Chief Mechanical Engineer
Full-time and Fort Stockton, Texas
ABOUT POOLSIDE
In this decade, the world will create Artificial General Intelligence. There will only be a small number of companies who will achieve this. Their ability to stack advantages and pull ahead will define the winners. These companies will move faster than anyone else. They will attract the world's most capable talent. They will be on the forefront of applied research, engineering, infrastructure and deployment at scale. They will continue to scale their training to larger & more capable models. They will be given the right to raise large amounts of capital along their journey to enable this. They will create powerful economic engines. They will obsess over the success of their users and customers.
poolside exists to be this company - to build a world where AI will be the engine behind economically valuable work and scientific progress.
About the role
The Chief Mechanical Engineer is responsible for the full mechanical infrastructure supporting a mission-critical facility. This includes the chilled water and condenser water systems, pumps, heat exchangers, air-handling equipment, CRAC/CRAH units, and mechanical controls. The role also has full ownership of the liquid-cooling systems required for high-density AI and HPC environments. This includes CDUs, modular CDUs, direct-to-chip cooling, rear-door heat exchangers, coolant manifolds, and distribution loops. The Chief Mechanical Engineer ensures system reliability, leads engineering strategy, supports staff development, oversees maintenance programs, and ensures all mechanical systems operate safely and in compliance with internal standards and regulatory requirements.
Responsibilities
Provide daily operational guidance for mechanical, electrical, controls, and life-safety systems, maintaining full awareness of facility condition and operational risks.
Monitor, review, and approve maintenance activities, contractor work, and corrective actions, ensuring all critical alarms, events, and incidents are properly escalated and managed.
Oversee electrical, mechanical, controls, and facilities technicians, leading shift coordination, staffing schedules, and task assignments.
Support ongoing training, development, performance evaluations, and provide mentorship to technical leads and technicians.
Manage preventive and predictive maintenance programs for all facility systems, reviewing and approving work orders and PM schedules.
Ensure documentation of all maintenance activities in the CMMS and coordinate vendor resources for specialized testing or repairs.
Review and approve all MOPs, SOPs, and EOPs before execution, ensuring compliance with NEC, NFPA, OSHA, and internal safety standards.
Support lockout/tagout governance, enforce proper safety protocols, and maintain accurate facility records, drawings, and system documentation.
Coordinate daily activities for all onsite contracted service providers, reviewing vendor scope, performance, and adherence to SLAs.
Participate in contract evaluations and renewal discussions.
Assist with facility upgrades, retrofits, and expansion projects, reviewing design documents for operational impact and maintainability, and supporting commissioning and integrated systems testing.
Lead onsite response to facility incidents or events, coordinate with engineering leads for technical analysis and recovery actions, and oversee incident reports, corrective actions, and post-event reviews.
Skills & Experience
7+ or more years of experience in data centers, utilities, industrial facilities, energy, or similar mission-critical environments
Strong understanding of MEP systems and their interactions
Experience overseeing facility operations staff or contracted service providers
Working knowledge of electrical and mechanical safety practices
Ability to review and approve operating procedures and maintenance plans.
Experience in multi-building or large-scale mission-critical environments is a plus
Prior supervisory or management experience is a plus
Familiarity with CMMS, BMS, EPMS, and monitoring tools is a plus
Background in electrical, mechanical, or controls engineering is a plus
This is a full-time onsite position in Fort Stockton
Participation in an on-call rotation as needed is required
Must be available for occasional night, weekend, or holiday work during maintenance windows or incidents
Process
Interview w/William Gauthier our Director of Critical Facilities
Interview w/Molly Anderson, Senior Manager of People Operations
Interview w/Lance Smith our VP of Data Centers
Data Retention
Except as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law or regulation, we will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, as required to satisfy any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements, or as necessary to resolve disputes. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider our statutory obligations, the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes we process your personal data for, and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means. We specify the retention periods for your personal data in our data retention policy. Under some circumstances we may anonymize your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you. We reserve the right to use such anonymous and de-identified data for any legitimate business purpose without further notice to you or your consent. If you are offered and accept employment with Poolside, the personal data we collected during the application and recruitment process will become part of your employment record, and we may use it in connection with your employment consistent with our employee personal data policies. If you do not become an employee, or, once you are no longer an employee of Poolside, we will retain and securely destroy your personal data in accordance with our document retention policy and applicable laws and regulations.
Rights of Access, Correction, Erasure and Objection
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during the recruitment process. By law you may have the right to request access to, correct, and erase the personal data that we hold about you, or object to the processing of your personal data under certain circumstances. You may also have the right to request that we transfer your personal data to another party. If you want to review, verify, correct, or request erasure of your personal data, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal data to another party, please contact us at legal@poolside.ai . Any such communication must be in writing. We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and your right to access, and to provide you with the personal data that we hold about you or make your requested changes. Applicable law may allow or require us to refuse to provide you with access to some or all of the personal data that we hold about you, or we may have destroyed, erased, or anonymized your personal data in accordance with our record retention obligations and practices. If we cannot provide you with access to your personal data, we will inform you of the reasons why, subject to any legal or regulatory restrictions.
Right to Withdraw Consent
Where you have provided your consent to the collection, processing, and transfer of your personal data, you may have the legal right to withdraw your consent under certain circumstances. To withdraw your consent, if applicable, contact us at legal@poolside.ai
Changes to this Privacy Notice
We reserve the right to update this Privacy Notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new Privacy Notice when we make any updates. If we would like to use your previously collected personal data for different purposes than those we notified you about at the time of collection, we will provide you with notice and, where required by law, seek your consent, before using your personal data for a new or unrelated purpose. We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent only where required by applicable law or regulation.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about our processing of your personal data or would like to make an access or other request, please contact us at legal@poolside.ai