Manager, Mechanical & Thermal OFCI Procurement Engineering - Data Center Supply Chain

Do you want to work with high-caliber professionals in a dynamic and growing company? Are you entrepreneurial, hard-working, and collegial? Join us at SB Energy, a leading infrastructure company backed by SoftBank Group and Ares Infrastructure, pairing cutting-edge innovation with best-in-class execution. Our mission is to deliver reliable and secure data center and power infrastructure to strengthen America's future.

Founded in 2019, SB Energy is a SoftBank Group company headquartered in Redwood City, California. In 2026, SoftBank Group and OpenAI announced a $1 billion investment to support SB Energy as their leading development and execution partner for data center campuses, while Ares Infrastructure continues its long-standing support of the company's growth. SB Energy develops, builds, owns, and operates some of the largest and most technically advanced energy and data center infrastructure projects in the United States. Since its founding, the company has rapidly grown into a top-tier integrated platform with more than 3 gigawatts (GW) in operation and a multi-GW pipeline of energy and data center infrastructure nationwide.

SB Energy also leverages a strong culture of innovation to identify and integrate new technologies into its projects, including its AI-based digital platform, delivering energy infrastructure that is local, reliable, and matched to load. We are building the energy and infrastructure future—today.

Come join us in accelerating the energy and infrastructure transition!

Basic Function

SB Energy is seeking a Manager with deep mechanical and thermal procurement engineering expertise, supported by industry and OEM experience, to lead procurement engineering for owner-furnished, contractor-installed (OFCI) cooling equipment supporting AI data centers. You will own the cooling product roadmap, procurement technical requirements, basis of design, and equipment acceptance decisions for the mechanical and thermal scope supporting high-density computing.

Working directly with SB Energy’s clients, OEMs, and vendors, you will deliver highly reliable cooling solutions at the best total cost of ownership (TCO). From day one, you will make timely, independent decisions amid ambiguity, drive innovation and equipment delivery, advance equipment fungibility, and enable multi-sourcing. You will build a team with the capacity and domain expertise needed to deliver the full cooling equipment scope.

You will be part of a broader team of Procurement Managers with complementary technical, commercial, planning, and logistics strengths. While this role requires deep mechanical and thermal engineering expertise, it also requires flexibility to support business needs beyond your primary discipline and build capability across the function. You are not expected to be a specialist in every area.

Your assignments will span multiple projects and equipment categories and may include leading or supporting shared sourcing, supplier development, planning, or logistics activities. These assignments will evolve as projects advance, workloads shift, and business priorities change, taking into account your equipment knowledge, readiness, capacity, and access to appropriate specialist support. In every assignment, you will maintain clear ownership, cross-train colleagues, and provide structured handoffs and backup coverage.

Responsibilities

Equipment coverage includes but is not limited to the categories below.

Cooling equipment

• Cooling and heat rejection: air- and water-cooled chillers, cooling towers, dry coolers, adiabatic/fluid coolers, and heat exchangers.

• Airside cooling: CRAH/CRAC units, air-handling units, fan walls, in-row cooling, and rear-door heat exchangers.

• Liquid cooling: coolant distribution units, direct-to-chip and immersion cooling packages, manifolds, cold plates, hoses, and quick disconnects.

• Hydronics and water: pumps and integral drives, piping/valve skids, strainers, buffer/expansion/storage tanks, pressurization, makeup water, filtration, and water treatment.

• Packaged cooling: modular plants and cooling skids, integral controls, instrumentation, and leak detection.

Role accountabilities

• Personally lead mechanical and thermal technical decisions from day one. Prioritize deliverables and specialist support, identify capability gaps, and propose hiring as workload and business needs expand.

• Once staffed, coach, develop, and manage direct reports to establish LLE ownership across central cooling, airside systems, liquid cooling, and hydronics.

• Own cooling equipment specifications, Basis of Design (BOD), configurations, and thermal/hydraulic interfaces. Translate client requirements and Engineering/EOR design intent into procurement requirements. Own cooling-package performance and integral controls, coordinating power-feed interfaces with Electrical.

• Own the cooling product roadmap: thermal capacity and efficiency requirements, technology evaluation, pilots, standard product families, refresh cycles, and obsolescence. Align with clients’ computing roadmaps and vendor capabilities to improve reliability and TCO.

• Own cooling equipment fungibility criteria and technical equivalence decisions across OEMs, generations, and projects. Validate duty points, footprints, fluid chemistry, materials, connections, controls, and service requirements. Define limits on interchangeability and required adaptations.

• Enable multi-sourcing through vendor-neutral specifications and technical approval of alternate cooling products. Supply product assessments to Supplier Engineering, which owns OEM/factory qualifications. Category Procurement owns sourcing awards, negotiations, and contracts.

