Reliability Engineer, Thermal Systems & Cooling

Job Type: Full Time |
Location: Dallas/Fort Worth |
Department: Engineering |
Reporting to: Senior Manager, Asset Management & Governance |
Work Location Type: #hybrid#remote

IREN is a vertically integrated AI Cloud provider, delivering large-scale datacenters and GPU clusters for AI training and inference. IREN’s platform is underpinned by its expansive portfolio of grid-connected land and power in renewable-rich regions across North America, Europe and APAC.

The Reliability Engineer, Thermal Systems & Cooling holds the technical accountability (TA1) for the thermal and cooling asset classes across IREN's data center portfolio: central utility plant, chilled-water and dry-cooler plants, hydronics and heat exchangers, liquid cooling loops and distribution units, and the cooling-water and coolant chemistry behind them. The role sets the asset strategies, operating envelopes and water-quality limits for these systems, and provides the functional direction and mentoring for the campus reliability engineers in the discipline (site focused, functionally directed).

A senior individual contributor: does the engineering as well as directing it.

With 100% renewable energy, we build, own and operate our data centers and take pride in being at the forefront of sustainable solutions for the ever-evolving applications of high-performance compute. We believe that human progress is invaluable, but it should be done in the right way – responsibly, sustainably and having a positive impact on the communities we operate in.

• Degree in mechanical or process engineering; professional registration an asset.
• 10+ years in reliability or plant engineering on mission-critical or industrial cooling and utility plant; liquid cooling experience or the ability to transfer similar knowledge and come up to speed on it quickly.
• Cooling-water and coolant chemistry: treatment programs, water-quality limits and their monitoring.
• Process and thermal engineering: heat and mass balance, plant optimization, redundancy philosophies and the consequence of a cooling failure for IT load.
• Reliability method: RCM/FMECA, criticality-based maintenance strategies, operating limits, failure analysis and RCA; has loaded strategies into a CMMS.
• Working literacy in controls (BMS/SCADA) and electrical systems sufficient to coordinate with the controls and electrical engineers; condition monitoring for rotating and thermal equipment.
• Non-authoritative technical leadership: sets and defends a standard with site engineers and operations managers through functional direction; clear technical writing; at home on the plant floor and in a design review.
• Preferred: mechanical engineering plus mission-critical chiller plant. Chemical/process engineering plus industrial utilities and water treatment advisable; CMRP/CRL, CEM or refrigeration credentials.

• Pre-employment screening, including background check and substance testing may be required according to company policies.
• Must provide own steel-toed work boots; other PPE will be supplied.
• Travel to campuses across the portfolio as required, including extended periods on site during commissioning and start-up.

• Own the asset strategies for the thermal and cooling asset classes across the portfolio: criticality-based maintenance strategies, spares criticality and OEM service requirements, loaded into the CMMS and adopted at every operating campus.
• Set the operating envelopes and limits for thermal systems and the water-quality limits for cooling water and coolant; hold technical accountability (TA1) for deviations from them; elevate enterprise-level deviations to the Senior Manager and the Global Director.
• Own the cooling-water and coolant chemistry program: treatment specifications, vendor performance requirements, monitoring and audit, and the response when limits are exceeded.
• Provide the functional direction for the campus mechanical and HVAC reliability engineers (TA2): profile, hiring panel, onboarding, technical objectives and appraisal input; mentor and develop them in the discipline.
• Lead failure analysis for thermal and cooling events: RCA for severity 1 and repeat failures, findings converted into strategy and limit changes, design lessons fed to Engineering.
• Specify what is monitored on each thermal asset class, the thresholds, and the asset-health analytics that feed strategy.
• Support operational readiness for new campuses: review cooling plant design and commissioning…