Principal Data Center Designer

Key Responsibilities

• Leads the planning, design, and optimization of data center white space, including rack layout, hot/cold aisle containment, power distribution, cable pathways, and build phases.
• Creates and maintains detailed white space documentation such as room layouts, rack elevations, bill of materials, and structured cabling designs.
• Develops design standards and Basis of Design (BoD) documents to guide internal and partner teams in delivering consistent white space fit-outs.
• Develops low voltage structured cabling system designs to support scalable, high-performance compute, storage, and network systems.
• Reviews new site layouts and proposed fit-out designs and failover configurations, to ensure compliance with standards.

Cross-Functional Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborates with colocation providers, developers, and internal teams (e.g., facilities, construction, operations) to gather, translate, and implement requirements into executable white space designs.
• Leverages relationship with technology partners (e.g., network, compute, carrier) to locate information and resources.

Project and Program Leadership

• Contributes to white space design initiatives and related engineering projects from concept through execution independently.
• Leads internal and external project team members, including contractors and vendors, during design, fit-out, and commissioning phases.
• Ensures project deliverables align with company expectations, standards, and schedules.
• Provides expertise and guidance in contract administration, including review of change orders, cost forecasts, and engineering documentation.
• Provides mentorship and training to junior engineers and new team members to build organizational capability.

Operations Support and Site Validation

• Travels to new and existing data centers to conduct on-site design validation, commissioning, and engineering analysis.
• Acts as a subject matter expert for mission-critical systems, validating integration with ongoing operations.
• Provides engineering support during live events and incident investigations to ensure rapid resolution and operational continuity.
• Safeguards all documentation is effectively captured, stored, and shared with operations and field engineering teams.

Standards Development and Governance

• Executes and contributes to the evolution of global data center infrastructure standards, policies, and procedures.
• Reviews and develops documentation for standards adherence, commissioning protocols, and system testing.
• Participates in design summits, policy reviews, and commissioning activities to ensure continuous improvement.

Technical Innovation and Engineering Excellence

• Researches and evaluates new designs, materials, and construction methods for mission-critical systems in data centers.
• Develops and tests engineering solutions using advanced modeling, component testing, and engineering principles.
• Creates and validates digitized data center models to support design integrity and capacity planning.
• Evaluates the reliability and performance of components, systems, and installation methods used in production environments, providing feedback to team on maintenance changes as needed.
• Leads internal engineering seminars, training programs, and knowledge-sharing initiatives.

Network Expertise

• Collaborates with networking teams on network-related efforts (e.g., building fabrics).
• Automates design data to work with internal systems and databases.