Principal Engineer, R&D Team Lead – BMC Manufacturing

800V DC Power Solutions for Data Centres

You will be based in Dublin Ireland with 2-4 direct reports initially, increasing as the program scales, with regular travel to customer, partner and test-lab sites in the EU and US. Reporting to the Chief Engineering Officer you will be offered a permanent position and a remuneration package commensurate with your experience and capabilities.

The power demands of AI compute are outgrowing the electrical architecture data centres were built on. Rack power draw is moving past 100kW toward 1MW as GPU clusters scale, and the traditional path from grid AC through multiple conversion stages to 12V or 48V at the rack can no longer deliver power efficiently or reliably at that density.

In response, NVIDIA, Google and Microsoft have thrown their weight behind an 800V DC (HVDC) architecture that carries high-voltage DC much further into the data hall before final conversion, cutting conversion losses, copper weight and points of failure. Texas Instruments has already brought a complete 800V DC reference architecture to market alongside NVIDIA, and the approach is moving from concept to early production across the industry.

BMC Manufacturing is establishing a dedicated R&D capability to design, prototype and industrialise 800V DC power solutions for this emerging data centre market — building on the company's existing strength in power conversion and distribution engineering. This is a new, senior, hands-on leadership role: the person appointed will define the technical roadmap, build out the team, and take BMC's first 800V DC products from concept through to customer-ready hardware.

Role Purpose

To provide technical and team leadership for BMC's R&D programme into 800V DC power solutions for data centres — setting the engineering direction, building and developing a small specialist team, and driving designs from concept through prototyping, validation and handover to production.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership

• Define and own the technical roadmap for BMC's 800V DC data centre power products, from architecture concept through to production handover.

• Lead the design of high-voltage DC power conversion, distribution and protection systems — including AC-DC rectification, DC-DC conversion, solid-state transformer stages and DC busbar/power-shelf design.

• Direct the selection and application of wide-bandgap power semiconductors (SiC, GaN) to meet efficiency, power-density and thermal targets at rack power levels up to and beyond 1MW.

• Own the design of DC protection schemes — fast DC circuit breakers, arc-fault detection and mitigation, and solid-state protection — appropriate to high-voltage DC in an occupied data hall environment.

• Ensure designs meet the relevant safety, EMC and compliance standards for high-voltage DC power equipment (e.g. IEC 62368-1, UL, IEEE, arc-flash and DC grounding/bonding practice), engaging test houses and certification bodies as needed.

• Represent BMC in relevant industry standards work (e.g. Open Compute Project) and maintain awareness of the evolving 800V DC ecosystem, including hyperscaler requirements and competitor/partner activity.

• Oversee the full development lifecycle — concept, simulation, prototype build, lab validation, field trial and design-for-manufacture handover — in partnership with Operations and Quality.

Team Leadership

• Build, lead and develop a small, multi-disciplinary R&D team (power electronics, controls, thermal/mechanical) from an initial 2–4 engineers, recruiting as the programme scales.

• Set individual and team objectives, provide technical mentorship, and manage performance and development within the team.

• Foster a culture of rigorous engineering practice and safe working with high-voltage DC systems in the lab and on customer sites.

Stakeholder & Programme Management

• Act as the senior technical point of contact for customers, technology partners and component suppliers (e.g. power semiconductor vendors, hyperscaler technical teams) engaged in the programme.

• Manage the R&D budget and programme timeline for the 800V DC initiative, reporting progress, risk and resourcing needs to the Director of Engineering/CTO and wider leadership team.

• Work cross-functionally with Sales, Operations, Quality and Finance to align the technical roadmap with commercial opportunity and manufacturing capability.