Design & Engineering Standards Lead (m/f/d)

Shape the future of design standards for mission-critical infrastructure. We are looking for an experienced EMEA Design & Engineering Standards Lead to own and evolve regional Design, Engineering and Construction standards across our new-build data centre developments in EMEA. This is a senior individual contributor role within the Design, Engineering & Construction function, working closely with regional and global design and engineering teams to assist in technical consistency, change management, quality, and continuous improvement across the portfolio.

You will act as a subject matter expert for design standards, providing technical guidance, reviewing design deliverables, and helping ensure that projects are delivered in line with global standards, customer expectations, safety requirements, and commercial objectives as well as driving EMEA standards updates and improvements.

Your Role

• Own, manage, and continuously update the Regional Design Engineering Guidelines in close collaboration with global and regional design teams.
• Review and QA/QC design deliverables across regional projects to ensure compliance with design standards, engineering guidelines, and business requirements.
• Act as a subject matter expert for design reviews, providing technical guidance and responding to design escalations from project teams.
• Attend design page turn meetings, identify inconsistencies or missing information, and support the close‑out of design actions.
• Chair regional design knowledge‑share sessions and technical discussions to drive alignment and best practice across teams.
• Support the tracking and approval of design deviations against baseline standards and provide feedback into the global design standards change process.
• Engage with consultants, contractors, vendors, and internal stakeholders to improve design management and delivery across CSA and MEPH disciplines.
• Represent the business in design‑related forums, supplier discussions, and technical conversations with external partners.

Your impact

• Help shape the next generation of regional data center design standards.
• Ensure design solutions support safety, quality, operational excellence, cost efficiency, and schedule performance.
• Provide technical input across projects that directly influence regional development delivery.
• Drive continuous improvement by identifying lessons learned, design risks, quality issues, and opportunities for innovation.
• Support collaboration between Design, Construction, Operations, Sales Engineering, consultants, vendors, and wider business functions.

What you bring

• 10+ years of experience in data center design, ideally within a multi-disciplinary design environment.
• Strong technical background in CSA and/or MEPH disciplines, with a solid understanding of design, construction, and commissioning interfaces.
• Experience supporting or delivering multiple large‑scale developments, preferably in mission‑critical or highly technical environments.
• Strong understanding of design governance, engineering standards, change control, and consultant or contractor interfaces.
• Confidence explaining and defending technical design decisions to customers, contractors, consultants, and senior stakeholders.
• Ability to communicate complex technical topics clearly to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence, challenge constructively, and resolve competing priorities across cost, quality, risk, and schedule.
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Architecture, Construction Management, or equivalent relevant experience; chartered status would be an advantage.

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 make your mark on our future.