Design Manager, NA

Vantage Data Centers • Atlanta, GA

2d • $145,000 - $155,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Design Manager champions design quality, value engineering, risk mitigation, commissioning readiness, and seamless handoff to construction and operations, while upholding hyperscaler customer expectations for uptime, resiliency, speed to delivery, and total cost of ownership (TCO). The Design Manager serves as the central link between New Site Development, Product, Engineering, and Construction teams, driving the design process from early concept through project handover. This role ensures that every design decision reflects customer, stakeholder, and operational needs—captured, evaluated, and translated into contract documents that enable predictable, high-quality delivery. Design Managers combine technical acumen, stakeholder fluency, and process discipline to create a repeatable, high-performing design function that balances innovation, standardization, and speed to market.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Architecture, Construction Management, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline (or equivalent experience).
• 8–15+ years of experience delivering mission-critical facilities, hyperscale data centers, colocation campuses, or large-scale industrial infrastructure projects.
• Proven experience leading the design, construction, commissioning, integrated systems testing (IST), and operational turnover of complex infrastructure projects.
• Demonstrated technical leadership across MEP systems, redundancy strategies, constructability reviews, and cross-functional project execution.
• Experience delivering multi-MW greenfield developments, live-site expansions, hyperscale campuses, or other large-scale critical infrastructure programs.
• Strong working knowledge of electrical and mechanical infrastructure systems including UPS, generators, switchgear, MV/LV distribution, busway, chillers, CRAH/CRAC systems, and associated controls.
• Strong project and program management skills with responsibility for scope, schedule, budget, risk, quality, and operational readiness.
• Proven ability to manage consultants, vendors, contractors, and internal stakeholders across multiple concurrent projects.
• Strong executive communication, stakeholder alignment, and cross-functional leadership capabilities.
• Experience developing processes, driving organizational change, and implementing scalable project delivery standards.
• Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities, resolve ambiguity, and make sound decisions in fast-paced environments.
• Experience with project controls, KPI reporting, forecasting, risk management, and data-driven decision making.
• Familiarity with BIM and coordination platforms such as Revit, Navisworks, AutoCAD, and Bluebeam.
• Experience utilizing project management and scheduling tools such as Procore, Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, Asana, ClickUp, or similar platforms.
• Strong understanding of commissioning processes, integrated systems testing, operational handoff, and owner turnover requirements.
• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to handle, or feel objects; reach with hands and arms; climb stairs; balance; stoop or kneel; talk and hear.
• The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with BIM and coordination platforms such as Revit, Navisworks, AutoCAD, and Bluebeam.
• Experience utilizing project management and scheduling tools such as Procore, Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, Asana, ClickUp, or similar platforms.
• Strong understanding of commissioning processes, integrated systems testing, operational handoff, and owner turnover requirements.

Responsibilities

• Act as the connective hub coordinating all design-related communication, milestones, and deliverables across Development, Engineering, Construction, and Operations.
• Drive product standardization efforts in collaboration with the Product and Engineering teams, ensuring design solutions are both optimized and scalable.
• Represent Design Management in project governance, risk reviews, and executive updates, providing data-backed insight into performance and decision-making.
• Collaborate with Construction, Procurement, Telecom, Security, Controls, Commissioning, and Operations teams
• Manage RFI resolution, design clarifications, change controls, drawing revisions, and design risk escalations
• Lead concept → schematic → design development → IFC (Issued for Construction) design phases for hyperscale campuses (50–500+ MW portfolios)
• Lead external architect and consultant teams, ensuring clear scope definition, performance management, and integration into internal workflows
• Oversee design milestone delivery, reporting progress against defined KPIs including cost per MW, design cycle time, and change volume
• Coordinate regional design feedback loops to improve the next generation of product and design standards
• Manage design consultants, AE firms, specialty vendors, and technical stakeholders to deliver full drawings, specifications, calculations, BIM models, and design basis documentation
• Maintain alignment with hyperscaler design standards, reference architectures, resiliency tiers, redundancy philosophies and security frameworks
• Drive modular design, repeatability, standardization, and prefabrication strategies for speed of deployment
• Identify value engineering (VE) opportunities that reduce cost, schedule, and complexity without reducing resilience
• Drive TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) metrics including PUE, WUE, power density optimization and redundancy tradeoffs
• Lead design risk assessments, mitigation planning, and quality control (QA/QC) audits
• Support sequencing, schedule planning, and cost modeling for multi-wave campus builds
• Own the development and reporting of design-related metrics and dashboards.
• Lead lessons learned and change management processes to capture insights and strengthen future project predictability
• Partner with data governance and project controls to ensure data accuracy, consistency, and traceability across the portfolio
• Implement and evolve PM tools (e.g., ClickUp) to drive visibility, efficiency, and accountability across teams.
• Promote execution strategies including prefab MEP, skids, busways, medium voltage distribution, microgrid readiness, liquid cooling enablement, and high-density design
• Validate integration for AI/ML clusters, GPU environments, and next-gen power + cooling topologies
• Ensure compliance with building codes, energy standards, safety, sustainability goals, and utility requirements

Benefits

• medical, dental, and vision coverage
• life and AD&D
• short and long-term disability coverage
• paid time off
• employee assistance
• participation in a 401k program that includes company match
• many other additional voluntary benefits
• comprehensive suite of health and welfare, retirement, and paid leave benefits exceeding local expectations.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior