Design Principal, Engineering Development (Mechanical)

Job description

**This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Design Principal, Engineering Development (Mechanical) based in the United States.** This is a senior mechanical engineering and design leadership role supporting a global portfolio of mission-critical data center projects. You will shape mechanical engineering direction, develop reference designs, evaluate emerging technologies, and guide regional teams in delivering resilient, scalable, and cost-effective facilities. The role combines technical authority with design management, stakeholder coordination, equipment strategy, and customer engagement. You will influence projects from early master planning and business case development through design, construction, and continuous improvement. Working across global and regional teams, you will help establish consistent engineering practices while adapting designs to local requirements and customer needs. This remote opportunity is ideal for an experienced mission-critical design professional who can operate globally and influence complex decisions across multiple disciplines. ### 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.