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Physical Engineering & DesignAustin, TXFull Time

Plumbing Engineer, R&D

Austin, TXOnsite

About Fluidstack

Technology is the most important tool humans have found for improving the human condition, but it is not a default good. It is a lever for ideology.

Today the most powerful technology in history is being built: machines that solve problems better than humans can. The most important mission of our generation is to imbue AI with democratic values: error-correcting institutions, freedom of speech, individual liberties. AI trains and runs on massive compute clusters. Whichever ideology builds the infrastructure the fastest is the ideology that will endure. Democracy is delicate and won't survive this technology by default.

We hire people who care deeply about this problem space. If that is you, please apply!

How We Operate

  • Be a barrel. Full autonomy. Own things end to end, take on scope without being asked, no permission required to operate outside your core role.

  • Insane urgency. We drive everything forward as fast as possible.

  • Reason from first principles. Challenge every assumption. Zero analogy thinking, no egos, the best idea wins.

  • Love of the game. The frontier of AI is the most interesting problem of our time. We put in long hours at high intensity to push the frontier forward.

  • Build something that actually matters. If you're going to spend your time, spend it on something that matters to the world.

The Mechanical Engineering Team

You'll join the mechanical engineers in Fluidstack's infrastructure R&D group, who design the cooling, water, and fire systems inside gigawatt-scale AI data centers as repeatable products rather than one-off site designs. Liquid-cooled compute makes water a primary utility: make-up water, treatment, condenser and process loops, and drainage all have to be sized, specified, and standardized so the same design ships to every site.

Examples of key problems the team is working on

  • Standardizing the domestic, process, and make-up water systems that feed liquid cooling plants so they can be ordered as kits and installed in prefabricated modules.

  • Sizing water supply, storage, and drainage for cooling loads that swing faster than conventional plumbing design assumes.

  • Coordinating water treatment, backflow protection, and chemical dosing with the controls and water-quality engineers who operate the loops.

  • Turning field and commissioning findings into design changes that reach the next site.

Role Scope

  • Own the plumbing design. Design domestic water, process and make-up water, condenser water piping, drainage, and stormwater systems for data center buildings and prefabricated modules, from concept through construction documents.

  • Size and specify. Run hydraulic calculations, select pumps, valves, backflow preventers, water heaters, and storage, and write the specifications vendors and contractors build to.

  • Hold the codes. Keep designs compliant with plumbing, mechanical, and health codes across the jurisdictions Fluidstack builds in, and manage the permit and inspection questions that come back.

  • Integrate with cooling. Work with the mechanical, water-quality, and controls engineers so make-up water, treatment, and blowdown are designed as one system with the cooling plant.

  • Support the build. Review contractor submittals and shop drawings, answer RFIs, and walk installations through commissioning.

What We're Looking For

The below is a starting point. We always make space for exceptional people, so if you don't fit this role exactly, tell us where you would.

  • 5+ years of plumbing or piping design engineering on industrial, mission-critical, or large commercial facilities, with at least one project taken through construction documents and commissioning.

  • Working knowledge of the IPC or UPC, IMC, and local amendments, and of how to get a design through permit review.

  • Hands-on with hydraulic calculations, pump and pipe sizing, backflow protection, and water storage design.

  • Fluency in Revit or AutoCAD MEP and a hydraulic modeling tool.

  • You have reviewed contractor submittals and answered RFIs, and you know which deviations matter.

  • You write specifications a contractor can bid without a meeting.

  • Bonus: Professional Engineer license or CPD certification. Data center or liquid-cooling plant experience. Water treatment or industrial process piping background.

We are committed to pay equity and transparency.

Fluidstack is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans’ status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Fluidstack will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records pursuant to applicable law.

You will receive a confirmation email once your application has successfully been accepted. If there is an error with your submission and you did not receive a confirmation email, please email careers@fluidstack.io with your resume/CV, the role you've applied for, and the date you submitted your application-- someone from our recruiting team will be in touch.

Compensation

$169K – $208K

Ready to help build civilization-scale infrastructure for AI?

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