The Mechanical/HVAC Engineer within Data Center Infrastructure Engineering (DCIE) is responsible for the design, implementation, and optimization of HVAC and airflow management systems across Amazon Fulfillment Centers (FCs) worldwide. This role ensures efficient cooling, thermal management, and environmental controls for mission-critical IT infrastructure, including MDFs, IDFs, UPS rooms, and structured cabling spaces.
Mechanical Engineers collaborate closely with DCIE Engineers (electrical, telecom, and general), TPMs, and DCIO Engineers to drive resiliency, sustainability, and energy efficiency in Amazon’s IT infrastructure. They play a key role in reducing cooling costs, optimizing airflow containment, and improving HVAC reliability to support Amazon’s expanding fulfillment network.
Key job responsibilities
HVAC Design & Engineering
- Design, evaluate, and maintain HVAC systems for MDFs, IDFs, and IT spaces in fulfillment centers.
- Develop and maintain design standards, specifications, and BOMs for cooling infrastructure, ensuring global consistency.
- Conduct thermal load analysis to determine cooling requirements for IT infrastructure deployments.
- Implement containment solutions (hot/cold aisle, in-row cooling, rack-based cooling, etc.) to improve airflow efficiency.
- Evaluate and recommend high-efficiency HVAC equipment to reduce power consumption and operating costs.
Implementation & Lifecycle Management
- Provide technical support for HVAC installation, commissioning, and troubleshooting.
- Assist in HVAC lifecycle planning, identifying aging systems for proactive replacement.
- Partner with TPMs and DCIO Engineers to execute HVAC remediation projects, ensuring compliance with Amazon’s performance standards.
- Collaborate with site operations teams to validate cooling system performance and identify optimization opportunities.
Cooling Optimization & Energy Efficiency
- Deploy real-time HVAC monitoring and analytics to improve cooling performance and reduce inefficiencies.
- Work with SDEs and DCIM teams to integrate temperature, humidity, and airflow monitoring into dashboards.
- Optimize chiller, CRAC/CRAH, and economizer operations to improve power usage effectiveness (PUE).
- Support Amazon’s Climate Sustainability Initiatives, identifying opportunities for renewable energy integration and HVAC decarbonization.
Operational Support & Incident Response
- Serve as an SME for HVAC systems, supporting DCIO Engineers in troubleshooting cooling failures, airflow imbalances, and humidity control issues.
- Participate in incident response for Sev1/Sev2 HVAC-related outages, driving root cause analysis and corrective actions.
- Conduct post-incident reviews, ensuring lessons learned are integrated into future designs and processes.
Compliance & Risk Management
- Ensure HVAC systems comply with ASHRAE, ANSI, and regional HVAC regulations.
- Work with deployment teams to review site-specific HVAC design compliance and address deviations.
- Maintain air quality, humidity control, and airflow standards for IT environments.
A day in the life
As a Mechanical/HVAC Engineer in DCIE, your day begins by reviewing HVAC performance dashboards and overnight alerts to identify sites with airflow imbalances, cooling inefficiencies, or humidity deviations. You may start with a deep dive into thermal load calculations for a new FC build or collaborate with DCIO Engineers to troubleshoot an active cooling incident in an MDF room. Midday, you’re evaluating site-specific HVAC designs or reviewing CFD models to validate containment strategies and airflow optimization. You’ll meet with TPMs to align on lifecycle projects, ensuring aging CRAC units or economizers are targeted for replacement. In the afternoon, you work with SDEs and DCIM teams to enhance temperature and humidity telemetry, or assess opportunities to integrate high-efficiency HVAC systems into Amazon’s Climate Sustainability Initiatives. Every day balances urgent incident response with long-term design improvements—supporting the resiliency, standardization, and sustainability of Amazon’s global IT infrastructure.
Amazon offers a full range of benefits that support you and eligible family members, including domestic partners and their children. Benefits can vary by location, the number of regularly scheduled hours you work, length of employment, and job status such as seasonal or temporary employment.
The benefits that generally apply to regular, full-time employees include:
- Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage
- Maternity and Parental Leave Options
- Paid Time Off (PTO)
- 401(k) Plan
If you are not sure that every qualification on the list above describes you exactly, we'd still love to hear from you!
At Amazon, we value people with unique backgrounds, experiences, and skillsets. If you’re passionate about this role and want to make an impact on a global scale, please apply!
About the team
The Data Center Infrastructure Engineering (DCIE) team within Ops Technology Infrastructure Engineering (OTIE) designs, standardizes, and sustains scalable, cost-effective, and resilient IT infrastructure for Amazon Fulfillment and Logistics Operations worldwide.
We enable Operations Technology Solutions (OTS) by delivering high-performance power, cooling, structured cabling, edge compute, and automation solutions that ensure reliable and efficient on-premises hardware operations. Our work spans Demarcation Rooms, MDFs, IDFs, power systems (UPSs, ATSs, PDUs), fault-managed power, cooling and containment, Computers on Wheels (COWs), telecommunications, and distributed edge compute infrastructure to enhance data processing and reduce latency.
Through automation, predictive analytics, and proactive maintenance, DCIE drives operational excellence, minimizes downtime, and scales infrastructure to support Amazon’s rapid growth while aligning with its efficiency, reliability & safety, sustainability, and scalability objectives.
