Director, Design Engineering - DC Development (m/f/d)

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Job Description

Shape the future of mission-critical infrastructure

We are looking for an experienced Design Director to lead the technical delivery of complex, high-performance data center projects across our portfolio. This is a highly influential role at the intersection of design, engineering, construction, and operations-owning design decisions from project inception through commissioning and handover.

You will act as the single authority for all design matters, driving technical excellence, standardization, and innovation while ensuring projects are delivered safely, on time, and within budget.

Your Role

As Design Director, you will operate with significant autonomy and strategic impact:

• Lead project design set-up and delivery, coordinating multi-disciplinary CSA and MEPH consultant teams
• Own the technical governance of projects, ensuring compliance with global and regional Design Engineering Guidelines (DEGs)
• Manage consultant procurement, appointments, performance, and budgets
• Act as the primary technical partner to Construction, Pre-Construction, Portfolio, Sales, and Operations teams
• Serve as the technical authority throughout construction, commissioning, IST, and handover
• Engage directly with customers on Build-to-Suit developments as the senior design lead
• Champion standardization, innovation, and continuous improvement, including BIM, DfMA, and emerging technologies
• Represent design in discussions with authorities, utilities, insurers, vendors, and Tier 1 contractors

Your impact

• Influence multi-million-euro projects from concept to live operations
• Shape and evolve regional and global design standards
• Ensure design decisions balance performance, cost, risk, sustainability, and schedule
• Play a visible role with senior internal stakeholders and key customers

What you bring

• 10-15+ years delivering mission-critical or highly serviced buildings (data centers strongly preferred)
• Strong technical background in CSA and/or MEPH (consultancy, commissioning, or owner-operator experience ideal)
• Proven experience managing complex stakeholder environments and external consultants
• Confidence operating at Director level, defending design decisions and influencing senior leaders
• Deep understanding of full project lifecycle: planning, design, permitting, construction, commissioning & IST
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or Architecture (Master's / Chartered status preferred)

A bit about us

Digital Realty is the leading provider of carrier and cloud neutral data centre services by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL®, the company's global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data meeting place and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx™) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected data communities that matter to them with a global data center footprint of 300+ facilities in 50+ metros across 28 countries on 6 continents. We've 3,500+ colleagues around the world who work together, come up with life-changing solutions and create connections that matter every day.

What we can offer you

Our rapidly evolving business sector offers the opportunity to be part of a courageous and passionate team who work together to understand and meet the changing needs of our global customers. Join us and you'll be part of a supportive and inclusive environment where you can bring your whole self to work. As part of our team, you'll get to work with people from different business areas, challenge the way we do things and put your ideas into action. We'll also give you plenty of development opportunities so you can build a rewarding and successful career with us. This is an exciting time to join our business so apply now and make your mark on our future.