Data Center Engineer - San Jose, United States
Originally posted 25 June 2026 by the employer.
About the role
As a Data Center Engineer at Etched, you will own the end-to-end lifecycle of data center and hardware lab environments, from facility selection and rack design to power distribution, networking layout, cabling, day-to-day operations, and long-term capacity planning.
What you'll do
- Own rack layout, capacity planning, power distribution, network design, cabling, and physical deployment of high-performance computing platforms across data center and hardware lab environments. - Design and manage power distribution and redundancy architectures—from utility feeds and PDUs to per-rack power and cooling budgets—for high-density deployments reaching 90 kW per rack. - Architect and implement high-speed networking infrastructure (100G/200G/400G Ethernet) connecting compute nodes, storage, and upstream peering. - Partner with co-location vendors to evaluate sites, negotiate contracts, and enforce SLAs around power, cooling, physical security, and network connectivity. - Build and operate monitoring and alerting for environmental health (temperature, humidity, power draw, UPS state) while driving incident response, preventative maintenance, and RMA workflows. - Lead capacity planning cycles aligned with the hardware roadmap, forecasting power, space, and network needs 6–18 months out.
What you'll need
- 5+ years of hands-on data center engineering or operations experience with direct responsibility for physical hardware deployment, power architecture, and facility management. - Demonstrated experience designing and deploying high-density compute environments (20 kW/rack and above) with associated thermal and power management. - Proficiency with structured cabling, fiber and copper plant management, and high-speed networking hardware at scale. - Ability to read and interpret electrical one-line diagrams, raised-floor and hot-aisle/cold-aisle plans, and co-location facility documentation independently. - Hands-on experience building or operating monitoring systems and DCIM tooling. - Experience managing vendor evaluations, writing RFPs, and enforcing vendor commitments.
Skills: data center operations, rack design, power distribution, high-speed networking, thermal constraints
This role has been open 119 days — well above the 51-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
1003
|
Median days open
51 d
|
Median salary
$155k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Etched | All employers we track in this specialty (1003 roles · 104 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 9 | 1003 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 42 | 6291 · 145 employers |
| Median days open | 132 d | 51 d (+81 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $155k |
Skills observed across this category: data center operations, rack design, power distribution, high-speed networking, thermal constraints
Who's hiring in this category
- Intel Corporation · 72 open roles · median 34 d
- KLA Corporation · 63 open roles · median 48 d
- Teradyne · 61 open roles · median 34 d
- NVIDIA · 53 open roles · median 72 d
- Applied Materials · 51 open roles · median 70 d
- AMD · 46 open roles · median 52 d
How we counted: 1003 open Hardware Systems Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 104 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 22 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.