Data Center Architect

About the role

Cloudflare is hiring a Data Center Architect to define and deliver the physical infrastructure behind high-density compute and GPU deployments across our global network.

You'll own 3 connected domains: the liquid cooling chain, the low-voltage connectivity layer, and the MV/LV electrical architecture that powers both.

This is a senior individual-contributor role spanning architecture, detailed design, technical qualification, design governance, commissioning, and operational readiness.

You're Cloudflare's owner-side technical lead in these domains: the person who connects what our hardware needs with what colocation providers, equipment manufacturers, and delivery partners can actually build.

Scope runs from a single rack in commercial colocation to multi-megawatt compute deployments.

You'll design power, cooling, and cabling as one system so they don't fight each other at the rack, in the white space, or during maintenance.

Responsibilities

Architecture and reference designs

• Own the physical-infrastructure architecture.
• Build reference designs for power, liquid cooling, and connectivity for AI and high-density compute, including how they interface at rack, row, and site level.
• Maintain the standards, templates, and libraries that deployment, operations, and partner teams build from.
• Translate hardware and capacity needs into engineering requirements.
• Turn heat loads, electrical loads, port counts, network topologies, and growth plans into power, cooling, and connectivity requirements and into site and rack qualification criteria.
• Qualify sites and facility interfaces.

Electrical power architecture (MV/LV)

• Lead MV and LV electrical architecture: single-line diagrams, power distribution, switchgear and UPS topology, busway and PDU design, grounding and bonding.
• Design physical power infrastructure, AC and DC, including power conversion, backup generation, energy storage, and distribution, with attention to fault levels, selectivity, and maintainability.
• Validate designs with modeling: load-flow, short-circuit, arc-flash, and selectivity studies, checked against measured performance where possible.
• Define digital power requirements for monitoring, metering, protection coordination, and control.

Liquid cooling

• Own the liquid-cooling architecture and roadmap.
• Develop repeatable direct-to-chip designs and evaluate liquid-to-liquid, liquid-to-air, rear-door, and other approaches against deployment needs.
• Design and validate the hydraulic system.
• Specify equipment and rack integration.
• Own coolant integrity and serviceability.

Low-voltage connectivity and structured cabling

• Own the physical-layer architecture.
• Reference designs for rack, row, cage, and site connectivity: copper and fiber distribution, patch-panel placement, cross-connect demarcations, diverse routes, and reserved expansion capacity.
• Engineer fiber and copper connectivity.
• Produce buildable designs.
• Connect to colocation and carrier infrastructure.

Integration, controls, and resilience

• Coordinate white-space interfaces.
• Design for resilience and controlled failure.
• Define controls and operational visibility.

Governance, delivery, and acceptance

• Be Cloudflare's owner-side design authority.
• Own basis-of-design documents, single-line diagrams, P&IDs, cabling and equipment schedules, interface requirements, scopes, responsibility matrices, review gates, and acceptance criteria.
• Lead delivery and live-site changes.
• Lead commissioning and acceptance.
• Keep the physical source of truth accurate.
• Oversee handover.

Cost, efficiency, and standards

• Support sourcing.
• Reduce energy and water use.
• Evolve standards from evidence.

What you'll bring

• 8+ years in data center mechanical, electrical, or physical-layer infrastructure, critical-facility cooling, or structured cabling, including architecture or technical design leadership.
• Bachelor's in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Delivered liquid-cooled compute infrastructure from requirements through commissioning or production handover.
• Create and review electrical single-line diagrams and schematics, with hands-on MV/LV system design including protection, selectivity, and grounding.
• Strong command of thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, hydraulic calculations, pump and heat-exchanger selection, and cooling performance under variable conditions.
• Practical experience with CDUs, facility and technology cooling loops, rack distribution, coolant compatibility, leak detection, and the interfaces between liquid-cooled hardware and facility systems.
• Strong knowledge of copper Ethernet, single-mode and multimode fiber, patching systems, LC and MPO/MTP connectivity, optical loss budgets, polarity, cable management, and the applicable test methods.
• Experience in colocation environments: cross-connect delivery, diverse physical paths, and the practical constraints of building inside third-party facilities.
• Able to write and critically review basis-of-design documents, P&IDs, electrical and mechanical specifications, equipment selections, operating sequences, and test plans.
• Working knowledge of NEC, NFPA, UL, mechanical and plumbing codes, TIA and ISO/IEC structured-cabling standards, relevant ASHRAE data center guidance, and manufacturer operating requirements, and the ability to apply them with qualified local engineering partners.
• Experience evaluating resilience and maintainability, participating in commissioning, and resolving system-level issues.