Chief/Principal Electrical Engineer

The opportunity

Our client is one of the largest power systems companies in the world. Their North American critical power division builds the UPS systems, switchgear, power electronics, and cooling infrastructure inside many of the data centers carrying today's AI workloads. They are hiring a Chief Engineer to own the technical direction of the entire product portfolio.

This is the senior-most engineering seat in the division. Not a product line lead. The whole stack — chip to grid.

What "chip-to-grid" means in this role

The data center electrical ecosystem is one continuous network. It runs from the silicon delivering power to the GPU, through rack-level distribution and cooling, through the UPS and switchgear, through the on-site substation, and out to the utility interconnect. Most engineering leaders own one slice of that. You will own the whole architecture.

That means setting the technical direction for how this client's products work as an integrated system, from the semiconductor topology choices inside a UPS all the way to how the facility integrates with utility infrastructure.

What you'll own

You lead the technical roadmap for the complete suite of data center power and cooling products and the system architectures that tie them together. UPS systems, medium-voltage and low-voltage switchgear, power distribution, controls, and the cooling infrastructure that increasingly determines facility density and efficiency.

Specifically:

• Set the engineering direction for every product in the division, current generation through next-generation
• Architect the end-to-end power and cooling system so individual products work as one integrated chip-to-grid offering
• Lead feasibility studies on core technology bets — SiC versus Si IGBT roadmaps, modular UPS topologies, DC distribution architectures, direct-to-chip and immersion cooling integration, density and efficiency targets
• Approve technical and design reviews, work packages, and product-level test plans across the engineering organization
• Mentor a senior engineering team and set the standard for design practice, analysis, and validation
• Represent the company in IEEE, IEC, UL, ASHRAE, and Open Compute Project working groups
• Act as the engineering interface to global parent R&D, sister divisions, and strategic hyperscale and colocation customers
• Own field issue resolution at the senior technical level when escalations require the chief engineer voice in the room

The hard problems you'll solve

• How to push UPS efficiency above 98 percent at scale while maintaining the reliability targets hyperscalers demand
• How to integrate liquid cooling (direct-to-chip, single and dual-phase, immersion) into power architectures originally designed for air-cooled facilities
• How DC-native distribution and integrated voltage regulation change the topology of the upstream UPS and switchgear
• How to engineer for grid-interactive operation as utilities push behind-the-meter assets into demand response and DERMS programs
• How to design products that work in 50 megawatt colocation builds and gigawatt hyperscale campuses with the same engineering DNA

What you bring

Experience

• 15+ years in power electronics, critical power, or data center infrastructure product development
• Track record leading multi-product technical roadmaps at an OEM (UPS, switchgear, power electronics, cooling, or adjacent critical power categories)
• Senior engineering management experience — you have run teams of engineers, not just been the smartest individual contributor in the room
• Bachelor's in electrical engineering or a related technical field, advanced degree preferred

Technical depth (must have material expertise in most of these)

• Power semiconductors — SiC and Si IGBT, switching loss analysis, thermal management
• UPS topologies — true online double conversion, transformer-less designs, modular architectures
• Medium and low-voltage switchgear, vacuum circuit breakers, gas-insulated switchgear
• Power distribution and protection from utility interconnect through rack PDU
• Data center cooling — CRAC/CRAH, CDU, direct-to-chip liquid cooling, immersion cooling integration with power systems
• DC architectures and integrated voltage regulation concepts
• Controls, monitoring, DCIM integration, and the software-hardware interface for modern critical power
• Standards fluency — IEEE 519, 1547, 1100, IEC 62040, UL 1778, ASHRAE TC 9.9, Uptime Institute, OCP

Analytical tools

• Power systems analysis software (ETAP, PSCAD, MATLAB Simulink, or equivalents)
• FEA and thermal simulation for power electronics design
• Familiarity with digital twin and AI-assisted design workflows is a plus

Leadership and external posture

• Comfort representing a company externally — standards bodies, industry conferences, key customer technical reviews
• Cross-cultural fluency — the role works closely with engineering counterparts globally
• Ability to translate between deep technical detail and executive business context

Why this role matters now

US data center power demand could reach 325 to 580 TWh by 2028, two to three times the 2023 level. The companies winning that decade are the ones whose engineering leadership is making the right chip-to-grid technology bets right now — on semiconductors, cooling integration, DC architecture, and grid-interactive design. This role sits at the center of those decisions for a top-tier OEM with global R&D depth behind it.

Location and structure

On-site, US-based. Executive compensation structure, full benefits, relocation supported.