Data Center Design Lead Mechanical

About the role

We are seeking a Data Center Mechanical Design Lead to provide senior technical leadership across the planning, design, and delivery of high-performance mechanical systems for data center and mission-critical infrastructure projects. This role will be central to growing our North American Data Center practice and will support the delivery of resilient, scalable, energy-efficient, and AI-ready facilities for hyperscale, cloud, colocation, enterprise, and mission-critical clients.

The successful candidate will bring deep expertise in mechanical design for data centers, including cooling architecture, thermal management, airside and waterside systems, liquid cooling, high-density compute environments, redundancy strategy, energy efficiency, water use, commissioning support, and operational resilience. This role requires a specialist who understands the unique technical, commercial, and operational pressures of data center environments, not simply a general buildings mechanical engineer with occasional data center exposure.

Responsibilities

• Lead mechanical design strategy for major data center projects across North America, including hyperscale, cloud, AI, colocation, enterprise, and mission-critical environments.
• Develop resilient, scalable, energy-efficient, and maintainable cooling solutions aligned with client performance, redundancy, uptime, sustainability, and operational requirements.
• Provide technical leadership across feasibility studies, master planning, concept design, detailed engineering, construction support, commissioning, and operational handover.
• Lead the design and review of chilled water systems, airside cooling, direct and indirect evaporative systems, air handling systems, CRAH / CRAC systems, CDUs, liquid cooling, heat rejection, economization, ventilation, fuel systems interface, and associated controls strategies.
• Support AI and high-density compute environments through advanced cooling strategies, thermal modelling coordination, rack density planning, liquid cooling integration, and future-ready design approaches.
• Partner with electrical and architectural teams to coordinate power and cooling density, equipment layouts, plant space, maintenance access, redundancy strategy, phasing, and heat rejection requirements.
• Provide senior technical oversight for mechanical calculations, drawings, specifications, design narratives, equipment selections, sequence of operations, commissioning requirements, and quality reviews.
• Support major pursuits, client interviews, proposals, technical presentations, and strategic account development as a senior data center mechanical subject matter expert.
• Establish and improve mechanical design standards, templates, workflows, governance processes, lessons learned, and technical quality procedures for data center projects.
• Collaborate with construction, commissioning, and operations teams to support value engineering, constructability, commissioning readiness, maintainability, and lifecycle performance.
• Mentor mechanical engineers and design managers, supporting technical development, succession planning, recruitment, and capability building.
• Coordinate with global delivery teams to ensure technical consistency, quality, efficiency, and compliance with North American codes, standards, and client-specific requirements.
• Stay current with emerging trends in AI-ready infrastructure, liquid cooling, water stewardship, energy efficiency, low-carbon design, heat reuse, modular deployment, and mission-critical mechanical systems.
• Represent the organization at client meetings, industry forums, technical reviews, and strategic engagements.

Candidate Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Architectural Engineering, Building Services Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Professional Engineer, Chartered Engineer, or equivalent professional registration preferred.
• 20+ years experience leading mechanical design for data center, mission-critical, semiconductor, advanced manufacturing, industrial, or complex technical facilities.
• Demonstrated experience working on data center projects as a primary technical focus, ideally across hyperscale, cloud, AI, colocation, or enterprise environments.
• Strong understanding of mechanical systems serving mission-critical facilities, including chilled water, airside cooling, evaporative systems, liquid cooling, heat rejection, redundancy, maintainability, and energy efficiency.
• Experience designing for high-density compute, AI infrastructure, thermal resilience, phasing, concurrent maintainability, and 24/7 operations.
• Knowledge of ASHRAE data center guidance, energy standards, thermal management principles, applicable mechanical codes, and sustainability frameworks.
• Experience coordinating closely with electrical, architectural, structural, telecoms, civil, fire protection, controls, commissioning, and operations teams.
• Strong familiarity with BIM, digital delivery, model coordination, equipment planning, plantroom layout, and interdisciplinary clash resolution.
• Proven ability to review and approve technical deliverables, manage design risk, and drive consistent quality across complex programs.
• Strong client-facing capability, including experience supporting proposals, interviews, technical workshops, and executive-level design discussions.
• Experience developing teams, mentoring engineers, supporting recruitment, and building mechanical design capability.
• Excellent communication, commercial awareness, judgement, and stakeholder management skills.
• Familiarity with Uptime Institute Tier Standards, TIA-942, LEED, sustainability rating systems, commissioning requirements, and operational performance metrics preferred.

Benefits & Reward

• Employees have a stake and a voice in our business, with a direct connection to success through personal and group performance bonuses.
• Comprehensive benefit package including 401k, medical, dental and vision insurance, short-term/long-term disability, paid holidays, PTO, parental leave, and company paid life insurance.