Data Center Architect

Location: Hybrid About Us At Cloudflare, we are on a mission to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks that powers millions of websites and other Internet properties for customers ranging from individual bloggers to SMBs to Fortune 500 companies. Cloudflare protects and accelerates any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare all have web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Company Cultures list and ranked among the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company. At Cloudflare, we’re not looking for people who wait for a polished roadmap; we’re looking for the builders who see the cracks in the Internet that everyone else has simply learned to live with. We value candidates who have the instinct to spot a "normalized" problem and the AI-native curiosity to create a solution using the latest tools. Our culture is built on iteration, leveraging AI to ship faster today to make it better tomorrow, while ensuring that every improvement, no matter how small, is shared across the team to lift everyone up. If you’re the type of person who values curiosity over bureaucracy, and that AI is a partner in solving tough problems to keep the Internet moving forward, you’ll fit right in. Location: Austin, San Francisco or New York About the role Cloudflare is hiring a Data Center Architect to define and deliver the physical infrastructure behind high-density compute and GPU deployments across our global network. You'll own 3 connected domains: the liquid cooling chain, the low-voltage connectivity layer, and the MV/LV electrical architecture that powers both. This is a senior individual-contributor role spanning architecture, detailed design, technical qualification, design governance, commissioning, and operational readiness. You're Cloudflare's owner-side technical lead in these domains: the person who connects what our hardware needs with what colocation providers, equipment manufacturers, and delivery partners can actually build. Scope runs from a single rack in commercial colocation to multi-megawatt compute deployments. You'll design power, cooling, and cabling as one system so they don't fight each other at the rack, in the white space, or during maintenance. If your background is only HVAC design, only cold-plate research, or only utility-scale generation, this role will be wider than you expect. We need someone who can hold the electrical, cooling, and cabling layers together. About the team We work with engineering, capacity planning, network strategy, supply chain, and operations to grow Cloudflare's data center and PoP footprint. With colocation providers, hardware suppliers, and delivery partners worldwide, we turn infrastructure requirements into deployments that come online faster, cost less, and work the first time. What you'll do Architecture and reference designs Own the physical-infrastructure architecture. Build reference designs for power, liquid cooling, and connectivity for AI and high-density compute, including how they interface at rack, row, and site level. Maintain the standards, templates, and libraries that deployment, operations, and partner teams build from. Translate hardware and capacity needs into engineering requirements. Turn heat loads, electrical loads, port counts, network topologies, and growth plans into power, cooling, and connectivity requirements and into site and rack qualification criteria. Qualify sites and facility interfaces. Assess provider power and cooling availability, utility and backup capacity, water supply and return conditions, hydraulic capacity, upstream heat rejection, expansion headroom, maintenance constraints, and contractual boundaries. Give go/no-go recommendations with the risks written down. Electrical power architecture (MV/LV) Lead MV and LV electrical architecture: single-line diagrams, power distribution, switchgear and UPS topology, busway and PDU design, grounding and bonding. Design physical power infrastructure, AC and DC, including power conversion, backup generation, energy storage, and distribution, with attention to fault levels, selectivity, and maintainability. Validate designs with modeling: load-flow, short-circuit, arc-flash, and selectivity studies, checked against measured performance where possible. Define digital power requirements for monitoring, metering, protection coordination, and control. Work with controls and operations teams on alarm thresholds, trend retention, remote monitoring, and BMS/SCADA integration. Fold emerging standards (NEC, NFPA, UL, OCP power and rack specs) into forward-looking electrical designs. Liquid cooling Own the liquid-cooling architecture and roadmap. Develop repeatable direct-to-chip designs and evaluate liquid-to-liquid, liquid-to-air, rear-door, and other approaches against deployment needs. Design and validate the hydraulic system. Flow and pressure-drop calculations, pipe sizing, pump selection, balancing, and control requirements. Validate at partial load, during expansion and maintenance, and in failure scenarios, not just at nameplate. Specify equipment and rack integration. Qualify CDUs, heat exchangers, pumps, manifolds, hoses, quick-disconnects, valves, and instrumentation. Coordinate rack access, piping routes, service clearances, and installation sequencing with the electrical, cabling, hardware, and structural disciplines. Own coolant integrity and serviceability. Set manufacturer-aligned requirements for fluid quality, material compatibility, cleanliness, filtration, corrosion control, condensation prevention, and leak detection. Make isolation, fluid handling, component replacement, and servicing safe and