Data Center Solutions Architect

About the Role

The Solutions Architect is a senior technical leader within Daikin Applied’s Data Center of Excellence (CoE). This role leads the development of standardized reference architectures and drives technical strategy across the full data-center thermal value chain—from chip to chiller. The Solutions Architect will have direct customer engagement and work closely 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. This is a highly visible role that 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.

Responsibilities

• Technical leader and expert in Data Center Solutions to develop and govern 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

• Bachelor of Science in Mechanical, Electrical, Systems, Industrial, or Automation Engineering.
• 10+ years of experience in a relevant technical field.
• 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.
• Experience in mission-critical infrastructure system design.
• 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 Qualifications

• 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.

Skills

• Excellent communication skills, emotional intelligence, and executive presence in customer and partner interactions.
• Highly collaborative and effective in cross-functional environments.

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.