From refrigeration mechanic to Senior Technician, Mechanical and Cooling
A way in from outside the industry.
There’s a page for this pathway in , with its licences and local details.
What’s different
Comes in with the refrigerant licence; learns the site’s chilled-water and air systems at scale, and the speed a data hall needs when cooling fails.
Skills to build
What a Senior Technician, Mechanical and Cooling needs. Some of it will come with your background.
Procedures and documents
- Carry out a method of procedure (MOP) Leads others
- Write and review a MOP Independent
Safe isolation
- Isolate mechanical and stored energy Leads others
- Isolate and lock out a single energy source Independent
- Isolate plant with several energy sources Independent
Liquid cooling
- Liquid-cooled IT and its loops Leads others
- Maintain filtration Leads others
- Operate and monitor a CDU Leads others
- Respond to a coolant leak or a CDU failure Leads others
- Sample and test coolant Leads others
- Fill, flush and vent a TCS loop Independent
- Pressure-test a loop and verify its materials Independent
Cooling plant
- Operate air handlers and respond to their faults Leads others
- Operate chilled water pumps and valves Leads others
- Psychrometrics and the thermal envelope Leads others
- Respond to rising temperatures Leads others
- Restart cooling in an emergency Leads others
- Start, stop and change over chillers Leads others
- Operate cooling towers Independent
- Operate dry coolers and closed-loop heat rejection Independent
- Operate in-row and close-coupled cooling Independent
Refrigerant handling
- Check for refrigerant leaks Independent
- Evacuate and charge a system Independent
- Recover refrigerant Independent
- Refrigerant safety and law Independent
Leadership
- Coach and assess others Independent
Emergency response
- Recognise and report a suspected cyber incident Assisted
Questions about data centre careers? Ask about data centre careers
Sources and licences
- Critical Facilities reference framework © Facility Labs. (CC BY 4.0)
- ISCO-08, International Labour Organization, as published in ESCO v1.2.1. This service uses the ESCO classification of the European Commission. (Commission Decision 2011/833/EU on the reuse of Commission documents)