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Facilities Engineering Operations Lead, Data Center

Etched· Operations
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San Jose$200k - $300k + equityFull-timePosted 1w ago

About the role

Lead day-to-day data center facilities operations for Etched's AI data centers, owning uptime, incident response, and escalation across power, cooling, and white space. Build the operating system from scratch (SOPs/MOPs/EOPs, change management, maintenance programs, on-call, alarming) and create a repeatable playbook for future sites.

Responsibilities

  • Own day-to-day data center operations end to end: uptime, incident response, and escalation for power, cooling, and the white space.
  • Build the operating system from scratch: SOPs, MOPs, and EOPs; change management; preventive and predictive maintenance schedules; shift coverage and on-call; incident and RCA process.
  • Define SLOs and response plans for outage events at the fleet, rack, and server level.
  • Run the liquid cooling plant for high-density racks, including CDUs, secondary fluid loops, water chemistry and filtration, leak detection, and flow and inlet-temperature monitoring.
  • Own electrical operations, including switchgear, busway and PDUs, power connector topology, load balancing across racks, and lockout/tagout (LOTO) and arc-flash safety.
  • Manage electrical, mechanical, CDU OEM, and fire/life safety vendors and contractors: scope work, review quotes, and oversee onsite work.
  • Stand up monitoring and alarming with engineering across BMS/DCIM and rack and CDU telemetry, so problems reach the right person within minutes, not hours.
  • Run rack deployment logistics: receiving, staging, install, commissioning, and turn-up handoff to the hardware and lab teams, plus decommissioning and RMA flows.
  • Track spares and critical parts inventory for facility equipment.
  • Report operational metrics to leadership, including uptime, PUE, incidents, open risks, and capacity headroom.
  • Help build the team, starting with facilities engineering technicians and a BMS specialist.
  • Design processes and site-readiness checklists that can be replicated at our next sites.

Qualifications

  • 4-8+ years in critical facilities and data center operations, including time as a Lead or Senior Critical Facilities Engineer or a single-site Facilities Manager
  • Hands-on experience operating liquid cooling in production (CDUs, direct-to-chip / DLC, secondary fluid loops)
  • Deep working knowledge of data center electrical distribution (switchgear, UPS, busway, PDUs) and safe work practices (LOTO, arc flash, NFPA 70E)
  • Experience writing and drilling SOPs, MOPs, and EOPs, and running change management and maintenance programs
  • Experience leading incident response and root cause analysis
  • A track record of managing mechanical, electrical, and fire/life safety vendors
  • Working knowledge of BMS, DCIM, and power monitoring systems
  • Readiness to own the whole site, not just a shift or a system
  • Deeply creative and able to think from first principles

Skills

Required:Facilities operations leadershipLiquid cooling operationsElectrical distribution and safetySOP/MOP/EOP developmentIncident response & RCAVendor management

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage
  • $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits
  • Housing subsidy of $2k per month for those living within walking distance of the office
  • Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)
  • Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more
  • Daily lunch and dinner in our office
  • Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification
Last updated Oct 22, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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About Etched

Etched is building frontier inference clusters: co-designs chips, racks, software and manufacturing to push the pareto frontier for AI hardware.

frontier inference clustersAI hardwarechipsrackssoftwaremanufacturingparto frontier
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