Senior Staff Data Center Systems Engineer, R&D
Crusoe· startup· AI Infrastructure· Oct 22, 2026 · 6d ago
Denver, CO - US
In office
Full-time
Staff
$188K–$235K
15+ years exp
Job description
Crusoe is on a mission to accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence. As the only vertically integrated AI infrastructure company built from the ground up, we own and operate each layer of the stack — from electrons to tokens — to power the world's most ambitious AI workloads. When you join Crusoe, you join a team that is building the future, faster.
We're in the midst of the greatest industrial revolution of our time. The demand for AI compute is boundless, and power is a bottleneck. We're solving that — with an energy-first approach that makes AI infrastructure better for the world and faster for the people innovating with AI.
We're looking for problem-solving, opportunity-finding teammates with a sense of urgency, who believe in the scale of our ambition and thrive on a path not fully paved — people who want to grow their careers alongside a team of experts across energy, manufacturing, data center construction, and cloud services.
If you want to do the most meaningful work of your career, help our customers and partners advance their AI strategies, and be part of a high-performing team that believes in each other, come build with us at Crusoe.
ABOUT THIS ROLE:
Crusoe is a vertically integrated AI infrastructure company with a mission to accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence. Our competitive advantage—“Speed is the only moat”—is directly tied to our ability to rapidly design, deploy, and optimize our modular power and compute infrastructure.
We are seeking a Senior Staff Data Center Systems Engineer, R&D to join our R&D team as the senior technical authority responsible for defining the future of Crusoe’s data center architecture. You will evaluate next-generation technologies—working with emerging startups, established industry providers, and research institutions—and lead the development of system-level integration concepts that advance Crusoe’s infrastructure from pilot-scale validation through hyperscale deployment.
This is a rare role in the industry. At most companies, power engineers never talk to compute architects, and facility designers work in isolation from software teams. As part of Crusoe’s R&D organization, you will work at the seams between these disciplines—scanning the industry for emerging technologies, building relationships with the companies and researchers developing them, defining reference architectures for future platforms, and partnering with engineering teams across the company to take R&D concepts from bench-scale evaluation to production deployment. If you want to shape the next generation of AI data center technologies, this is the role.
WHAT YOU’LL BE WORKING ON:
- Future Architecture Definition: Lead the development of next-generation data center reference architectures that integrate across electrical, mechanical, thermal, and compute domains. Evaluate how emerging technologies reshape design assumptions and define the architectural path from pilot-scale validation through hyperscale deployment.
- Technology Evaluation & Industry Scanning: Continuously scan the industry for emerging technologies, new vendor capabilities, and evolving standards that could impact data center architecture. Lead structured evaluations of candidate technologies through a full-system lens—assessing not just point performance, but how each technology integrates within the broader infrastructure and scales from prototype to production.
- Systems Integration: Define and maintain the systems-level architecture that governs how Crusoe’s infrastructure layers interface and co-optimize. Ensure coherence across engineering disciplines and prevent design decisions in one domain from creating constraints elsewhere.
- Pilot-to-Hyperscale Progression: Guide emerging technologies through the full lifecycle—from initial evaluation and bench-scale testing through pilot deployment, production validation, and hyperscale rollout. Define the technical criteria and milestones that determine readiness at each stage.
- R&D Technical Leadership: Serve as the principal technical voice within the R&D organization on infrastructure architecture. Drive feasibility assessments, lead design reviews for pilot programs, and provide senior technical input on go/no-go decisions for emerging technologies.
- Specifications & Standards: Author high-level system specifications, interface control documents, and design standards that inform future platform development. Translate R&D findings into actionable engineering guidance for production teams.
- Engineering Team Partnership: Partner with engineering teams across the company as R&D’s primary technical interface—sharing insights from technology evaluations, translating domain-specific decisions into system-wide implications, and ensuring R&D outputs are aligned with the needs of the teams building and deploying infrastructure.
- External Partnerships: Build and maintain technical relationships with industry providers, emerging startups, OEMs, academic research groups, and national laboratories. Evaluate vendor and partner roadmaps, test claims, and identify opportunities for early access to next-generation technologies and collaborative development.
- Strategic Advisory: Partner with R&D and company leadership on technology choices that support Crusoe’s long-term growth strategy. Help shape the company’s perspective on where the industry is headed and how Crusoe should position itself.
WHAT YOU’LL BRING TO THE TEAM:
- Experience: 15+ years of progressive engineering experience in data center design, large-scale infrastructure, hyperscale computing environments, or industrial power systems. A career trajectory that demonstrates increasing scope across multiple engineering disciplines.
- Systems Thinking: Demonstrated ability to architect and optimize across multiple engineering domains simultaneously—electrical power systems, mechanical/thermal systems, compute infrastructure, and facility design. Comfortable operating at the interfaces between disciplines rather than deep within a single domain.
- Technical Breadth: Working knowledge spanning power generation and distribution, cooling technologies (including direct liquid cooling), data center facility design, and compute/networking infrastructure.
- R&D Orientation: A natural inclination toward evaluating what’s next, not just optimizing what exists. Experience leading technology evaluations, feasibility studies, or architectural explorations that informed future product or infrastructure direction. Comfortable engaging with startups, research institutions, and emerging technology providers.
- Architecture & Documentation: Experience authoring system-level architecture documents, interface specifications, and integration standards for complex multi-disciplinary programs.
- Cross-Functional Leadership: Proven ability to influence and align engineering teams across organizational boundaries without direct authority. Track record of driving technical consensus across disciplines with competing priorities.
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related discipline. Advanced degree preferred but not required.
- Communication: Exceptional ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both engineering peers and executive leadership.
BONUS POINTS:
- Direct experience at a hyperscale in a systems architecture or principal engineering role.
- Experience with modular or containerized data center design and deployment.
- Familiarity with DC power distribution architectures.
- Experience with high-performance computing (HPC) and GPU-accelerated AI infrastructure at scale.
- Background in mission-critical facility design with understanding of redundancy, reliability, and availability engineering.
Benefits:
- Competitive compensation and equity packages
- Restricted Stock Units
- Paid time off, paid holidays & leave of absence programs
- Comprehensive health, dental & vision insurance
- Employer contributions to HSA account
- Paid parental leave
- Paid life insurance, short-term and long-term disability
- Professional development & tuition reimbursement
- Mental health & wellness support
- Commuter benefits (parking & transit)
- Cell phone stipend
- 401(k) Retirement plan with company match up to 4% of salary
- Volunteer time off
- Global travel insurance & emergency assistance
- Daily meals allowance
- Additional perks & programs specific to location
Compensation Range
Compensation will be paid in the range of up to $188,000 -$235,000+ Bonus. Restricted Stock Units are included in all offers. Compensation to be determined by the applicants knowledge, education, and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data.
Crusoe is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, citizenship, marital status, sex/gender, sexual preference/ orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, national origin, or any other status protected by law or regulation.
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