Data Center Design Governance Lead

About the role

The Data Center Design Governance Lead will own the design‑review and quality‑gate process for mission‑critical data centre projects, ensuring every design meets the required standards, tier targets and resilience criteria before procurement.

Key responsibilities

• Manage the design‑review and quality‑gate process, guiding each High‑Level Design through structured checkpoints.
• Verify that every design traceably aligns with the requirements document and reject non‑conforming proposals.
• Maintain documented independence from design production while reviewing internal and external design teams.
• Validate resilience through single‑line diagrams, redundancy topology, concurrent maintainability and single‑point‑of‑failure analysis.
• Review AC/DC critical power and cooling concepts, heat‑rejection redundancy, equipment selection and design PUE.
• Confirm each site meets its client‑designated Tier III or Tier IV and complies with TIA‑942, EN 50600 and ASHRAE guidelines.
• Issue design comments and Non‑Conformance Reports (NCR) and track them to closure.
• Provide design‑assurance input for technical specifications, RFP packages and bid evaluations.
• Chair the design‑change and deviation board, analysing all change requests.
• Establish acceptance criteria for commissioning levels L1‑L5, culminating in Integrated Systems Test.
• Offer technical leadership and guidance to design and review teams throughout the lifecycle.

Required profile

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering (Master’s preferred).
• 10‑12 years of experience in data‑center or mission‑critical facility design, including 4‑5 years in design review, design assurance or owner‑engineer roles.
• Hands‑on experience delivering at least one Tier III+ facility from concept through commissioning.
• Proven ability to manage formal stage‑gate processes and enforce quality standards.
• Strong knowledge of Uptime Institute tier topology, TIA‑942, EN 50600 and ASHRAE thermal guidelines.

Required skills

• Data centre design and mission‑critical facility engineering
• Uptime Institute tier methodology
• TIA‑942 compliance
• EN 50600 standards
• ASHRAE thermal guidelines
• Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) analysis
• Single‑line diagram and redundancy topology analysis
• AC/DC power and cooling system design
• Design review and design assurance processes
• Non‑Conformance Reporting (NCR) procedures