Principal Advisor, Data Center Facilities

World Wide Technology (WWT) strives to make a new world happen. WWT's work benefits clients and partners as much as it does its people and community across the globe. Founded in 1990, WWT brings together strategy, deep technical expertise and world-class partnerships to help public and private sector organizations design, build and scale intelligent AI, digital, cybersecurity, cloud and infrastructure solutions. Through its Advanced Technology Center (ATC)—a collaborative ecosystem featuring state-of-the-art hardware and software—WWT enables clients and partners to conceptualize, test and validate innovative technology and then deploy solutions at scale using its global integration and distributions capabilities.

About the role

The Principal Advisor, Data Center Facilities serves as WWT's senior client advisor and practice builder for data center facilities on strategic AI infrastructure engagements. This is an advisory and owner's-representative role — WWT does not act as engineer-of-record — carrying director-level expectations for leadership, business acumen, and client influence. You will be the founding member of the Facilities, Infrastructure & Technology (FIT) practice, built at the intersection of the physical and digital data center. FIT advises client executives across the data center lifecycle, from site readiness through commissioning, on active engagements around the world.

Responsibilities

• Serve as trusted facilities advisor to client executives (CIO, CTO, COO, heads of infrastructure and real estate), translating ambiguous requirements into actionable facility roadmaps.
• Lead facility readiness assessments, design reviews, and executive workshops; own recommendations and their outcomes.
• Act as executive sponsor for facilities workstreams on strategic engagements.
• Assess and advise on utility power and electrical distribution, air and liquid cooling architectures, white space and floor planning, fire suppression and life safety, and construction sequencing and commissioning.
• Architect integrated facility solutions in partnership with WWT's AI, networking, and infrastructure teams — bridging IT loads to facility capabilities.
• Establish governance models, success criteria, and risk management approaches for facilities workstreams within larger engagements.
• Maintain currency with AI-density reference architectures and facility OEM ecosystems.
• Evaluate, qualify, and oversee general contractors, MEP subcontractors, engineering firms, and commissioning agents on client buildouts.
• Review designs, plans, deliverables, and project progress to ensure alignment with customer objectives and industry best practices.
• Identify risks, gaps, and quality concerns and proactively drive corrective actions.
• Build co-delivery relationships with facility OEMs and A&E and commissioning partners.
• Develop FIT methodology, deliverable standards, and engagement playbooks; contribute practice IP and accelerators.
• Support pursuit teams: scope engagements, shape proposals, and price advisory work.
• Recruit, hire, and lead a team of facilities discipline architects (electrical, mechanical/HVAC, plumbing/piping); represent WWT in industry forums.

Requirements

• Significant experience (typically 12+ years) in data center / mission-critical facilities, including direct accountability for major phases of new-build data center projects (design review, construction oversight, or commissioning). Data center-specific experience is required; general commercial construction alone does not qualify.
• Deep expertise in at least one core facilities discipline — electrical/power, mechanical/cooling, or construction/commissioning — with working fluency across power, cooling, floor planning, fire suppression, and construction.
• Experience advising senior stakeholders in a consulting, advisory, owner's-representative, or owner-side leadership capacity.
• Experience qualifying and overseeing trade partners (GCs, MEP subcontractors, commissioning agents).
• Working knowledge of high-density AI/HPC facility requirements, including liquid cooling and high-density power distribution.
• Bachelor's degree in engineering or a related field, or equivalent professional, military, or trade experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Electrical/power as the deep discipline.
• Recent direct experience on liquid-cooled, high-density (60kW+ rack) designs.
• Experience across multiple international code jurisdictions and standards.
• Demonstrated success standing up a team, practice, program, or office.
• Credentials such as PE license, Uptime Institute ATD/ATS, DCEP, CDCDP, or ASHRAE participation.
• Familiarity with commissioning levels (L1-L5) and construction-lifecycle quality assurance.

Skills

• Executive presence with the ability to engage, influence, and build lasting relationships at the senior-most client levels.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to synthesize complex facility trade-offs into clear executive narratives.
• Collaborative working style across engineering, sales, and delivery teams.
• Travel: Up to 30%, including international.

Differentiating Competencies

• Bilingual Builders — Fluent in both construction documents and compute architectures; equally credible on an active construction site and in a boardroom.
• Founding Contributors — Energized by blank-canvas mandates; build methodology, pipeline, and team simultaneously.
• Risk Spotters — Can walk a site or a one-line diagram and identify what's wrong before it becomes a change order.
• Accountability Anchors — Hold trade partners, OEMs, and themselves to commitments; clients remember them as the person who caught it.
• Ecosystem Connectors — Bring working relationships across OEMs, A&E firms, GCs, and commissioning agents.
• Global Collaborators — Effective across regions, codes, and cultures.

Pay

A reasonable estimate of the current base pay range for this position is $220,000.00 to $270,000.00 annually. Actual salary will be based on a variety of factors, including shift, location, experience, skill set, performance, licensure and certification, and business needs.

Benefits

• Health and Wellbeing: Health (Medical & Prescription), Dental, and Vision Care, Onsite Health Centers (MO & IL), Employee Assistance Program, Wellness program
• Financial Benefits: Competitive Pay, Profit Sharing, 401k Plan with Company Matching, Life and Disability Insurance, Flexible Spending Accounts, Tuition Reimbursement
• Paid Time Off: PTO & Holidays, Parental Leave, Medical Leave, Military Leave, Bereavement, Day of Caring
• Additional Perks: Family Planning Benefits, Nursing Mothers Benefits, Voluntary Legal, Voluntary Supplemental Accident/Illness/Hospital, Voluntary ID Theft, Pet Insurance, Employee Discount Program