• Challenge vendor selections, performance curves, calculations, and exclusions with clients and Engineering. Validate ambient and part-load performance, redundancy, maintainability, failure response, and compatibility. Own product acceptance and deviation decisions within delegated authority.

• Own cooling equipment TCO comparisons covering acquisition, installation, energy, water, fluids, maintenance, spares, replacement, and downtime exposure. Use client operating needs and vendor evidence to recommend the most reliable, cost-effective solution.

• Define equipment-specific Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT), Factory Witness Testing (FWT), and Site Acceptance Testing (SAT) criteria, including thermal, hydraulic, leak, and controls performance. Own cooling technical acceptance under Supplier Engineering’s common test framework.

• Own cooling impact assessments for client/design changes and engineering dispositions for equipment defects. Resolve thermal and mechanical issues through manufacturing and commissioning, providing decisions to TPM and technical input to Quality-led corrective actions.

• Use operating results and field lessons to improve the cooling roadmap. Engineering/EOR retains project design ownership; Quality owns audits and nonconformance processes; Construction/Commissioning owns field execution. Electrical owns facility-side power/protection interfaces; TPM coordinates milestones and decision closure.

Qualifications/Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related engineering discipline with substantial thermal systems specialization required. A master’s degree or Professional Engineer (PE) license is an advantage.

• 12+ years of progressively responsible experience in mechanical equipment engineering, thermal systems, procurement engineering, or OEM engineering. Responsibility for mission-critical cooling equipment serving data centers is preferred.

• Demonstrated mechanical and thermal subject matter expertise and success in building and leading engineering teams. Experience hiring and developing category specialists, delegating decisions, managing performance, and ensuring adequate coverage across complex cooling portfolios.

• Extensive experience within cooling equipment OEM or directly leading technical engagements with OEM engineering and manufacturing teams. Proven ownership of equipment selection, supplier design reviews, performance testing, and difficult commissioning or operating issues.

• Deep understanding of thermodynamics, heat transfer, hydronics, heat rejection, redundancy, controls, and maintainability. Strong practical experience with high-density cooling and liquid-cooling interfaces, including fluid quality, materials compatibility, and leak management.

• Ability to interpret equipment drawings, piping and instrumentation diagrams, performance maps, control sequences, and test evidence, and apply relevant mechanical, pressure-system, environmental, and equipment standards.

• Strong commercial acumen, including total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis, technical bid evaluation, value engineering, and assessment of energy, water, service, and schedule of tradeoffs. Ability to turn technical findings into clear business decisions.

• A record of developing cooling product roadmaps, qualifying new technologies, and enabling fungibility and multi-sourcing. Ability to prove technical equivalence and make independent decisions with incomplete information and competing deadlines.

• Credibility with client technical leaders, OEMs, vendors, and internal partners. Clear executive communication and constructive resolution of technical and commercial tradeoffs. Willingness to travel domestically and internationally to factories, test facilities, client locations, and project sites.

Working arrangements

Assignments may span projects, equipment categories, suppliers, and locations and may change with business needs. The role includes supplier, factory, warehouse, and active construction site visits, coordination across time zones, and compliance with site safety and access requirements. Managers lead execution through qualified suppliers and project resources.

Location: Redwood City, CA, Phoenix, AZ San Diego, CA, Austin, TX.

Remote location considered on case-by-case basis.

Base Pay - $140,000 - $170,000

The pay range mentioned above is a guideline. We tailor each offer based on your unique skills, experience, location, and market benchmarks—while ensuring internal parity across our teams. The compensation range provided reflects base pay. Total rewards may also include performance-based bonuses, equity grants, and a market leading comprehensive health and wellness benefits package. Final details will be discussed during the later stages of the hiring process.

Our Health & Wellness Benefits

At SB Energy, we invest in our people and their families with benefits designed for flexibility, support, and peace of mind. Full-time employees enjoy:

• 100% Company-Paid Medical, Dental & Vision (for employees and dependents)
• 401(k) with Company Match
• Generous Paid Time Off + 11 Paid Holidays
• 12 Weeks Parental Leave
• Life, AD&D & Long-Term Disability Coverage
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) for Medical, Dependent Care, Transit & Parking (with company contributions)
• Mental, Physical & Social Wellness Support (with company contributions)
• Flexible Work Arrangements & Hybrid Office Setup Benefits
• Monthly Reimbursement for Phone, Internet & Data
• Optional Legal & Pet Insurance Plans
• Device Purchase Support

At SB Energy, the success of our projects is driven by a desire to see our projects benefit as many people as possible. We work to serve local communities through volunteering, fundraising, and much more. For example, we’re proud to support access and opportunity in engineering and clean energy through impactful mentorship programs and workforce training. When you join SB Energy, you can become a part of these efforts, collaborating with team members who share a vision of building a better future now!

SB Energy is built on a foundation of collaboration and inclusion. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, or any other legally protected class.

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