Design Engineer: Power Generation

Job description

About the Team OpenAI, in close collaboration with our capital partners, is building the world's most advanced AI infrastructure ecosystem. The Industrial Compute organization develops and delivers the large-scale power, data center, and compute infrastructure required to support frontier AI systems. The Data Center Engineering team works across energy, electrical, mechanical, controls, site development, construction, commissioning, operations, and external partners to turn demanding campus power requirements into safe, reliable, and executable solutions. About the Role We are seeking a Design Engineer, Power Generation to develop and integrate power-generation systems for large-scale AI infrastructure campuses. You will translate campus load, reliability, schedule, and operating requirements into practical generation architectures and technical design criteria, supporting both behind-the-meter generation and hybrid grid-and-generation strategies. This is an individual contributor role with broad technical ownership from early concept and technology evaluation through detailed design, equipment selection, construction support, commissioning, and performance validation. You will work with internal engineering teams, utilities, OEMs, EPC partners, developers, and operators to resolve interfaces, make disciplined tradeoffs, and establish repeatable power-generation designs that can scale across the portfolio. Key Responsibilities - Develop power-generation concepts, reference architectures, design criteria, and site-specific requirements based on campus demand, phasing, reliability targets, grid availability, fuel strategy, site constraints, and operating objectives. - Evaluate generation technologies and system configurations, including gas turbines, reciprocating engines, fuel cells, battery energy storage, microgrids, black-start systems, and hybrid grid-connected solutions. - Define and review plant electrical and mechanical balance-of-plant requirements, protection and controls philosophy, grid-paralleling and islanding behavior, redundancy, maintainability, and operational modes. - Translate AI infrastructure load profiles and deployment schedules into generation capacity plans, equipment sizing, ramp strategies, performance requirements, and commissioning criteria. - Lead technical diligence of OEM, EPC, developer, and supplier proposals; review calculations, one-line diagrams, layouts, specifications, studies, schedules, and design assumptions to identify gaps and material risks. - Coordinate interfaces across utility interconnection, substations, campus electrical distribution, cooling systems, controls, fuel supply, emissions, water, civil design, permitting, construction, and operations. - Evaluate tradeoffs across availability, efficiency, emissions, cost, schedule, constructibility, scalability, maintainability, and long-term operating flexibility, and document clear technical recommendations. - Support equipment selection, procurement, design reviews, factory and site acceptance testing, construction issue resolution, commissioning, performance testing, and operational handoff. - Investigate design or field-performance issues, drive corrective actions with partners, and incorporate lessons learned into engineering standards, specifications, and future reference designs. Qualifications - 8+ years of engineering experience in power generation or industrial power systems, including responsibility for generation facility design or integration. - A bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience. - Experience taking generation projects from concept and equipment selection through detailed design, with direct involvement in procurement, construction support, commissioning, or performance testing. - Strong understanding of generation technologies such as gas turbines or reciprocating engines and their supporting electrical, mechanical, and fuel systems, including protection, controls, grid paralleling, islanding, and black start. - Ability to evaluate engineering studies, drawings, specifications, and supplier proposals; identify technical risks; and make defensible tradeoffs among safety, reliability, cost, schedule, and maintainability. - Experience resolving design interfaces across engineering disciplines and coordinating equipment suppliers, engineering and construction partners, utilities, and operators. - Sound judgment around safety, reliability, constructibility, maintainability, and technical risk, with the ability to make decisions when requirements or information are incomplete. - Ability to document design requirements, assumptions, and decisions clearly and explain technical recommendations to engineering, delivery, commercial, and leadership teams. Preferred Skills - Professional Engineer licensure and experience developing reusable engineering standards and ref