Data Center Electrical R&D Engineer

OpenAI, in close collaboration with capital partners, is building advanced AI infrastructure. The team defines technical direction for next-gen data centers and develops architectures to support evolving AI hardware and workload requirements.

We are seeking an experienced Data Center Electrical R&D Engineer to develop and validate next-gen power architectures for high-density AI infrastructure. This role focuses on research, advanced design, modeling, prototyping, and technical validation.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop advanced electrical architectures for high-density AI data centers.
• Translate evolving compute-platform requirements into electrical capacity, topology, redundancy, power-quality, protection, and control requirements.
• Create conceptual designs, basis-of-design documents, specifications, one-line diagrams, design standards, and reusable reference architectures.
• Model electrical-system performance, capacity, efficiency, reliability, fault conditions, transient behavior, and failure scenarios.
• Evaluate emerging technologies such as medium-voltage distribution, solid-state power conversion, advanced UPS systems, energy storage, alternative generation, and direct-current architectures.
• Build technical and economic comparisons across competing design approaches.
• Develop prototypes, test plans, acceptance criteria, and validation frameworks for new electrical technologies and system architectures.
• Lead laboratory, factory, pilot-site, and field testing to validate design assumptions and identify performance or integration gaps.
• Partner with mechanical and thermal engineers to optimize power and cooling architectures.
• Collaborate with AI hardware and compute teams to understand workload behavior, rack density, utilization, power variability, and future platform requirements.
• Work with controls and software teams to define instrumentation, telemetry, protection, monitoring, and automated-control requirements.
• Partner with construction, commissioning, and operations teams to ensure new designs can be safely built, tested, operated, and maintained.
• Engage equipment manufacturers, utilities, engineering consultants, and research partners to evaluate capabilities and accelerate technology development.
• Investigate system failures and unexpected test results, identify root causes, and translate findings into design improvements.
• Document validated designs, technical decisions, operating envelopes, lessons learned, and deployment guidance.
• Provide technical direction and design-review leadership across internal teams and external engineering partners.

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in electrical engineering, power-system design, data-center infrastructure, industrial power, or another critical-infrastructure environment.
• Deep expertise in electrical power distribution, including medium- and low-voltage systems, substations, transformers, switchgear, protection, UPS systems, generators, and rack-level power delivery.
• Demonstrated experience developing electrical designs for large, complex, or high-availability facilities.
• Strong understanding of power-system modeling, short-circuit analysis, load flow, coordination studies, arc-flash analysis, power quality, grounding, and reliability.
• Experience translating uncertain or evolving technical requirements into testable engineering concepts and system architectures.
• Experience designing experiments, prototypes, pilots, or validation programs for new equipment or infrastructure technologies.
• Ability to reason across electrical, mechanical, controls, compute hardware, construction, commissioning, and operational boundaries.
• Experience evaluating engineering tradeoffs using quantitative analysis, simulation, testing, and field data.
• Strong technical writing and communication skills.
• Experience directing engineering consultants, equipment manufacturers, and external technology partners.
• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or a related engineering discipline.

Preferred Skills:

• Master’s degree or PhD in electrical engineering, power systems, power electronics, energy systems, or a related field.
• Professional Engineer license or equivalent professional certification.
• Experience supporting high-density data centers, AI infrastructure, semiconductor manufacturing, advanced industrial facilities, or hyperscale computing environments.
• Experience with ETAP, SKM, EasyPower, PSCAD, MATLAB/Simulink, or comparable power-system analysis tools.
• Experience with power electronics, energy storage, microgrids, alternative generation, or advanced grid-interconnection technologies.
• Familiarity with digital twins, hardware-in-the-loop testing, real-time simulation, and data-driven infrastructure optimization.
• Experience carrying a new technology from research or prototype through qualification, commissioning, and scaled deployment.
• Knowledge of electrical codes, utility requirements, safety standards, and regulatory requirements across multiple geographies.
• Published research, patents, technical standards contributions, or demonstrated invention in electrical or critical-infrastructure systems.