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Chiller engineer jobs.

The role

What the job involves.

Perigon Search recruits chiller engineers for manufacturers, specialist service companies, contractors and data centre operators. The job is keeping chilled water plant running: planned maintenance, fault finding and repairs on air-cooled and water-cooled chillers, from scroll and screw machines to centrifugal and Turbocor magnetic bearing compressors, on Carrier, Trane, Daikin, York, Climaveneta, Airedale and Aermec plant. Most roles also take in the pumps, controls and free cooling around the chiller.

On a data centre or a hospital, the plant can't just come off. Work is planned around the site's redundancy, under permits and method statements, and the maintenance window might be the middle of the night. Fault finding often happens with the load still on. That's what separates a critical chiller role from a comfort cooling one, and clients pay for people who've done it.

Mobile or static. Most roles are mobile. You cover a patch from a van, on planned visits and reactive callouts, with an on-call rota. Static roles put you on one large site, often on shifts, as part of the facilities team. Manufacturer roles usually add commissioning on new installs and training on their own kit.

Salary and progression

What it pays.
Where it leads.

Salary

What chiller engineers earn.

With overtime and call-outs, earnings run well past these base salaries. Most mobile roles come with a van you can take home and a paid on-call rota. When an offer comes in, we negotiate it for you, base and package. Bands from roles we've recruited, updated October 2026.

Chiller engineer
£45,000 to £55,000 base
Senior chiller engineer
£55,000 to £63,000 base
Lead engineer or supervisor
£60,000 to £65,000 base
Where it leads
Commissioning engineer
Bringing new chiller plant online, often the step before lead engineer or supervisor.
Service or contract manager
Running the engineers, the contracts and the client relationship.
Project engineer or manager
Running chiller replacements and new plant, from survey to handover.
Applications and technical sales
With a manufacturer, where knowing the kit from the inside counts.
Critical facilities
Site side with a data centre operator, with a route into facilities management.
Liquid cooling
CDUs from the likes of Vertiv and CoolIT need people who already understand chilled water.
Shortlisting

What gets you shortlisted.

F-Gas Category 1 is assumed. What moves a CV up the pile is the kit and the sites behind it.

Plant
ScrollScrewCentrifugalTurbocorFree cooling
Makes
CarrierTraneDaikinYorkClimaveneta
Skills
Fault findingCommissioningControls and BMSPermits and RAMSPlanned maintenance
Sites
Data centresHospitalsLabsTelecomsProcess plants
FAQ

Chiller engineer questions.

What does a chiller engineer do?
A chiller engineer services, maintains, repairs and commissions chillers, the refrigeration plant that makes chilled water to cool a building or process. Day to day that's planned maintenance, fault finding on compressors, controls and refrigerant circuits, and reactive callouts. Most roles are mobile, covering a region. Some are static on one large site.
What qualifications do I need to be a chiller engineer?
You need an F-Gas certificate, Category 1 for chillers, to work on refrigerant circuits in the UK. Most employers also want an NVQ Level 2 or 3 in refrigeration and air conditioning, or equivalent. Manufacturer training helps, especially on the big makes like Carrier, Trane and Daikin, and a full driving licence is needed for mobile roles.
Is a chiller engineer the same as an air conditioning engineer?
No, though the skills overlap. An air conditioning engineer mostly works on DX systems, splits and VRF. A chiller engineer works on larger plant that cools water, with bigger compressors, water circuits and more controls. Plenty of chiller engineers started in air conditioning.
Can I move into data centre work from commercial refrigeration or air conditioning?
Yes, and it's a common move. Clients look for refrigeration skills, F-Gas and a record of fault finding. What they'll check is whether you can work to a critical site's rules: permits, method statements and changes planned around redundancy. Chiller experience makes the step much easier.
Do you recruit chiller engineers outside the UK?
Yes. We recruit across the UK and EMEA, including Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Scandinavia. Data centre growth in mainland Europe means there's work for engineers open to it.