Associate Director - Mechanical

• Cooling Plant Designs
• Fire Protection Systems
• Architectural Design
• Liquid Cooling

At Springtide, we listen, understand, and lean into complex challenges to unlock new solutions and realize opportunities with our partners. Distinguished by our agility, creativity, expertise, and owner’s perspective, we deliver faster time-to-market and longer-lasting value, enabling you to do more. We are seeking an Associate Director - Mechanical for the UK.

The Associate Director – Mechanical Engineering supports the Technical Director – Mechanical Design with the utilisation, growth, and development of professionals within the Mechanical Engineering discipline across Springtide's European data centre portfolio. This includes Mechanical Engineers, HVAC Engineers, Public Health Engineers, Sustainability Engineers, Building Physics Engineers, , and Mission-Critical Mechanical Subject Matter Experts.

The Associate Director provides technical leadership, governance, and oversight for all mechanical systems associated with mission-critical facilities, ensuring that designs achieve the highest standards of resilience, efficiency, maintainability, sustainability, and operational performance.

As the senior mechanical authority within the organisation, the Associate Director establishes discipline standards, provides strategic direction, ensures technical excellence, and supports project delivery across multiple clients, regions, and engineering teams.

The Associate Director – Mechanical Engineering Shall:

• Be accountable for the Mechanical Engineering discipline.
• Ensure consistent, high-quality deliverables through QA/QC reviews, technical audits, and discipline governance.
• Support business development with technical input, proposal content, scope development, and work-hour estimating.
• Possess deep technical expertise in mission-critical cooling systems, HVAC infrastructure, public health systems, energy efficiency, sustainable design, and thermal resilience.
• Support strategic initiatives related to sustainability, energy optimisation, heat reuse, low-carbon design, and water conservation.
• Act as the technical authority for mechanical systems supporting hyperscale, colocation, enterprise, and critical infrastructure facilities.
• Ennsure alignment with international standards, local regulatory requirements, client standards, and industry best practices.

Key Responsibilities

Discipline Leadership & Governance

• Coordinate with Regional Senior Directors, Technical Directors, Project Managers, and Proposal Managers to understand project scope, programme requirements, resource demands, and mechanical deliverables.
• Assign appropriate engineering resources to deliver cost-effective and technically robust solutions.
• Define mechanical engineering design standards, design philosophies, and discipline procedures.
• Utilise the outputs from engineering tools including computational fluid dynamics, transient flow network modelling, and thermal modelling in order to inform and deliver right-first-time mechanical designs and design standards.
• Collaborate with senior leadership to establish governance frameworks for mechanical engineering delivery.
• Ensure quality, consistency, compliance, and technical excellence across all mechanical engineering deliverables.
• Lead Mechanical Engineering Communities of Practice to drive continuous improvement and standardisation.
• Liaise with global discipline leaders to ensure consistency in engineering approaches, design methodologies, and technical standards.

Technical Leadership

Act As The Technical Lead For:

• Critical Cooling Systems
• HVAC Systems
• Chilled Water Systems
• Direct Expansion (DX) Systems
• Air Handling Systems
• Evaporative and Adiabatic Cooling Systems
• Thermal Energy Storage
• Public Health Systems
• Fuel Oil Systems
• Water Treatment Systems
• Heat Rejection Systems

Sustainable Mechanical Infrastructure

• Developing enterprise mechanical engineering standards for mission-critical facilities.
• Reviewing and approving mechanical concepts, calculations, thermal models, and engineering strategies.
• Establishing design criteria for resilience, maintainability, operational efficiency, redundancy, and sustainability.
• Supporting innovation and adoption of emerging cooling technologies.

Design Oversight

Provide Expert Review And Approval For:

• Basis of Design (BOD) documents
• Mechanical Design Reports
• Cooling Plant Designs
• CFD and Thermal Modelling Studies
• Equipment Selection Reports
• Hydronic System Designs
• Mechanical Schematics and P&IDs
• Public Health Designs
• Sustainability Assessments
• Energy Efficiency Studies

Ensure Coordinated Integration Between:

• Mechanical Systems
• Electrical Infrastructure
• Control Systems
• Fire Protection Systems
• Architectural Design
• Structural Design
• Digital Delivery Platforms
• Commissioning Programmes
• Sustainability & Innovation

Develop And Implement Strategic Initiatives Focused On:

• Low Carbon Design
• Net-Zero Data Centre Strategies
• Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE)
• Energy Usage Effectiveness (PUE)
• Heat Recovery Systems
• Alternative Cooling Technologies
• Sustainable Refrigerant Strategies
• AI-Assisted Energy Optimisation

Support the evaluation and deployment of innovative cooling technologies including:

• Liquid Cooling
• Immersion Cooling
• Rear Door Heat Exchangers
• Direct-to-Chip Cooling
• High Efficiency Cooling Architectures
• Drive adoption of sustainable engineering solutions across the business.

Business Development

• Support bids and proposals through technical leadership and strategic input.
• Estimate and continuously manage work-hours and resource requirements for mechanical engineering activities.
• Participate in client meetings, workshops, design reviews, and solution development.
• Support development of new service offerings related to sustainability, energy optimisation, and mechanical engineering consultancy.
• Act as a senior technical representative during business development activities.

Contractor, Vendor & Consultant Management

• Provide technical oversight of mechanical contractors, consultants, and specialist vendors.
• Review vendor designs, calculations, equipment selections, and technical submissions.
• Support procurement activities through technical evaluations and vendor selection processes.
• Ensure consistency and compliance across projects and delivery partners.
• Provide technical leadership for outsourced engineering activities and specialist consultant engagement.

Support Commissioning Activities Including:

• Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT)
• Site Acceptance Testing (SAT)
• Integrated Systems Testing (IST)
• Functional Performance Testing (FPT)
• Reliability Validation Testing
• Seasonal Commissioning Reviews

Operational Readiness Assessments

• Systems perform reliably under normal and failure conditions.
• Cooling resilience and redundancy objectives are achieved.
• Client operational requirements are fully met.
• Effective transition from design through construction, commissioning, and live operations.

Quality, Compliance & Risk Management

• ASHRAE Guidelines
• CIBSE Standards
• EN Standards
• ISO Standards
• Building Regulations
• Local European Authority Requirements
• Uptime Institute Methodologies

Client Design Standards

• Leading discipline QA/QC reviews.
• Conducting technical audits.
• Establishing lessons learned procedures.
• Driving continual improvement initiatives.
• Supporting engineering risk management and resilience assessments.

Talent Development & Leadership

• Lead and manage

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