# Data Center Architect **Company**: Cloudflare **Location**: Hybrid **Work arrangement**: hybrid **Experience**: senior **Job type**: full-time **Category**: Engineering **Industry**: Technology **Apply**: https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/cloudflare/jobs/8344893?utm_source=yubhub.co&utm_medium=jobs_feed&utm_campaign=apply **Canonical**: https://yubhub.co/job/data-center-architect-8055a668-808/ ## Description ## 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. For more fresh new jobs, check out [yubhub.co](https://yubhub.co/). ## Skills ### Required - data center architecture - electrical engineering - mechanical engineering - liquid cooling - structured cabling - power distribution - cooling performance - thermodynamics - heat transfer - fluid mechanics - hydraulic calculations - pump and heat-exchanger selection - coolant compatibility - leak detection - copper Ethernet - single-mode and multimode fiber - patching systems - LC and MPO/MTP connectivity - optical loss budgets - polarity - cable management - colocation environments - cross-connect delivery - diverse physical paths --- Source: [Apply at job-boards.greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/cloudflare/jobs/8344893?utm_source=yubhub.co&utm_medium=jobs_feed&utm_campaign=apply)