maintainable. Low-voltage connectivity and structured cabling Own the physical-layer architecture. Reference designs for rack, row, cage, and site connectivity: copper and fiber distribution, patch-panel placement, cross-connect demarcations, diverse routes, and reserved expansion capacity. Engineer fiber and copper connectivity. Specify media, connectors, trunks, cassettes, and patching for equipment reach and performance. Validate optical loss budgets, connector counts, polarity, breakouts, bend radius, and compatibility across hardware generations. Produce buildable designs. Pathway layouts, fiber schedules, port-to-port patching plans, cable-length schedules, bills of materials, and installation specs. Connect to colocation and carrier infrastructure. Qualify meet-me-room access, provider pathways, cross-connect options, demarcation points, and route diversity. Define handoffs with data center providers, carriers, ISPs, and Cloudflare's network strategy team. Integration, controls, and resilience Coordinate white-space interfaces. Layouts that account for rack access, airflow, liquid-cooling pipes and manifolds, power segregation, pathway capacity, and expansion. Coordinate supports, bonding, grounding, and firestopping with the responsible disciplines and providers. Design for resilience and controlled failure. Evaluate redundancy, shared failure dependencies, cooling and power interruptions, and thermal ride-through. Agree protective responses with hardware and operations teams for pump or CDU failure, loss of facility cooling, leaks, sensor faults, control failures, and power events. Define controls and operational visibility: temperatures, pressures, flows, power metering, leak alarms, equipment status, and capacity telemetry. Governance, delivery, and acceptance Be Cloudflare's owner-side design authority. Own basis-of-design documents, single-line diagrams, P&IDs, cabling and equipment schedules, interface requirements, scopes, responsibility matrices, review gates, and acceptance criteria. Review partner designs and contractor submittals, resolve RFIs and technical disputes, and drive deviations to documented closure. Lead delivery and live-site changes. Guide contractors and remote hands through new deployments, expansions, migrations, and remediation. Work with deployment and operations on installation sequencing, methods of procedure, change controls, and rollback plans that protect running services. Lead commissioning and acceptance. Define factory and site acceptance tests across electrical, cooling, and connectivity: cleanliness and leak-test evidence, flow balancing, loaded performance tests, failure-mode testing, and copper and fiber certification (fiber inspection and cleaning, insertion-loss testing, OTDR where appropriate). Track deficiencies and verify corrective work before sign-off. Keep the physical source of truth accurate. Define labeling and connectivity-record standards. Make sure as-builts, power and cooling records, patching schedules, cross-connect inventories, and test records reconcile with Cloudflare's infrastructure inventory and DCIM. Oversee handover: deficiency closure, operator training, maintenance procedures, spares, and turnover documentation before production. Cost, efficiency, and standards Support sourcing. RFPs, technical bid evaluation, technical negotiations, supplier qualification, and lifecycle cost analysis. Partner with supply chain on prefabricated assemblies, preterminated cabling, rack integration, lead times, and alternatives that cut field labor without cutting quality. Reduce energy and water use. Evaluate phased deployment, consumption, and retrofit options. Evolve standards from evidence. Investigate incidents and recurring installation defects with network and operations teams. Feed commissioning and operating results back into designs, standards, and quality checks. What you'll bring 8+ years in data center mechanical, electrical, or physical-layer infrastructure, critical-facility cooling, or structured cabling, including architecture or technical design leadership. Bachelor's in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. Delivered liquid-cooled compute infrastructure from requirements through commissioning or production handover. Conventional HVAC experience alone doesn't qualify. Create and review electrical single-line diagrams and schematics, with hands-on MV/LV system design including protection, selectivity, and grounding. Strong command of thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, hydraulic calculations, pump and heat-exchanger selection, and cooling performance under variable conditions. Practical experience with CDUs, facility and technology cooling loops, rack distribution, coolant compatibility, leak detection, and the interfaces between liquid-cooled hardware and facility systems. Strong knowledge of copper Ethernet, single-mode and multimode fiber, patching systems, LC and MPO/MTP connectivity, optical loss budgets, polarity, cable management, and the applicable test methods. Experience in colocation environments: cross-connect delivery, diverse physical paths, and the practical constraints of building inside third-party facilities. Able to write and critically review basis-of-design documents, P&IDs, electrical and mechanical specifications, equipment selections, operating sequences, and test plans. Working knowledge of NEC, NFPA, UL, mechanical and plumbing codes, TIA and ISO/IEC structured-cabling standards, relevant ASHRAE data center guidance, and manufacturer operating requirements, and the ability to apply them with qualified local engineering partners. Experience evaluating resilience and maintainability, participating