Manager, Pipeline Engineering — Power and Energy

About Nscale

At Nscale, we are building the infrastructure for the AI revolution. Nscale is developing cutting-edge, sovereign generative AI solutions powered by a new generation of high-performance, sustainable data centers and GPUs built specifically for AI workloads.

The rapid growth of artificial intelligence is driving unprecedented global demand for compute and GPU infrastructure. Positioned at the heart of this transformation, Nscale is delivering the platforms that will enable the next decade of innovation.

Working closely with the world's most advanced AI technology providers — including Microsoft and NVIDIA — Nscale integrates next-generation compute hardware and Next GPU clusters across both partner and self-delivered facilities. This is a unique opportunity to join Nscale's journey, play a pivotal role in delivering transformative AI infrastructure, and help shape a company designed to scale rapidly across North America, Europe, and beyond.

About the Role

We are hiring a Manager, Pipeline Engineering to own the engineering of the natural gas transmission pipelines that fuel Nscale's generation campuses, from upstream interconnect to plant fence.

Nscale's Power and Energy group develops behind-the-meter generation colocated with our data center campuses: large reciprocating engine fleets served by dedicated, large-diameter gas transmission pipelines moving hundreds of millions of cubic feet per day. These are not ordinary laterals. The pipeline is also the storage: line pack is the operating inventory that buffers nominations against engine demand, pressure is governed by that inventory balance, and the design of overpressure protection, regulation, and system controls determines whether gigawatts of compute stay online. Much of this work is closer to process engineering than to conventional pipeline design, and this role owns it.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role built for someone who runs with minimal oversight. You will establish the design basis for our pipelines and demonstrate how it ties to our downstream commitments — engine demand, swing, and availability — drive the engineering through hydraulic design, controls philosophy, and construction, and technically manage the third-party engineering firms and pipeline construction contractors doing the work. Lines are in delivery today and new lines will follow, so the role owns both the systems being built now and the reference engineering for what comes next.

You will sit within the Power and Energy technology organization, working alongside the generation engineering and commissioning teams that depend on the gas you deliver. You will be the owner's technical authority on the pipeline scope, directing the work of consultants and contractors rather than simply accepting it, and resolving the design questions where standard midstream practice does not account for a single customer whose demand can swing with AI workloads.

Location: Houston, TX (remote considered within the US, with regular site and vendor travel)

What You'll Be Doing

Pipeline system engineering and design basis

Own the design basis for Nscale's gas transmission pipelines: hydraulic design, MAOP and pressure regime, line pack and inventory strategy, routing and sizing philosophy, and expansion provisions for future lines.

Perform and direct steady-state and transient hydraulic modeling of the pipeline systems, and own the models as living engineering assets that answer real operating questions: inventory swing, survival time on line pack, ramp response, and curtailment scenarios.

Demonstrate explicitly how the pipeline design basis supports downstream commitments: engine fleet demand and turndown, campus availability requirements, and the nominations-versus-consumption balance that governs system pressure.

Evaluate gas storage and supply resilience options, including line pack utilization, interconnect diversity, and cross-connection strategies between lines, with clear analysis of the risk each option carries.

Process and controls engineering

Own the overpressure protection philosophy across the pipeline systems: regulation, monitor, slam-shut, and relief selection, justified against reliability requirements, industry practice, and regulatory obligations rather than habit.

Define the control philosophy at interconnects, letdown stations, and plant interfaces: pressure versus flow control, control interactions with upstream operators' facilities, and the measurement and SCADA provisions needed to run the system on inventory.

Apply process safety discipline to the pipeline scope: lead and support HAZOPs and design reviews, own the closure of actions, and carry management of change through design and construction.

Engineer the interface into the plant fuel gas systems, coordinating conditioning, letdown, and protection philosophies so pipeline and plant behave as one system.

Regulatory compliance and integrity

Own compliance of the pipeline designs with 49 CFR Part 192 and the applicable ASME B31 codes, including the code boundaries between jurisdictional pipeline and plant piping.

Establish material, welding, and construction specifications, class location and MAOP documentation, and the records discipline that a traceable, verifiable, and complete basis requires.

Lay the foundation for integrity management: baseline assessment planning, pigging and inspection provisions, and mainline valve philosophy, including remote actuation and its treatment in availability analysis.

Support commissioning and first gas: purge and pack planning, energization of the measurement and control systems, and readiness reviews in partnership with the commissioning and startup organization.

Third-party technical management

Technically manage the engineering consultants supporting the pipeline scope: set the design basis they work to, review and challenge their deliverables, and integrate their output into a coherent whole.

Direct pipeline construction contractors on technical matters: specification compliance, field queries, deviation dispositions, and as-built reconciliation.

Own the technical interface with upstream pipeline operators and interconnect counterparties: metering station design, control coordination, nominations behavior, and the operating agreements' technical exhibits.

Hold third parties to disciplined engineering, testing, and documentation, and know when their standard answer is not good enough for this application.

Standards and cross-functional leadership

Develop Nscale's engineering standards, specifications, and reference designs for gas pipelines, so each new line builds on the last instead of starting over.

Coordinate with generation engineering on fuel gas requirements, with permitting and land teams on routing and regulatory strategy, and with commercial teams on gas supply and transportation arrangements.

Grow the internal pipeline engineering capability over time, directing specialist consultants today and building a small team as the portfolio scales.

Communicate complex pipeline and process issues clearly to project leadership and executives, with honest assessments of risk and readiness.

About You

12+ years of natural gas pipeline engineering experience across design, construction, and operations, with significant time in a lead or owner's engineer role on transmission systems.

Deep hydraulic engineering capability, including transient modeling of gas transmission systems, and the judgment to translate model results into design and operating decisions.

Strong process engineering instincts: comfort with inventory-based system behavior, regulation and overpressure protection design, control philosophy development, and process safety methods such as HAZOP.

Working fluency with 49 CFR Part 192 and ASME B31.8, including MAOP determination, class location, and the code interfaces with plant piping under B31.1 or B31.3.