Director, Data Center Design & Engineering – Digital Infrastructure

Invenergy•Chicago, IL

6d•$215,000 - $255,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Invenergy is seeking a Director, Data Center Design & Engineering to serve as a senior owner-side design and engineering leader for projects within its Digital Infrastructure business line. The role spans data center projects from early development and conceptual design through detailed engineering, construction support, commissioning, and turnover. Invenergy primarily delivers design and construction through external architects and engineers, general contractors, commissioning providers, equipment manufacturers, and specialty consultants; this is not a self-perform design role. The Director will set technical requirements, direct and challenge external partners, lead key technical decisions, and ensure projects meet standards for reliability, scalability, constructability, cost, schedule, efficiency, and long-term operability. Projects may include individual facilities or multi-building campuses, greenfield or adaptive-reuse developments, and capacity ranging from tens of megawatts to campuses of hundreds of megawatts. The successful candidate will have deep expertise in either electrical or mechanical mission-critical systems and the ability to lead integrated MEP design across both disciplines. They will challenge engineering assumptions, identify system-level risks and interfaces, translate customer requirements into executable design criteria, and make clear owner-side technical decisions. The Director will help establish the technical foundation of Invenergy's growing data center platform, including design standards, Basis of Design requirements, engineering governance, reference architectures, and repeatable technical products. Invenergy follows a hybrid schedule, working in the office Monday through Thursday and remotely on Fridays if work permits. The role requires travel to project sites, engineering partners, manufacturers, and other locations as needed.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related engineering discipline.
12+ years of progressive engineering experience, including at least 5 years of direct data center design and engineering experience.
Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary MEP design for large, technically complex data center projects.
Deep technical expertise in either electrical or mechanical mission-critical systems, with demonstrated ability to lead integrated MEP design across both disciplines.
Experience developing, reviewing, or managing Basis of Design documents, owner's project requirements, design criteria, technical specifications, engineering standards, and multidisciplinary design packages.
Strong understanding of data center reliability and redundancy architectures, including N, N+1, distributed redundant, and 2N, and the associated availability, maintainability, cost, efficiency, and operational-complexity tradeoffs.
Experience directing and challenging external architects, engineering firms, specialty consultants, commissioning providers, and equipment manufacturers in an owner, developer, operator, hyperscaler, or comparable environment.
Ability to evaluate technical alternatives considering reliability, cost, schedule, constructability, equipment lead times, efficiency, maintainability, and lifecycle performance.
Strong leadership, judgment, and communication skills, including the ability to influence multidisciplinary teams and present complex technical recommendations clearly to senior and executive leadership.
Ability and willingness to travel to project sites, engineering partners, manufacturers, and other locations as required.
Eligible to work in the United States without the need for employer visa sponsorship now or in the future.

Nice To Haves

Professional Engineer (PE) license.
Experience working for or with a hyperscale cloud provider, colocation provider, data center developer/operator, major mission-critical AEC firm, EPC organization, or technology company.
Experience with large-scale hyperscale, wholesale colocation, AI/HPC, or multi-building data center campus projects.
Experience with advanced cooling technologies, including direct-to-chip liquid cooling, CDUs, high-density thermal-management systems, and evolving heat-rejection strategies.
Experience with high-voltage and medium-voltage utility interfaces, campus substations, and large-scale electrical infrastructure.
Experience developing standardized data center designs, modular systems, reference architectures, or portfolio-level engineering standards.
Working knowledge of applicable data center codes, standards, and industry guidance, including NFPA, NEC, ASHRAE, IEEE, applicable building and mechanical codes, and relevant data center reliability practices.

Responsibilities

Serve as senior owner-side design and engineering leader for assigned projects from site evaluation and concept development through detailed design, construction support, commissioning, and turnover.
Direct external AEC firms, MEP engineers, specialty consultants, commissioning providers, and equipment manufacturers; establish technical requirements, deliverables, accountability, and decision pathways.
Establish and maintain Basis of Design documents, owner's project requirements, design criteria, technical specifications, engineering standards, reference architectures, and design-review processes.
Lead owner-side technical integration across electrical, mechanical, controls, plumbing, fire/life-safety, and other mission-critical systems, coordinating with architecture, civil, structural, telecommunications, security, utilities, construction, and operations.
Lead design decisions involving power and cooling architectures, redundancy, reliability, maintainability, controls, scalability, efficiency, constructability, equipment strategy, and lifecycle performance.
Translate customer and tenant technical requirements into project-specific design criteria while maintaining appropriate standardization, repeatability, portfolio scalability, and commercial discipline.
Develop scalable reference designs and technical product standards that balance customer flexibility, repeatability, speed-to-market, cost discipline, reliability, and constructability.
Apply mission-critical infrastructure expertise to challenge design assumptions, identify system interfaces and technical risks, and determine when specialized analysis or subject-matter expertise is needed.
Lead structured technical reviews at key project stages and resolve material design issues before they affect procurement, construction, commissioning, or customer commitments.
Partner with Development during early project evaluation to assess technical feasibility, utility interfaces, cooling and water strategies, site constraints, phasing, scalability, constructability, and major technical risks.
Partner with Construction and the Senior Technical Program Manager to ensure designs are executable, coordinated, aligned with procurement and schedule needs, and responsive to field conditions.
Evaluate technical alternatives based on reliability, CAPEX, schedule, equipment availability, constructability, energy and water performance, operational complexity, maintainability, and lifecycle value.
Establish the technical framework for commissioning and integrated systems testing, ensuring design intent, performance requirements, controls sequences, failure-mode expectations, and acceptance criteria are defined and validated before turnover.
Monitor evolving customer requirements and data center technologies, including AI/HPC, high-density compute, liquid cooling, advanced power architectures, modularization, prefabrication, and changing rack densities; incorporate relevant developments into standards and product strategy.
Provide concise, decision-oriented recommendations to senior leadership, translating complex technical issues into the issue, business impact, alternatives, recommended path, and decision required.