Critical Engineering Manager - Mechanical

Company Overview

STACK Infrastructure builds, owns, and operates hyperscale and colocation data centers that power the world’s most ambitious technology companies. With a rapidly expanding footprint across APAC, STACK combines deep development expertise, flexible capital, and operational discipline to deliver critical digital infrastructure at scale.

Our clients include the largest hyperscale cloud platforms. We are building a regional platform defined by speed of delivery, power reliability, and long-term partnership — and we are assembling the team to lead that effort.

Summary/Objective

The Critical Engineering Manager - Mechanical leads the safe, reliable and efficient operation, maintenance and optimisation of all mechanical systems across the data centre campus. This includes chilled water plants, cooling towers, pumps and VFDs, CRAH/CRAC and row/door cooling, CDU and liquid-cooling distribution, environmental controls, leak detection and fire life safety interfaces. The role provides technical leadership, operational governance and vendor management to ensure all activities are executed to STACK standards and relevant legislation.

This role directly supports STACK’s commitment to 100% uptime and a concierge-level customer service experience, ensuring risk is proactively managed, planned works are executed safely, and customer communications are clear, timely and professional.

Essential Functions

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

Operations

• Lead and embed a safety-first culture across all mechanical activities, including permit-to-work, isolations/LOTO for mechanical systems, SWMS and method statement compliance.

• Oversee the operation, maintenance and repair of mission-critical mechanical infrastructure supporting 24/7 operations: chilled water systems (chillers, CDUs, heat exchangers, headers, valves, differential pressure control); cooling towers (water chemistry, basin management, fan and drive systems); pumps and VFDs, strainers and balancing valves; CRAH/CRAC units and close-coupled/row/door coolers; CDU and liquid-cooling distribution for high-density workloads; dehumidification/humidification, leak detection and environmental monitoring; and fire life safety interfaces (mechanical shutdowns, smoke control).

• Set and uphold mechanical maintenance standards and schedules; ensure PMs are completed on time, to scope and with quality evidence.

• Review and approve MOPs, SOPs, EOPs and sequences of operation; ensure risk assessments, hold points and rollback steps are defined and executable.

• Direct and quality-assure testing programs (functional checks, flow/pressure verification, valve stroke, vibration, thermography for rotating equipment, water treatment compliance) and address findings with corrective actions.

• Use BMS/DCIM and analytics to monitor plant performance, identify anomalies, manage alarms, conduct trend reviews and verify efficiency and stability after changes.

• Provide technical leadership during incidents affecting mechanical systems; coordinate triage, stabilisation, root cause analysis, and corrective/preventative action close-out.

• Plan and coordinate minor/medium works, upgrades and lifecycle replacements; manage change control, outage windows and customer impact mitigation.

• Validate and maintain mechanical documentation: P&IDs, as-builts, valve lists, setpoint schedules, sequences and commissioning records.

• Drive optimisation initiatives to improve reliability, resilience and efficiency (e.g., chiller setpoint strategies, condenser water optimisation, economiser strategies where applicable).

Direct Reports

• Lead, mentor and develop Facilities Engineering personnel to build strong mechanical capability and confident execution in live environments.

People

• Promote teamwork and knowledge sharing across mechanical, electrical, controls and operations teams.

• Provide clear direction, priorities and expectations; ensure disciplined shift handovers covering plant status, risks and planned works.

• Present mechanical performance, risk and remediation updates to customers and leadership in clear, plain English.

Contractor & Vendor Management

• Oversee mechanical contractors and OEM/service partners to ensure safe, compliant and high-quality delivery aligned with STACK standards.

• Set performance expectations, review maintenance and water treatment reports, track actions to closure and run regular service reviews.

• Ensure vendor personnel are briefed on site rules, risk controls and operational constraints before commencing work.

Governance, Readiness & Continuous Improvement

• Maintain robust document control for procedures, sequences, P&IDs, commissioning records and test results.

• Ensure operational readiness for new mechanical assets/systems (documentation, spares, labelling, CMMS updates, training/tooling).

• Lead continuous improvement initiatives that strengthen safety, reliability, maintainability and efficiency of mechanical systems.

Competencies

• Proven leadership in critical engineering environments.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

• Strong ability to motivate, develop and guide technical teams.

• Ability to manage multiple mechanical projects, priorities and operational demands.

• Proficient in data centre commissioning standards.

• Strong problem-solving, troubleshooting and organisational skills.

• Ability to communicate effectively with customers and internal staff.

• Ability to coordinate, supervise and communicate with mechanical contractors on high-risk equipment.

• Must be a team player.

• Expert knowledge of data centre mechanical systems, including chillers, CDUs, cooling towers, DX units, CRAH/CRAC equipment, dehumidification systems, leak detection, water pumps, VFD systems and mechanical controls, and fire detection and suppression systems.

• Strong understanding of BMS functionality and the ability to use monitoring tools to trend, analyse and optimise mechanical performance.

Work Environment / Conditions

• Working onsite at STACK Data Centres in Victoria, Australia, including plant rooms, cooling infrastructure areas and live operating environments.

Travel Required

• Travel between the data centre campus and STACK’s Melbourne head office may be required.

• Occasional travel to other STACK sites within Australia or internationally may be required.

Required Education and Experience

• 6-8 years’ experience in data centre or critical environments.

• Experience supervising technical teams of five or more.

• Experience managing preventative maintenance programs.

• Extensive knowledge of electrical infrastructure including switchgear, transformers, ATS, UPS, STS, battery systems, generators and PDUs.

• Understanding of relevant electrical regulatory codes and permit processes.

• Experience with CMMS, BMS, DCIM and relevant engineering systems.

• Strong skills in Excel, PowerPoint and Microsoft Office.

Preferred Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent professional experience.

• Recognised mechanical trade qualification or refrigeration/air-conditioning certification where applicable.

• Experience with water treatment programs, legionella risk management and monitoring/records compliance.

• Exposure to energy/water efficiency initiatives and continuous improvement programs in critical facilities.

Additional Eligibility Requirements

• Willingness to work outside standard business hours, including weekends, nights, public holidays and participation in an on-call roster.

• Comfortable operating in a high-pressure, fast-paced environment with shifting priorities.

Work Authorisation/Security Clearance Requirements

• Must be able to attain and hold NV1 security clearance.

Equal Opportunity Employer

STACK provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, colour, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruitment, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, redundancy, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

Other Duties

Please note that this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities required of the employee for this role. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.