Senior Controls Specialist

Gradian is an engineering-led, full-line thermal solutions partner serving data center and other mission-critical, commercial, and industrial markets. Headquartered in Maple Grove, MN, with additional facilities across North America, we design and manufacture liquid cooling systems, air handling equipment, heat rejection units, and modular, factory-assembled thermal management solutions.

Gradian was founded through the unification of four complementary, established brands: MAS HVAC, Daedex, DeepCoolAI, and Eco Chillers. Together, we act as a single-source provider, deploying cooling technologies as scalable systems optimized for efficiency, spatial constraints, and overall performance. With a vertically integrated engineering and manufacturing model, we pair rapid design turnaround with precision fabrication, so customers can move faster on complex projects where reliability, timeline, and quality all matter.

Why work here

At Gradian, you'll work alongside others who get genuinely fired up by complex problems, see your work go from first sketch to job site in weeks, not years, and know that while we're developing the technologies critical for AI infrastructure to scale, our culture remains people-first by design.

It is core to our identity that we operate as one team — driving to win together, energizing others, and building lasting relationships that make the work fun and rewarding.

The Senior Controls Specialist serves as a senior technical resource supporting the implementation, validation, commissioning, troubleshooting, and lifecycle support of Gradian liquid cooling and air movement products. This role owns end-to-end delivery of complex controls solutions—from requirements definition and risk assessment through detailed design, validation, commissioning support, and field issue resolution—while ensuring compliance with applicable codes and standards. The Senior Controls Specialist partners with product engineering, manufacturing, quality, and sales to set technical direction, improve engineering processes, and scale reusable platforms.

Success in this role requires strong troubleshooting skills, system-level understanding, hands-on technical expertise, and the ability to effectively communicate across multiple functions.

Key Responsibilities:

Implement controls solutions for assigned programs by applying established control architectures, hardware selections, software standards, networking practices, and safety requirements.

Define and maintain platform standards (preferred PLC/HMI families, I/O and panel design conventions, network topology, device naming, alarm philosophy, and code libraries) to enable reuse and reduce total cost of ownership.

Lead detailed design and implementation: controls narratives, sequence of operations, control panel architecture, BOM selections, and PLC/HMI/SCADA software development using structured, version-controlled practices.

Establish verification and validation plans; review and approve test procedures; and lead/guide bench, prototype, and system-level testing to ensure performance, reliability, and maintainability.

Serve as the escalation point for complex troubleshooting (controls, instrumentation, networking, and system interactions), performing root-cause analysis and driving corrective/preventive actions.

Ensure designs meet applicable electrical and safety requirements (e.g., panel standards, safe work practices, and customer/site requirements); participate in design reviews and hazard/risk assessments.

Lead cross-functional technical execution: coordinate with mechanical, refrigeration/thermal, manufacturing, quality, and suppliers; manage technical risks, interfaces, and change control through the project lifecycle.

Own and improve engineering…