Staff Engineer, Data Center

About the role

This role will be based in Manassas, VA.

At LinkedIn, our approach to flexible work is centered on trust and optimized for culture, connection, clarity, and the evolving needs of our business. The work location of this role is hybrid, meaning it will be performed both from home and from a LinkedIn office on select days, as determined by the business needs of the team.

Responsibilities

• Own electrical design review and validation of data center power systems, from utility and medium-voltage distribution through backup power and rack-level distribution.
• Review mechanical, cooling, and liquid cooling system designs and assess their interdependencies with electrical power systems under normal and failure conditions.
• Perform and review electrical studies, including load flow, short-circuit, protective coordination, and arc-flash, and develop resiliency and redundancy models to validate designs against LinkedIn’s Tier-level and N+X criteria.
• Drive updates to the electrical sections of LinkedIn’s global Basis of Design (BOD), including owner’s requirements, design drawings, technical specifications, bills of materials, and performance benchmarks, to ensure consistency across regions and providers.
• Evaluate and qualify new electrical and mechanical equipment and components, including vendor qualification and product testing, to support standardization, performance, and long-term reliability across the fleet.
• Lead technical evaluation of new sites, expansions, and data hall fit-outs, including review of electrical one-line diagrams, mechanical system designs, and infrastructure layouts.
• Lead technical due diligence and support infrastructure negotiations for colocation leases, amendments, and expansions, translating capacity requirements into enforceable technical provisions covering capacity delivery, system performance, demarcation of responsibilities, commissioning, maintenance, reporting, and SLAs.
• Partner with data center providers to define, measure, and enforce lease SLAs, assess power and cooling capacity, and ensure compliance with LinkedIn’s redundancy, resiliency, and availability standards.
• Oversee the design and construction of new data centers, expansions, and retrofits, ensuring electrical and mechanical systems meet design intent, testing protocols, commissioning standards, and project timelines.
• Define commissioning and Integrated Systems Testing (IST) requirements for new data center spaces, retrofits, and upgrades, and validate results against design intent and operational requirements.
• Contribute to LinkedIn’s liquid-cooling deployment strategy by evaluating direct-to-chip technologies, power and cooling interdependencies, and operational impacts, and support the metrics and tools needed for monitoring and maintenance.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Industrial, Process, or a related engineering discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of experience designing, constructing, commissioning, operating, or maintaining mission-critical infrastructure.
• 5+ years of direct experience with data center design, construction, field engineering, commissioning, or major infrastructure retrofit programs.
• Experience in data center electrical power systems, from medium-voltage distribution through backup power and rack-level distribution.
• Familiarity with data center mechanical and cooling systems, including liquid cooling infrastructure.
• Experience evaluating electrical and mechanical infrastructure interdependencies, system redundancy, and failure scenarios in mission-critical environments.
• Experience supporting maintenance, reliability, and operational-readiness programs for critical infrastructure.
• Experience working with colocation providers, engineering consultants, contractors, commissioning agents, equipment manufacturers, and internal operations teams.
• Ability to develop clear and actionable technical documentation for engineering, operations, and capacity planning teams.
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent mission-critical initiatives and communicate technical risks, tradeoffs, and recommendations to engineering and leadership audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering or a related field.
• 10+ years of direct data center design, construction, and commissioning experience with a hyperscaler, colocation provider, or contractor.
• Professional certifications such as Professional Engineer (PE), Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE), Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional (CMRP), Chartered Engineer (CEng), or Project Management Professional (PMP).
• Experience performing or reviewing electrical studies, including load flow, short-circuit, protective coordination, and arc-flash.
• Working knowledge of electrical safety standards and codes, including NFPA 70E and NEC, etc.
• Experience leading technical due diligence, site evaluations, colocation infrastructure negotiations, or development and enforcement of technical lease requirements and SLAs.
• Experience with high-density data center infrastructure and liquid-cooling technologies, including controls, monitoring, and operational-readiness requirements.
• Experience with mechanical analyses such as CFD modeling, hydraulic analysis, and cooling capacity and redundancy assessments.

Suggested Skills

• Electrical power distribution design, protection, and system analysis
• Electrical safety (NFPA 70E/NEC) and arc-flash program management
• Data center site evaluation, design, and construction administration
• Colocation technical due diligence, lease requirements, and SLA management
• Basis of Design (BOD) development and standardization
• Mechanical, thermal, and liquid cooling systems engineering, including CFD analysis