in commissioning, and resolving system-level problems across equipment and organizational boundaries. Experience directing design consultants, contractors, installation partners, or remote hands, with clear ownership of technical decisions and acceptance outcomes. Clear written and verbal communication across disciplines and time zones, and able to run several projects with limited oversight. Legally authorized to work in the United States on a continuing and permanent basis without company sponsorship. [Confirm wording with recruiting.] Bonus points PE, Chartered Engineer, or equivalent registration in electrical or mechanical engineering. BICSI RCDD, DCDC, or a comparable credential. High-density GPU platforms, OCP rack, power, and cooling interfaces, or qualification across multiple hardware and cooling suppliers. Hydraulic and electrical modeling tools (AFT Fathom, PIPE-FLO, ETAP, SKM), thermal or CFD modeling, and validating models against measured performance. High-density optical distribution, parallel optics, preterminated assemblies, and cabling transitions across successive network generations. Modular or prefabricated power or cooling infrastructure, live-site retrofits, DCIM platforms, automated connectivity or telemetry analysis, or lifecycle energy and water performance. Familiarity with Cloudflare-relevant network environments: optical transport, ISP interconnection, out-of-band management, and liquid-cooled rack integration. Travel Travel for site assessments, vendor reviews, factory testing, commissioning, and deployment support, including international travel. What success looks like Sites are qualified against real hardware requirements. Power, cooling, and connectivity responsibilities are unambiguous. Systems prove their electrical, thermal, and connectivity performance, including failure behavior, before handover. Operations has the monitoring, procedures, training, and spares to run them. Why Cloudflare Your work shapes how Cloudflare deploys physical infrastructure across a global network, from long-term architectural choices to getting the next cage online. Strong candidates take different paths. If your experience shows the core capabilities but doesn't match every line above, apply anyway. Compensation Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location. For San Francisco Bay Area based hires: Estimated annual salary of $165,000 - $205,000. For New York based hires: Estimated annual salary of $158,000 - $195,000. Equity This role is eligible to participate in Cloudflare's equity plan. Benefits Cloudflare offers a complete package of benefits and programs to support you and your family. Our benefits programs can help you pay health care expenses, support caregiving, build capital for the future and make life a little easier and fun! The below is a description of our benefits for employees in the United States, and benefits may vary for employees based outside the U.S. Health & Welfare Benefits Medical/Rx Insurance Dental Insurance Vision Insurance Flexible Spending Accounts Commuter Spending Accounts Fertility & Family Forming Benefits On-demand mental health support and Employee Assistance Program Global Travel Medical Insurance Financial Benefits Short and Long Term Disability Insurance Life & Accident Insurance 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan Employee Stock Participation Plan Time Off Flexible paid time off covering vacation and sick leave Leave programs, including parental, pregnancy health, medical, and bereavement leave What Makes Cloudflare Special? We’re not just a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company. We’re a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company with a soul. Fundamental to our mission to help build a better Internet is protecting the free and open Internet. Project Galileo : Since 2014, we've equipped more than 2,400 journalism and civil society organizations in 111 countries with powerful tools to defend themselves against attacks that would otherwise censor their work, technology already used by Cloudflare’s enterprise customers--at no cost. Athenian Project : In 2017, we created the Athenian Project to ensure that state and local governments have the highest level of protection and reliability for free, so that their constituents have access to election information and voter registration. Since the project, we've provided services to more than 425 local government election websites in 33 states. 1.1.1.1 : We released 1.1.1.1 to help fix the foundation of the Internet by building a faster, more secure and privacy-centric public DNS resolver. This is available publicly for everyone to use - it is the first consumer-focused service Cloudflare has ever released. Here’s the deal - we don’t store client IP addresses never, ever. We will continue to abide by our privacy commitment and ensure that no user data is sold to advertisers or used to target consumers. Sound like something you’d like to be a part of? We’d love to hear from you! Please note that applicants who progress to the offer stage of the interview process may be asked to attend an in-person interview within one of the Cloudflare Offices or Cloudflare Hubs.  More details about this will be available at that stage of the interview process. This position may require access to information protected under U.S. export control laws, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations. Please note that any offer of employment may be conditioned on your authorization to receive software or technology controlled under these U.S. export laws without sponsorship for an export license. 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