Design Manager - Mechanical

About the Business

Our client is a well-funded organisation at the forefront of digital infrastructure, with a significant international footprint and a fast-growing portfolio of mission-critical facilities across multiple regions. They are deep into a major build phase, bringing a next-generation AI-ready data centre to life as part of an ambitious and well-resourced expansion strategy.

The Opportunity

As Design Manager – Mechanical, you will step into a genuine owner-side design authority position, with full accountability for mechanical and cooling infrastructure across a major hyperscale build. Working within a multi-project technical governance team, you will own the standards, direct the consultants and shape the design from early concept all the way through to commissioning.
This is the kind of role where your fingerprints are on the whole thing, not just a slice of it.

What You'll Be Doing

• Serving as the owner's design authority, setting the mechanical standard that others deliver to

• Developing and maintaining the Basis of Design and reference architectures across the full cooling chain, from heat rejection through to liquid cooling and direct-to-chip systems

• Running rigorous design reviews at every project gate, keeping consultants honest and designs on track

• Leading the multi-discipline coordination effort, ensuring mechanical, electrical, BMS and structural all work together through BIM

• Challenging thermal, hydraulic and CFD modelling, not just accepting outputs but interrogating them

• Steering procurement decisions on major mechanical equipment and holding vendors to account on performance

• Getting hands-on during commissioning, from FAT/SAT through to integrated systems testing

• Translating complex tenant cooling requirements into compliant, commercially sound solutions for pre-sales and RFP responses

• Keeping one eye on sustainability, optimising for PUE/WUE, free cooling and water efficiency without sacrificing reliability

• Building the team's mechanical capability over time, providing technical mentorship to SMEs within the group

What You'll Bring

• A strong Mechanical or Building Services Engineering background, ideally degree-qualified or higher

• A career built in mission-critical environments where you know data centre cooling inside and out, at a level where you can set the standard, not just follow it

• Real depth in liquid cooling and DLC including CDUs, secondary loops, manifolds and rack interfaces, backed by hands-on delivery experience

• The analytical confidence to specify, challenge and validate thermal, hydraulic and CFD work produced by others

• Experience on the owner or client side, directing consultants and vendors rather than working for them

• Solid BIM coordination experience and a working command of the codes that govern this space including ASHRAE, Uptime Institute, TIA-942 and NFPA

• The communication skills to hold a room, whether in a design review, a vendor negotiation or a customer conversation

• A practical mindset that is rigorous on the detail but always keeps the buildable, operable outcome in view

What's On Offer

• Competitive salary and benefits

• Wellbeing support and genuine work-life balance

• Real investment in your professional development

• The chance to set the electrical design standard for a major hyperscale build, within a global group with serious momentum behind it

If you are ready to step into the next chapter of your career, we would love to hear from you.

Ready to make an impact? Apply now.