Test and Integration Engineer (51651)

Gradian is an engineering-led, full-line thermal solutions partner serving data center and other mission-critical, commercial, and industrial markets. Headquartered in Maple Grove, MN, with additional facilities across North America, we design and manufacture liquid cooling systems, air handling equipment, heat rejection units, and modular, factory-assembled thermal management solutions.

Gradian was founded through the unification of four complementary, established brands: MAS HVAC, Daedex, DeepCoolAI, and EcoChillers. Together, we act as a single-source provider, deploying cooling technologies as scalable systems optimized for efficiency, spatial constraints, and overall performance. With a vertically integrated engineering and manufacturing model, we pair rapid design turnaround with precision fabrication, so customers can move faster on complex projects where reliability, timeline, and quality all matter.

Why work here

At Gradian, you'll work alongside others who get genuinely fired up by complex problems, see your work go from first sketch to job site in weeks, not years, and know that while we're developing the technologies critical for AI infrastructure to scale, our culture remains people-first by design.

It is core to our identity that we operate as one team — driving to win together, energizing others, and building lasting relationships that make the work fun and rewarding.

Position Summary:

We are seeking a Test & Integration Engineer to own the execution, validation, and continuous improvement of laboratory and system-level testing across Gradian’s air handling, liquid cooling, and chiller product lines. This role owns the Design Verification Plan (DVP), translating product and system requirements into traceable verification methods, test procedures, acceptance criteria, schedules, and objective evidence. The position leads test configuration, integration, commissioning, data analysis, and onsite system setup while partnering with NPD, Quality, Operations, Controls, and Product Engineering teams to validate product performance, reliability, safety, compliance, and release readiness.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own, develop, and maintain the Design Verification Plan (DVP) for air handling, liquid cooling, and chiller products, including requirements traceability, verification methods, test ownership, acceptance criteria, schedules, risks, and closure evidence.

• Define and execute functional, performance, reliability, compliance, integration, and commissioning tests across NPD programs; ensure results support design decisions and product release readiness.

• Set up, configure, operate, and monitor air, liquid, and refrigeration test systems, including fans, blowers, dampers, coils, pumps, heat exchangers, compressors, valves, sensors, filtration, fluid-handling equipment, ductwork, piping, and environmental controls.

• Develop and review test procedures to ensure correct system configuration, instrumentation placement, airflow and fluid-flow control, refrigeration conditions, electrical and controls interfaces, safety controls, and environmental conditions.

• Monitor and evaluate system behavior, including thermal capacity, psychrometrics, airflow, pressure stability, fluid-flow characteristics, refrigerant circuit performance, acoustics, vibration, leak detection, and overall system integrity.

• Collect, analyze, validate, and report high-quality test data using calibrated temperature, pressure, airflow, fluid-flow, humidity, electrical, and refrigeration instrumentation, ensuring precision, repeatability, and traceability.

• Perform instrumentation verification and calibration checks, validate sensor accuracy, and maintain calibration, configuration, and deviation records to protect data integrity.

• Lead test issue resolution by documenting anomalies, supporting root-cause analysis, coordinating corrective actions, and updating the DVP and verification evidence as designs evolve.

• Assemble, adjust, and reconfigure test fixtures, ductwork, piping, brackets, controls, and lab hardware; support installation and commissioning of prototype and production equipment.

• Create and maintain test logs, configuration records, procedures, work instructions, results summaries, and DVP status; communicate risks, gaps, equipment issues, and verification conclusions to cross-functional stakeholders.

• Provide day-to-day work direction to Test Technicians by clarifying procedures and acceptance criteria, coordinating resources, monitoring execution, and reviewing test records and results for completeness and accuracy.

• Collaborate with Mechanical, Electrical, Controls, Systems, Quality, Operations, Product Management, suppliers, and external laboratories to improve product validation, laboratory capability, safety, efficiency, and continuous improvement.

Qualifications & Requirements:

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from an accredited institution.

• 1–3 years of engineering experience in product verification, a test laboratory, R&D, HVAC, thermal systems, or related equipment development environment.

• Working knowledge of thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, psychrometrics, airflow, hydronics, and refrigeration-cycle fundamentals relevant to air handling, liquid cooling, and chiller systems.

• Hands-on mechanical aptitude with pumps, piping, fittings, valves, heat exchangers, coils, fans, blowers, ductwork, compressors, and fluid or refrigerant systems.

• Experience developing or executing verification plans, test procedures, acceptance criteria, and requirements traceability; ability to organize objective evidence through DVP closure.

• Familiarity with temperature, pressure, airflow, fluid-flow, humidity, electrical-power, vibration, and refrigeration instrumentation and associated data-acquisition systems.

• Ability to analyze test data, assess uncertainty and repeatability, identify abnormal system behavior, and communicate technically sound conclusions.

• Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings, P&IDs, refrigeration schematics, wiring diagrams, control sequences, specifications, and product requirements.

• Ability to work safely around rotating equipment, pressurized systems, electrical controls, refrigerants, water/glycol mixtures, and operating HVAC equipment.

Preferred:

• Experience testing air handling units, computer-room air handlers, liquid-cooling distribution units, heat-rejection equipment, or packaged chillers.

• Experience with DAQ and controls platforms such as LabVIEW, PLC-based systems, building automation systems, or similar tools.

• Knowledge of applicable HVAC, chiller, pressure, electrical, and product-performance standards an