Director – Civil, Structural and Architectural Engineering
Volta
Director – Civil, Structural and Architectural Engineering
Volta
Financed AI data centers and infrastructure
Volta is the category-defining, fully vertically integrated AI infrastructure platform – from capital to clusters to software, under a founder-led enterprise. Our mission is The Utility of Compute™: AI infrastructure as dependable and available as electricity, for every organization that needs it. Launched with a $10B strategic partnership with one of the leading frontier AI labs, a Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, and a $5B AI Infrastructure Fund, Volta is building the infrastructure layer of the AI era from the ground up. We are 100+ people across London, Palo Alto, and New York, with rapid growth expectations to hundreds.
The Role
We are looking for a Director, Civil, Structural and Architectural (CSA) Engineering to be Volta's subject matter expert and design authority for CSA engineering across our global portfolio of AI factories. You will report directly to the Senior Director, Infrastructure Engineering within the Delivery organisation.
You will fully own all CSA engineering input across the portfolio from Volta's design standards, Reference Design and running projects. This covers site civil works, ground engineering and foundations, building structures, and architecture, including building layouts, envelope and architectural design that is compliant with fire and life safety requirements. You will move easily between technical detail and strategic perspective, weighing engineering decisions against business priorities. As the business scales, you will build and lead the CSA engineering team.
What You Will Do
› Act as Volta's CSA subject matter expert and design authority, owning all civil, structural and architectural input across every AI factory in EMEA and AMER from concept through to construction and handover
› Develop, deploy and maintain Volta's CSA design standards, specifications and basis of design documents for all civil, structural and architectural systems, making sure they are applied consistently across every project and region
› Provide the CSA input to Volta's Reference Design for AI factory infrastructure, working with peers in the Design organisation to balance performance, cost, speed of delivery, constructability and scalability
› Own Volta's building and site architecture, including structural systems, floor and roof loading strategy, plant yards, building envelope and data hall layouts, and work with the teams defining rack and compute requirements so every building can accommodate the compute it is designed for
› Provide geotechnical due diligence input to site selection, and support live projects with CSA expertise from concept through detailed design, permitting, construction and handover, resolving technical issues quickly so delivery is never held up
› Track the evolution of AI hardware and construction methods, including rack weights, overhead services loading, larger plant and faster build techniques, and translate it into CSA standards that keep Volta's AI factories ready for next generation compute
› Lead CSA design reviews and technical assurance, including geotechnical and site investigation findings, and act as design authority for any departure from the CSA standard
› Work in sync with SMEs across the other disciplines, including mechanical, electrical and ICT and controls, so the overall design is optimised for safety, speed of delivery and cost, rather than for CSA in isolation
› Work with Procurement to standardise specifications for structural steel, precast concrete, cladding, roofing and modular building systems, enabling framework agreements, prefabrication and modular delivery at scale
› Champion safety in design, fire and life safety compliance in architectural design, reliability, maintainability and embodied carbon, working with Operations to design for how our facilities will be accessed, maintained and run
› Embed lessons learned from delivery and operations back into the CSA standards, so every AI factory builds faster, safer and more efficiently than the last
› Direct the CSA scope of external design partners, mentor engineers and build out the CSA engineering team as the pipeline grows
› Provide CSA engineering status, risk and decision reporting to the Senior Director, Infrastructure Engineering
What You Will Bring
› A degree in civil or structural engineering or architecture, with chartered or professional status (for example CEng, PE, SE or registered architect) preferred
› Significant experience in data centre or mission critical CSA engineering, including senior technical leadership of civil, structural or architectural design on large scale programmes
› Deep technical expertise in at least one of civil, structural or architectural design, with a strong working knowledge across all three
› A track record developing and deploying CSA design standards, reference designs or basis of design documents for a hyperscale, colocation or large scale data centre developer
› Hands on experience designing and delivering buildings for high density and liquid cooled AI and HPC workloads, and an understanding of how GPU cluster requirements such as rack weight, services density and plant space drive facility design
› Familiarity with the codes and standards that govern data centre CSA design in Europe and North America, such as the Eurocodes, the International Building Code and ASCE 7, together with the fire and life safety requirements that shape building design
› Strong commercial judgement, balancing capex, schedule, reliability and operability in CSA design decisions
› Confident communication, able to explain complex technical trade offs clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders, including executives
› A collaborative style that builds trust with peers across partner teams, and the conviction to hold the line on standards
At Volta, we believe people do their best work when they feel supported, trusted and able to grow. We're building a company where you can make an impact, keep a healthy balance between work and life, and build a career you're proud of.
As a global team, we do our best to provide great benefits wherever you're based. While some benefits vary by country due to local regulations, we believe looking after our people is simply the right thing to do.
Competitive salary based on the work you do here, not your previous salary
Equity in Volta, giving you the opportunity to share in the company's long-term success
Retirement/pension contributions
Comprehensive health, wellbeing and insurance benefits
Generous number of vacation days each year
Background Checks
All offers of employment at Volta are conditional on the satisfactory completion of pre-employment screening, which includes confirmation of your right to work, verification of your employment history and a criminal record check, where this is permitted by local law. Screening is carried out by Zinc, an accredited third-party provider, after an offer is made and all information is handled confidentially and in accordance with applicable data protection law.
Volta is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team and make employment decisions based on skills, qualifications, experience and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic.
Volta is committed to providing an accessible recruitment experience for all candidates. If you require accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the application or interview process, please contact us at [email protected]. We will work with you to identify reasonable accommodations that enable you to participate fully in the hiring process.
By applying, you consent to the processing of your personal data for recruitment purposes in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including the UK GDPR, EU GDPR and relevant US state privacy regulations. Your data will be shared only with those involved in the hiring process and will not be used for unrelated purposes. For details, see our Recruitment & Candidate Privacy Notice.
Volta does not accept unsolicited CVs or candidate profiles from recruitment agencies. Any unsolicited submissions, including those sent directly to hiring managers or employees, will be treated as the property of Volta. No agency fees will be payable unless a valid, signed recruitment agreement is in place, and the agency has been specifically engaged for the relevant vacancy.
Volta builds and runs dedicated AI data centres called AI factories and offers AI compute as a financed utility, so labs and enterprises can access Nvidia-class capacity without paying full upfront. It combines capital, land, hardware, software, and day-to-day operations into a single offering, with customers paying for access under multi-year capacity contracts. Unlike traditional data centres, Volta finances and operates the infrastructure and software management to deliver ready-to-use capacity as a service. Its goal is to democratize access to large-scale AI compute across North America and Europe by creating a financed, utility-style infrastructure layer.
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