Controls Engineering Fellow – Data Centers (remote)

What you will do

Johnson Controls is hiring! The Controls Engineering Fellow - Data Centers, is a senior individual contributor role within the Data Center engineering organization. This person serves as the enterprise-wide technical authority on controls architecture, building automation systems, and intelligent orchestration of data center infrastructure. The Fellow shapes multi-year technology strategy, drives innovation at the intersection of OT and IT and represents Johnson Controls as a recognized thought leader across the industry.

This role is a deep technical leadership position that carries influence across the organization. The Fellow operates across organizational boundaries and is expected to generate outsized impact through vision-setting, mentorship, and hands-on architectural contributions. This is a remote opportunity for candidates based in the US.

How you will do it

Technical Vision & Strategy

• Define the 3 to 5-year controls architecture roadmap for Johnson Controls' data center business, encompassing BMS/BAS platforms (Metasys), edge controllers, cloud-native supervisory systems, and AI/ML-driven autonomous operations.

• Evaluate emerging paradigms—digital twins, model-predictive control, reinforcement learning for thermal optimization, autonomous fault diagnostics—and determine which should be incorporated into the JCI product and solutions portfolio.

• Provide authoritative technical guidance on controls integration across the full data center thermal chain: chillers, cooling distribution units (CDUs), rear-door heat exchangers, direct-to-chip liquid cooling loops, and airside economizers.

• Architect end-to-end control strategies that span from rack-level power and thermal sensing through facility-level SCADA/BMS to cloud-based fleet analytics.

Innovation & Intellectual Property

• Drive innovation related to controls algorithms, sensor fusion techniques, and intelligent sequencing strategies for mission-critical cooling infrastructure.

• Lead proof-of-concept development for next-generation control approaches, including integration with GPU-aware workload orchestration and dynamic power/thermal co-optimization.

• Identify and evaluate external technology partnerships, university research collaborations, and potential acquisition targets in the controls and automation space.

Cross-Functional Technical Leadership

• Act as the senior technical advisor to product management, systems engineering, and solution architecture teams on controls-related decisions for data center projects.

• Collaborate with chiller, heat exchanger, and CDU product engineering teams to ensure controls strategies are tightly integrated with thermal equipment performance characteristics.

• Interface directly with data center owner/operators, hyperscale engineering teams, and consulting engineers as a trusted technical advisor during solution design and commissioning.

Mentorship & Culture

• Mentor and develop engineers across the controls engineering organization, fostering deep technical capability and a culture of innovation.

• Lead internal technical forums, design reviews, and architecture councils that raise the standard of controls engineering practice across the data center business.

• Help recruit and attract top controls engineering talent to Johnson Controls.

What you will do
Required

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Controls Engineering, Computer Science, or a closely related discipline.

• 10+ years of progressive experience in controls and automation engineering.

• Expert-level knowledge of BMS/BAS platforms, PLC/DDC controller architectures, and supervisory control systems

• Deep understanding of control theory as applied to multi-variable thermal systems—chiller plant optimization, cooling tower sequencing, liquid cooling loop regulation, and airside economization.

Preferred

• Experience with mission-critical facilities, data center infrastructure, or large-scale HVAC/thermal systems.

HIRING SALARY RANGE: $150,000 - $220,000 (Salary to be determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data.) This role offers a competitive Bonus plan that will take into account individual, group, 
and corporate performance. This position includes a competitive benefits package. The posted salary range reflects the target compensation for this role. However, we recognize that exceptional candidat