Principal Engineer Mechanical

Overview

The Principal Mechanical Engineer is Exentec's senior-most technical authority for all mechanical utility systems supporting mission-critical semiconductor fabs, data centers, advanced R&D facilities, and high-precision manufacturing environments. The role covers HVAC systems, cleanroom temperature/humidity control, process and general exhaust, subfab abatement, high-purity gas/corrosive exhaust, chilled water, hot water/steam, air handling, heat recovery, and mission-critical cooling technologies. The Principal Mechanical Engineer provides deep technical expertise across design, reliability engineering, system modeling, commissioning, troubleshooting, and failure analysis.

They lead mechanical risk reduction strategies, develop global standards, support capital projects, and strengthen the technical capabilities of site and regional teams. This position represents Exentec as a technical authority internally, to clients, and in new business pursuits, and plays a critical role in ensuring mechanical systems meet the uptime and environmental requirements of semiconductor and data center operations.

• Serve as the company-wide SME for all mechanical and HVAC systems:
  Cleanroom HVAC and environmental control (temperature/RH, pressurization, recirculation);
  Data center cooling (CRAC/CRAH, CW loops, DX, evaporative, adiabatic, direct-to-chip, rear door HX);
  Exhaust and Abatement Systems;
  Chilled water, hot water, boilers, heat exchangers, cooling towers, pumps, and hydronic systems
• Maintain global engineering standards, specifications, design criteria, and commissioning requirements for mechanical systems
• Lead complex failure mode analysis, sequence-of-operations reviews, airflow modeling, and energy optimization projects
• Assess new technologies (liquid cooling, high-density GPU cooling, exhaust filtration advancements, energy recovery, advanced controls)
• Develop mechanical reliability strategies for fabs, data centers, and critical environments
• Conduct root cause analyses for HVAC failures, exhaust issues, abatement upsets, and cooling interruptions
• Support risk assessments, system-level reliability modeling, and redundancy strategy (N, N+1, 2N)
• Develop an Audit program to ensure all sites are in compliance with the program
• Provide Tier-3 engineering support to global site operations for mechanical system troubleshooting
• Guide teams through subfab exhaust imbalance issues, abatement failures, airflow drops, or extreme RH/temperature deviations
• Support emergency response during cooling failures, CRAC/CRAH outages, pump trips, or exhaust system alarms
• Approve major mechanical switching plans, system isolations, hot work, and return-to-service procedures
• Evaluate PM programs, testing protocols, and system lifecycle planning for mechanical utilities
• Develop training programs and technical modules for mechanical systems, including: HVAC fundamentals, Exhaust/abatement fundamentals, Cleanroom environmental stability, Data center thermal management & Reliability-based maintenance
• Mentor engineers and technicians to build mechanical engineering competency across all regions
• Document lessons learned, BKMs, and failure mode libraries
• Collaborate with the AI Engineer in creating internal digital tools, applications, and automation solutions for mechanical system monitoring and optimization
• Act as the technical expert in client discussions related to mechanical systems, reliability strategy, and service scope
• Develop technical content for proposals, pricing models, SOWs, and solution design in support of business development
• Participate in client workshops, site walks, and technical presentations for new business pursuits
• Provide engineering analyses that support cost-saving strategies, energy efficiency improvements, and client investment planning

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering (or related field)
• 12+ years of experience with mechanical utilities in mission-critical environments (semiconductor, data center, pharma, aerospace, or advanced manufacturing)
• Expert knowledge of at least one of the following:
  • Semiconductor subfab systems: process exhaust, toxic/acid exhaust, abatement,…