Principal MEP Advisor - Design Authority

Job Description

50-75% Travel Nation-wide at Data Center Build Client Sites.\n
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\nMUST be open to travel with a remote home-base\n
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\nTechnical design and review authority for data center facilities on strategic AI infrastructure engagements. This is a design-and-assurance role, not a self-perform or engineer-of-record role, carrying director-level expectations for technical judgment, executive presence, and influence. This role is accountable for:\n
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• Reviewing and red-lining client and partner MEP designs — power, cooling, floor planning, and fire suppression — to find risks and conflicts before they reach the field, across greenfield and retrofit-for-AI-density builds.

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• Evaluating, qualifying, and technically overseeing delivery partners — MEP engineering firms, commissioning agents, cabling and cooling specialists — to ensure buildouts meet design intent, schedule, and quality standards.

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• Founding and growing the practice's review methodology, deliverable standards, and playbooks, and helping vet the discipline reviewers hired within the first year.
  
  

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The Principal MEP Advisor operates at the intersection of construction and computing — translating high-performance architecture requirements into facility realities, and facility constraints into architecture decisions — while building the trusted executive relationships that anchor long-term client partnerships. You will step into multiple active global engagements from day one.\n
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Key Responsibilities

Client Leadership

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• Serve as trusted facilities advisor to client executives (CIO, CTO, COO, heads of infrastructure and real estate), translating ambiguous requirements into actionable facility roadmaps.

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• Lead facility readiness assessments, design reviews, and executive workshops; own recommendations and their outcomes.

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• Act as executive sponsor for facilities workstreams on strategic engagements. Design & Review Authority

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• Review and red-line client and partner MEP designs — power, cooling, floor planning, and fire suppression — identifying risks, gaps, and conflicts before they reach the field.

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• Architect integrated facility solutions in partnership with AI, networking, and infrastructure teams — bridging IT loads to facility capabilities.

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• Serve as the technical backbone of the teams independent assurance — validating that what was designed was built and will perform.

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• Maintain currency with AI-density reference architectures, NVIDIA rack-scale platforms, and facility OEM ecosystems. Partner Orchestration & Oversight

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• Evaluate, qualify, and oversee general contractors, MEP subcontractors, engineering firms, and commissioning agents on client buildouts.

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• Review partner deliverables and progress; drive corrective action when work drifts from intent; hold partners and OEMs to their commitments.

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• Identify risks, gaps, and quality concerns and proactively drive corrective actions.

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• Build co-delivery relationships with facility OEMs and A&E and commissioning partners. Practice Building & Talent

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• Develop FIT methodology, deliverable standards, and engagement playbooks; contribute practice IP and accelerators.

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• Support pursuit teams: scope engagements, shape proposals, and price advisory work.

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• Help interview and mentor the discipline reviewers who extend your capacity; represent the client in industry forums. Qualifications and Requirements
  
  

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If your experience doesn't match every preferred qualification below but you know this work, we encourage you to apply.

Required

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• Significant experience (typically 12+ years) in data center / mission-critical facilities, including direct accountability for major phases of new-build data center projects (design review, construction oversight, or commissioning). Data center-specific experience is required; general commercial construction alone does not qualify.

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• Deep expertise in liquid cooling for high-density environments — direct-to-chip and rear-door, CDUs, and coolant distribution — with working fluency across electrical/power, floor planning, and fire suppression.

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• Experience advising senior stakeholders in a consulting, advisory, owner's-representative, or owner-side leadership capacity.

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• Experience qualifying and overseeing trade partners (GCs, MEP subcontractors, commissioning agents).

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• Working knowledge of high-density AI/HPC facility requirements, including liquid cooling and high-density power distribution.

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• Bachelor's degree in engineering or a related field, or equivalent professional, military, or trade experience. Preferred

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• Depth in electrical/power as a second discipline, alongside cooling.

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• Recent, direct experience on liquid-cooled, high-density (60kW+ rack) designs.

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• Experience across multiple international code jurisdictions (US and APAC — Australia, Singapore, Malaysia a plus).

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• Demonstrated success standing up a team, practice, program, or office.

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• Credentials such as PE license, Uptime Institute ATD/ATS, DCEP, CDCDP, or ASHRAE participation.

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• Familiarity with commissioning levels (L1-L5) and construction-lifecycle quality assurance. Leadership & Interpersonal

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• Executive presence with the ability to engage, influence, and build lasting relationships at the senior-most client levels.

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• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to synthesize complex facility trade-offs into clear executive narratives.

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• Collaborative working style across engineering, sales, and delivery teams.
  
  

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Travel: Up to 50%, including international.\n
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Differentiating Competencies

Candidates who thrive in this role typically demonstrate the following beyond baseline qualifications:\n
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• Bilingual Builders — Fluent in both construction documents and compute architectures; equally credible on an active construction site and in a boardroom.

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• Founding Contributors — Energized by blank-canvas mandates; build methodology, pipeline, and team simultaneously.

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• Risk Spotters — Can walk a site or a one-line diagram and identify what's wrong before it becomes a change order.

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• Accountability Anchors — Hold trade partners, OEMs, and themselves to commitments; clients remember them as the person who caught it.

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• Ecosystem Connectors — Bring working relationships across OEMs, A&E firms, GCs, and commissioning agents.

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• Global Collaborators — Effective across regions, codes, and cultures.

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