Data Center Design Lead Electrical

Mott MacDonald•The Woodlands, TX

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

At Mott MacDonald, we trust our brilliant people to do brilliant things in engineering, management, and development services, supporting multisector project work in over 150 countries. As one of the largest employee-owned companies in the world, we pride ourselves on our ability to deliver exceptional outcomes through our network of 20,000+ talented consultants. With sustainability and innovation at the heart of all our sectors in North America, including, Buildings, Energy, Transportation, and Water. We believe in empowering our people to excel, learn, and grow, offering diverse opportunities to contribute to career-defining work. Join us and be part of a collaborative environment where your ambitions are united with ours, and you can truly shape your story. If you share that vision, even if you don’t meet every requirement listed, we’d still love to hear from you. We value potential and diverse perspectives as much as experience. Let’s explore how we can support your growth and help you take the next step in your career, while contributing to an exciting new chapter for Mott MacDonald in North America. We are seeking a Data Center Electrical Design Lead to provide senior technical leadership for the electrical design of large-scale data center and mission-critical infrastructure projects across North America. This role will support the growth of our Data Center practice by leading electrical design strategy, technical governance, project delivery, client engagement, and capability development across hyperscale, cloud, AI, colocation, enterprise, and mission-critical environments. The successful candidate will bring deep, dedicated data center electrical design expertise, including critical power distribution, utility coordination, medium-voltage and low-voltage systems, UPS, generators, switchgear, substations, grounding, power quality, redundancy, capacity planning, commissioning, and operational resilience. The role requires a leader who understands the complexity of mission-critical electrical infrastructure and can translate client objectives into reliable, scalable, efficient, and constructable design solutions. Working closely with mechanical, structural, architectural, civil, telecoms, commissioning, construction, utility, commercial, and global delivery teams, the Electrical Design Lead will provide senior technical direction, support strategic pursuits, improve delivery standards, mentor teams, and help establish a market-leading electrical capability within the North American Data Center practice.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Power Engineering, Architectural Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
Professional Engineer, Chartered Engineer, or equivalent professional registration preferred.
20+ years experience leading electrical design for data center, mission-critical, utility, industrial, semiconductor, advanced manufacturing, or complex infrastructure projects.
Demonstrated experience working on data center projects as a primary technical focus, ideally across hyperscale, cloud, AI, colocation, or enterprise environments.
Strong understanding of critical power systems, utility interconnections, substations, medium-voltage and low-voltage distribution, UPS systems, generators, switchgear, redundancy, load growth, and power quality.
Experience designing for high-density compute, AI infrastructure, concurrent maintainability, phased campus deployment, commissioning, and 24/7 operational resilience.
Knowledge of applicable North American electrical codes, NFPA requirements, energy standards, grounding requirements, utility standards, and mission-critical design practices.
Familiarity with electrical studies, including load flow, short circuit, protection coordination, arc flash, grounding, and reliability analysis.
Experience coordinating with utilities, equipment vendors, contractors, commissioning agents, and multidisciplinary design teams.
Strong familiarity with BIM, digital delivery, model coordination, equipment layout, electrical room planning, and interdisciplinary design reviews.
Proven ability to review and approve technical deliverables, manage electrical design risk, and lead quality processes across complex programs.
Strong client-facing capability, including proposals, interviews, workshops, technical reviews, and executive-level design discussions.
Experience mentoring engineers, growing teams, supporting recruitment, and building electrical design capability.
Excellent communication, commercial awareness, leadership judgement, and stakeholder management skills.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with Uptime Institute Tier Standards, TIA-942, LEED, ASHRAE, commissioning requirements, and operational performance metrics preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead electrical design strategy for major data center projects across North America, including hyperscale, cloud, AI, colocation, enterprise, and mission-critical facilities.
Provide technical leadership from site feasibility and utility planning through concept design, detailed engineering, construction support, commissioning, and operational handover.
Develop resilient and scalable electrical architectures that support uptime, redundancy, maintainability, energy efficiency, phasing, speed-to-market, and long-term operational performance.
Lead the design and review of utility interconnections, substations, medium-voltage distribution, low-voltage distribution, switchgear, transformers, UPS systems, generators, fuel systems interface, busways, grounding, lightning protection, power monitoring, and emergency power systems.
Support AI-ready and high-density data center environments through capacity planning, power density strategy, redundancy modelling, load growth analysis, and coordination with cooling infrastructure.
Coordinate closely with utilities, owners, developers, construction teams, procurement teams, and equipment vendors to address power availability, long-lead equipment, grid constraints, phasing, and energization strategy.
Partner with mechanical, architectural, structural, civil, telecoms, controls, fire protection, commissioning, and operations teams to ensure fully integrated design solutions.
Provide senior technical oversight for load studies, fault current studies, arc flash studies, coordination studies, design narratives, drawings, specifications, equipment selections, and quality reviews.
Support major pursuits, client interviews, proposal development, technical presentations, and strategic account growth as a senior electrical subject matter expert.
Establish and improve electrical design standards, technical governance, drawing and specification templates, QA/QC processes, lessons learned, and delivery workflows.
Collaborate with commissioning and operations teams to ensure designs are safe, testable, maintainable, and aligned with operational requirements.
Mentor electrical engineers and design managers, supporting technical development, leadership capability, recruitment, and succession planning.
Coordinate with global delivery teams to ensure consistent quality, efficient production, and alignment with North American codes, standards, and client requirements.
Stay current with emerging trends in AI infrastructure, grid constraints, distributed energy resources, battery energy storage, microgrids, low-carbon power, digital substations, and mission-critical electrical systems.
Represent the organization with clients, utilities, partners, and industry stakeholders as a senior electrical design leader.