At HDR, our employee-owners are fully engaged in creating a welcoming environment where each of us is valued and respected, a place where everyone is empowered to bring their authentic selves and novel ideas to work every day. As we foster a culture of inclusion throughout our company and within our communities, we constantly ask ourselves: What is our impact on the world?
Watch Our Story:' https://www.hdrinc.com/our-story'
Each and every role throughout our organization makes a difference in our ability to change the world for the better. Read further to learn how you could help make great things possible not only in your community, but around the world.
We are looking for a Lead Mechanical Commissioning Engineer to lead the delivery of mechanical commissioning activities on complex data centre and mission-critical projects.
This role is suited to someone with deep mechanical building services experience, proven commissioning leadership experience, and direct hands-on responsibility for Level 4 functional testing and Level 5 Integrated Systems Testing. You will act as the main mechanical commissioning contact for the client and project team, manage commissioning engineers, coordinate vendors and specialist testers, and take ownership of mechanical commissioning outcomes from design review through to handover.
This is not a witnessing-only or report-review role. Candidates must have direct experience writing commissioning documentation, leading testing on site, managing failure scenarios, and taking responsibility for commissioning decisions during high-risk testing.
Responsibilities
Commissioning Leadership
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Lead all mechanical commissioning activities on one or more data centre or mission-critical projects.
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Act as the main mechanical commissioning contact for the client, project team, contractors, vendors, and specialist testers.
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Manage mechanical commissioning engineers and coordinate commissioning resources.
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Plan commissioning activities in line with construction progress, site readiness, operational risk, and project milestones.
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Take control during high-risk testing, failures, recovery scenarios, and system instability.
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Make informed decisions during testing and escalate risks clearly where required.
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Challenge designs, contractors, and vendors when systems are not ready, safe, stable, or testable.
Design and Early-Phase Support
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Review mechanical designs from a commissioning, operational, maintainability, and resilience perspective.
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Support or review the Owner’s Project Requirements and Basis of Design.
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Review cooling concepts, including air-cooled, water-cooled, liquid cooling, and hybrid cooling approaches.
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Review redundancy strategies, including N, N+1, and 2N arrangements.
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Review control philosophies, sequences of operation, alarms, safeties, and failure modes.
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Assess maintainability, access, isolation, serviceability, and operational constraints.
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Identify single points of failure, control issues, sequencing risks, and untestable designs early in the project lifecycle.
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Provide clear commissioning input to design teams, clients, contractors, and vendors.
Commissioning Documentation
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Own the production of mechanical commissioning documentation across Levels 2 through 5.
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Produce Level 2 and Level 3 pre-functional and functional checklists.
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Define acceptance criteria for mechanical plant, systems, and interfaces.
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Coordinate and review contractor testing records for completeness, accuracy, and technical validity.
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Write Level 4 functional test scripts.
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Define testing steps for sequences of operation, control logic, alarms, safeties, and operating modes.
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Lead execution of Level 4 testing on site.
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Write and lead the Level 5 Integrated Systems Testing script from a mechanical perspective.
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Define failure scenarios, recovery logic, success criteria, risk controls, sequencing, and sign-off requirements for IST.
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Ensure commissioning documentation is structured, traceable, technically robust, and suitable for client and operations handover.
Construction and Site Testing
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Lead mechanical commissioning activities on site.
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Attend and lead factory acceptance tests where required, including chillers, packaged plant, controls, and specialist mechanical equipment.
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Oversee pressure testing, flushing and cleaning, chemical treatment, and pre-commissioning readiness activities.
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Confirm mechanical plant and systems are genuinely ready before progressing into Level 4 and Level 5 testing.
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Coordinate site testing with contractors, vendors, controls specialists, electrical commissioning teams, and client representatives.
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Stop testing where systems are not safe, stable, complete, or suitable for commissioning.
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Track snags, issues, risks, non-conformances, and outstanding items through to close-out.
Integrated Systems Testing
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Plan and run Level 5 Integrated Systems Testing from a mechanical perspective.
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Lead testing of normal operation, degraded operation, maintenance modes, failure scenarios, and recovery sequences.
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Execute cooling failure scenarios, power-loss and restart conditions, control failure responses, and system recovery testing.
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Coordinate closely with electrical commissioning, BMS and controls teams, load banks, IT load teams, vendors, and operations representatives.
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Prove that mechanical systems support the overall resilience, availability, and operational requirements of the facility.
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Manage testing risk, sequencing, stakeholder communication, and sign-off during IST.
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Ensure results, observations, failures, retests, and close-out actions are clearly recorded.
Handover Support
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Ensure commissioning records are complete, accurate, traceable, and usable by the client and operations team.
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Review test results, red-line drawings, O&M documentation, training materials, and close-out records.
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Support training and handover to the operations team.
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Confirm mechanical systems are ready for live load, steady-state operation, and operational handover.
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Ensure outstanding commissioning issues are clearly tracked, prioritised, and closed.
Required Qualifications
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Minimum 10 years of experience working with mechanical building services on data centre, mission-critical, large commercial, or industrial projects.
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At least 5 years of specific commissioning experience.
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Minimum 3 years in a lead commissioning role, such as Mechanical Cx Lead, Lead Commissioning Authority, Lead Mechanical Commissioning Engineer, or similar.
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Direct experience delivering Level 4 functional testing and Level 5 Integrated Systems Testing.
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Proven experience writing Level 2 through Level 5 mechanical commissioning documentation.
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Strong experience with data centre mechanical systems, including chillers, cooling distribution systems, CRAH/CRAC units, control valves, sensors, sequencing, and BMS integration.
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Strong understanding of mechanical system readiness, operational risk, redundancy, resilience, failure modes, and recovery behaviour.
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Experience leading site-based commissioning activities.
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Ability to manage commissioning engineers, contractors, vendors, and specialist testers.
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Comfortable making decisions during testing, failures, and recovery scenarios.
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Ability to challenge designs, contractors, and vendors when required.
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Strong communication skills with clients, project teams, contractors, vendors, and operations teams.
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Strong focus on safety, quality, procedural compliance, and technical integrity.
Preferred Qualifications
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Mechanical engineering degree or equivalent technical experience.
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Commissioning certifications such as CCP, ACP, or equivalent.
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Controls or BMS background.
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Experience with air-cooled, water-cooled, liquid cooling, and hybrid cooling concepts.
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Experience reviewing Owner’s Project Requirements and Basis of Design documentation.
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Experience leading FATs for chillers, packaged plant, controls, and specialist mechanical equipment.
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Experience with live data centre environments or phased commissioning in operational facilities.
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Strong understanding of availability requirements and the impact of mechanical system performance on facility resilience.
What We Believe
HDR is our company. Together, we build on each other's life experiences and perspectives to make great things possible every day. This shapes our collaborative culture, encourages organizational trust and connects us closer to the clients and communities we serve.
Our Commitment
As employee owners, we all have a role in creating an inclusive environment where each of us is welcomed, valued, respected and empowered to bring our authentic selves to work every day.
Our eight Employee Network Groups (Asian Pacific, Black, Hispanic/Latino(a), LGBTQ+, People with Disabilities, Veterans, Women, Young Professionals) help create a sense of belonging and foster a supportive environment where everyone is empowered to engage and contribute. Each group has an executive sponsor and is open to all employees.. #LI-MW4
