Design Principal, Engineering Development (Mechanical)

Accountabilities:

• Own the global mechanical engineering direction of reference designs, ensuring they support future data center capacity, density, resilience, functionality, cost, and construction requirements.
• Evaluate new products, technologies, and engineering approaches and support innovation initiatives, incorporating mature solutions into standardized reference designs.
• Support regional design teams in implementing reference designs and developing regional- and customer-specific configurations based on local infrastructure, regulations, market conditions, and evolving customer requirements.
• Lead the mechanical design process across architectural, MEP, engineering, construction, commercial, and other external design partners to deliver technically excellent and mission-critical data center solutions.
• Develop and improve standardized design tools, techniques, processes, and reporting methods while collaborating with global peers to promote consistency and technical excellence.
• Conduct master planning for expansion portfolios using global design standards and templates, including initial project visualization, modeling, cost estimates, and business case inputs.
• Partner with commercial management and regional teams on business case development, local equipment procurement, cost evaluation, design variations, and balancing standardization with appropriate cost flexibility.
• Provide subject matter expertise to major capital equipment procurement teams, supporting mechanical equipment evaluation, selection, lifecycle management, and feedback-driven improvements.
• Manage external reference design consultants and provide clear mechanical engineering direction, ensuring deliverables meet technical and project expectations.
• Maintain strong relationships with internal technical teams, design consultants, construction management, commercial leaders, regional P&L stakeholders, procurement teams, operations, and other centers of excellence.
• Support key customer engagements by understanding evolving technical requirements, developing appropriate design accommodations, and communicating design roadmaps and solutions.
• Coordinate independent technical reviews and indirectly guide experienced engineering resources to deliver high-quality designs on schedule and within budget.
• Own design schedules for assigned projects, ensuring timely development and review of basis-of-design documents, submissions, and design documentation for issued-for-permit and issued-for-construction packages.
• Manage design budgets, change requests, and cost impacts during construction in partnership with commercial and construction teams.
• Ensure designs comply with global design standards, customer requirements, applicable regulations, and local infrastructure constraints.
• Maintain the mechanical equipment technical submittal repository and establish feedback loops with projects and vendors to keep reference design information current.
• Use design review findings, project lessons learned, industry advancements, and best practices to continuously improve reference designs, standards, tools, and processes.
• Identify opportunities to scale early-stage design processes and develop practical solutions that improve efficiency, consistency, and decision quality.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience within an MEP design firm, mission-critical building operator, subcontractor, or comparable architectural/design environment, with substantial responsibility for complex mission-critical projects.
• Strong mechanical engineering and data center design expertise, with experience influencing design decisions across a portfolio rather than only individual projects.
• Global experience with local mechanical design and construction practices is highly desirable, particularly exposure to requirements across AMER, EMEA, and APAC regions.
• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline is acceptable; a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering is preferred, or equivalent extensive and demonstrable professional experience.
• Professional Engineering (PE), Chartered Engineer (CEng), or relevant local equivalent certification is desirable but not mandatory.
• Strong understanding of mission-critical design principles, technical resilience, equipment selection, design standards, construction considerations, cost management, and lifecycle performance.
• Experience working with major enterprise customers and translating complex customer requirements into practical design solutions is highly desirable.
• Ability to evaluate technical tradeoffs and make sound engineering decisions while considering global applicability, local regulations, customer needs, cost, scalability, and operational requirements.
• Strong project and program management skills, including experience managing schedules, budgets, design deliverables, consultants, dependencies, risks, and change management.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to coordinate internal teams, external consultants, construction partners, procurement, commercial stakeholders, and senior technical leaders without relying solely on direct authority.
• Strong written and spoken English proficiency is essential; additional languages are strongly desirable.
• Ability to think globally while adapting standardized designs to regional requirements and customer-specific needs.
• Strong communication, analytical, problem-solving, collaboration, and decision-making skills, with the ability to operate effectively in a complex, multi-disciplinary environment.

Benefits

• Competitive annual base salary, with targeted ranges based on U.S. location:
  • $136,000–$204,000 for other U.S. locations.
  • $150,000–$224,000 for California outside the Bay Area, Alaska, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and Washington.
  • $163,000–$245,000 for the California Bay Area.
  • Eligibility for bonus compensation.
  • Potential equity participation depending on the position.
  • Health insurance options for employees and eligible family members.
  • Life and disability insurance options.
  • Retirement savings plan with potential employer contributions.
  • Accrued paid time off and paid holidays.
  • Employee Assistance Program.
  • Remote work arrangement within the United States.
  • Opportunity to influence global data center engineering standards and reference designs at significant scale.
  • Exposure to advanced mission-critical infrastructure, emerging technologies, major capital equipment, and complex global projects.
  • Cross-functional collaboration with engineering, operations, procurement, construction, commercial, and customer-facing teams.
  • Opportunities to contribute to innovation, continuous improvement, and scalable design methodologies.
  • An inclusive and collaborative environment focused on technical excellence, customer value, innovation, and professional impact.