Fire Protection Engineer - Data Center Design

About the role

A leading US hyperscale data center developer is hiring a Fire Protection Engineer to own the fire protection design workstream across a rapidly scaling campus portfolio. This is an owner/developer position based in Austin, Texas, with hybrid availability in Austin, New York, San Francisco or Seattle. The engineer designs and specifies fire detection and suppression systems, negotiates directly with fire marshals and AHJs, and sets the fire protection standards used across dozens of concurrent sites.

Key responsibilities

• Own the fire protection scope of design packages from concept through construction documents, designing and specifying VESDA, addressable fire alarm, pre-action sprinkler, wet pipe and clean agent suppression systems
• Serve as the main contact with local fire marshals and AHJs, running plan reviews and negotiating code-compliant equivalencies on non-standard designs
• Develop campus-level fire suppression strategy, coordinating water supply, distribution and system redundancy across multiple buildings and phases
• Review and approve fire protection submittals and shop drawings from EPC and equipment vendors, and validate third-party consultant designs for code compliance
• Support commissioning of fire detection and suppression systems, resolving test failures before sign-off
• Give fire protection input on capacity additions, retrofits and incident-driven remediation on live sites

Required profile

• Demonstrated experience personally designing, specifying and commissioning fire detection and suppression systems for mission-critical, industrial or large commercial facilities
• PE license in Fire Protection Engineering, or NICET Level III or IV certification in Fire Alarm Systems and Water-Based Systems
• Experience negotiating code-compliant alternatives directly with fire marshals and AHJs
• Ability to coordinate fire protection design with electrical, mechanical and controls engineering

Required skills

• Thorough working knowledge of NFPA 75, 76 and 2001, and FM Global data center loss prevention requirements
• Nice to have: FM-200 and Novec 1230 clean agent systems, multiple AHJ jurisdictions, hyperscale or colocation campus design background, NFPA committee or code development involvement

What we offer

• Salary of $200,000 to $250,000 per year, plus equity
• Health, dental and vision insurance, retirement plan and generous PTO