Design Manager

The role can be based anywhere in France, with frequent travel to Escaudain required as the project progresses.

DATA4'S MISSION

DATA4 creates Smart & Scalable digital facilities for our customers. Our network of highly connected, resilient and sustainable data center campuses underpins our customers’ digital growth in Europe.

DATA4 Group finances, designs, constructs and operates its own data centers. Delivered through our data center campus model, we provide our customers with secure, scalable and high-performance data hosting solutions.

DATA4 VALUES

At DATA4 we are driven by our values. These are the core of everything we do – from the proactivity we show in delivering great outcomes for our clients, to the responsibility we show as a key contributor to the digital economy. Our three values are:

1. To be entrepreneurial – we are teams of doers who make things happen - with autonomy, energy and a sense of responsibility
2. To always take responsibility – for our impact on the people we work with, the society we are part of, and the environment in which we operate
3. To constantly be adaptable – our business is designed to adapt, answering not only today’s challenges, but also anticipating what’s coming next.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Design Manager is accountable for the end-to-end design of data centres and campus infrastructure projects, ensuring solutions meet Data4’s design standards, customer requirements, programme constraints, and Data4 quality and performance standards. The role owns the campus design delivery. The role owns the cross organizational design quality, acting as the technical authority across key disciplines (CSA, MEP, controls, networks, and power substation), and drives design decisions that balance technical performance, economics, schedule, and supply chain availability.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Lead design delivery: Own high-level, low-level, and campus masterplanning design.

Act as technical authority: Provide product implementation expertise across CSA, MEP, controls, networks, and power substations.

Client: Interface with the Client during the sales cycle and during the delivery of the data centre.

Authorities: Lead the design permitting process, interfacing with local permitting bodies ensuring permitting constraints are met, and ultimately ensuring permits for construciton are granted.

Ensure design quality & performance:

• Guarantee Max IT capacity and SLA compliance
• Deliver efficiency targets (PUE, WUE)
• Deliver a design which meets permitting requirements
• Develop a design which is optimized to meet the Data4 and Client’s SLA performance requirements

Define and optimise technical solutions:

• Set equipment requirements with programme, delivery, and supply chain
• Optimise design to target cost metrics
• Drive modular / prefabricated design approaches

Select and validate vendors:

• Support vendor selection
• Validate technical specifications

Support constructability:

• Define construction methods
• Ensure design is buildable and aligned with delivery constraints

Coordinate commissioning readiness: Interface with commissioning requireemts to Define, review, and validate commissioning protocols are included for execution

Engage with customers & stakeholders:

• Support technical discussions, engineering reviews and the prospecting and contract negotiation stage
• Provide SME input for utility and permitting topics
• Lead techncial validation with the Client during the execution phase

Drive project alignment: Work with project controls and delivery to ensure schedule and cost adherence

REQUIREMENTS

Education and experience

• Technical Design Engineering experience (E.g. Electrical, Mechanical, Architectural, ICT, Civil/Structural Engineering)More than 5 years’ experience in data centres
• Proven experience leading multi-discipline design scopes across campus and data hall infrastructure (masterplanning through detailed design).

Technical skills

• Data centre engineering and delivery constraints: CSA / MEP design integration, Controls, networks (as relevant to DC infrastructure), and power substation interfaces
• Ability to make technical decisions based on Data4 product, Clients and site specific requirements. Coordination with SME’s as needed for specific deviations and high level expertise.
• Commissioning concepts, protocol definition and execution readiness
• Ability to define and validate equipment technical requirements, specifications and vendor submittals.
• Understanding of balanced commercial objectives of a data centre masterplanning - Ability to optimise designs against performance metrics (including PUE/WUE), MaxIT capacity, risk and speed.
• Demonstrated ability to combine technical and business skills to propose the right balance between technical specifications, cost, , speed SLAs and supply chain availability / delivery lead time.
• Cross functional management experience with a mid-size team

Behavioral skills

• Good communication skills
• Strong stakeholder management, negotiation and conflict-resolution skills
• Structured problem-solving
• Makes and owns decisions
• Rigour, and a quality-first mindset