Lead Reliability Engineer, Water Chemistry

Core Responsibilities

• Lead deep-dive chemical and metallurgical forensics during critical fleet incidents, participating in root cause analysis efforts and providing subject matter expertise.
• Investigate complex chemical mechanisms, translating findings into immediate corrective mandates.
• Provide rigorous oversight and governance of third-party water treatment vendors. Establish, enforce, and standardize Aligned's water chemistry program requirements across all sites.
• Dictate sampling frequencies, inhibitor concentrations, and emergency dosing protocols, holding vendors strictly accountable to fleet reliability standards.
• Analyze water quality data and trends to identify systemic risks to reliability, efficiency, and equipment lifecycle. Review capital project designs and issue Engineering Change Orders to ensure new multi-metal hydronic loops are properly buffered, filtered, and protected against galvanic and chemical corrosion prior to deployment.
• Conduct programmatic, fleet-wide technical audits to ensure sites are operating within strictly defined water chemistry parameters. Monitor the efficacy of existing side-stream filtration, degassing hardware, and biological control programs, escalating deviations before they result in physical flow restrictions or heat-exchange losses.
• Evaluate and recommend new solutions to improve water conservation, treatment effectiveness, and operational efficiency. Partner with the Advanced Cooling Lab to empirically test new chemical formulations, biocide treatments, and physical filtration methodologies prior to fleet-wide rollout.

Required Qualifications

• Experience: 8+ years of experience in industrial water treatment, cooling tower chemistry, or related data center/mechanical systems environments.
• Education: Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent training/experience.
• Technical Expertise: Strong understanding of cooling systems, hydronic systems, and water treatment processes in mission-critical environments. Expert-level knowledge of scale, corrosion, microbiological control, and the complex thermodynamic interactions of high-density liquid cooling loops.
• Strategic Leadership: Proven ability to manage third-party vendors and service providers, combined with the executive acumen to communicate complex chemical risks and metallurgical vulnerabilities to senior leadership and cross-departmental stakeholders.

Benefits & Perks

Aligned Data Centers is proud to offer a comprehensive benefits package to support the health, well-being, and financial security of our team members. Eligible employees have access to:

• Health Coverage: Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts: HSA with employer contribution for eligible participants. FSA's offered for health and dependent care to increase tax savings
• Retirement Savings: 401(k) plan with company match
• Paid Time Off and Holiday Pay
• Company-Sponsored Insurance: Short-Term Disability, Life Insurance, and Long-Term Disability (with medical election)
• Optional Benefits: Voluntary life, critical illness, legal, and additional disability coverage
• Wellness Programs: Employee assistance program (EAP), Wellhub gym membership, and other wellness initiatives

The above is intended to describe the general content of and requirements for the performance of this job. It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of duties, responsibilities or physical requirements. Nothing in this job description restricts management’s right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to this job at any time.