-term product and platform strategy alignment.
• Engage selectively with external stakeholders to position Daikin solutions early in design cycles.
• Articulate system-level architecture and product-level technical detail in executive and customer-facing settings.
• Influence customer design decisions and guide solution alignment with a sales-aware mindset.
• Travel to the San Diego Innovation Lab, customer sites, partner facilities, and internal meetings as required.

Requirements

• BSc in Mechanical, Electrical, Systems, Industrial, or Automation Engineering.
• 10+ years of experience in mission-critical infrastructure system design.
• Technical expert in at least one major data center domain (mechanical systems, thermal cooling, controls, integration, or systems architecture), with the ability to think across domains at the system level.
• Demonstrated expertise in liquid cooling integration and central plant architectures.
• Strong understanding of redundancy models and high-availability system design.
• Working knowledge of plant control strategies and integrated system operation.
• Demonstrated business acumen evaluating architecture decisions through lifecycle cost, capital efficiency, operational impact, and market positioning.
• Experience conducting or contributing to structured technical and commercial trade studies.

Preferred Skills

• Experience contributing to or governing formal reference architectures or system design standards.
• Exposure to AI-focused or high-density computing infrastructure.
• Experience supporting proof-of-concept validation, performance benchmarking, or interoperability testing.
• Familiarity with system modeling, energy analysis, or simulation tools.
• Experience presenting technical strategy to executive stakeholders.

Benefits

• Multiple medical insurance plan options + dental and vision insurance.
• 401K retirement plan with employer contributions matching 100% of the first 3% of employee contributions and 50% of the next 2%.
• Company-provided life insurance + optional employee-paid voluntary life insurance, dependent life coverage, and voluntary accident coverage.
• Short-term and long-term disability.
• 3 weeks of paid time off for new employees + 11 company-paid holidays (vacation accrues on a monthly basis).
• Paid sick time in accordance with federal, state, and local law.
• Paid parental leave and tuition reimbursement after 6 months of continuous service.

Pay

The typical annual base salary for this position ranges from $146,900 – $246,200. Individual base pay will depend on skills, qualifications, experience, and location.