VP Engineering

Vantage Data Centers powers, cools, protects and connects the technology of the world’s well-known hyperscalers, cloud providers and large enterprises. Developing and operating across North America, EMEA and Asia Pacific, Vantage has evolved data center design in innovative ways to deliver dramatic gains in reliability, efficiency and sustainability in flexible environments that can scale as quickly as the market demands.

The Vice President, Mission Critical Engineering – EMEA is the senior technical authority responsible for engineering design integrity, performance assurance, and technical design platform compliance across the EMEA data centre portfolio. Reporting to the CTO EMEA, this role leads Mission Critical Engineering (MCE) as the function accountable for defining, leading, validating, and protecting engineering intent across all projects and product deployments. The role ensures that all engineering solutions are technically correct, regulatorily defensible, aligned with platform standards, and capable of delivering the required levels of reliability, scalability, and performance.

This role governs what is built and why, ensuring that engineering decisions are robust, consistent, and aligned to both global product direction and regional constraints. It operates in clear partnership with Design Quality, Commissioning and Management, which govern how the design is delivered, and with Delivery and Operations, which execute and operate the assets. The Vice President is responsible for ensuring that engineering design remains a controlled, disciplined, and value-adding function — preventing performance erosion, unmanaged deviation, and inconsistency across the EMEA portfolio.

The purpose of this role is to act as the technical guardian of engineering intent across EMEA by:

• Defining and governing mission-critical engineering standards and technical direction
• Owning the engineering philosophy, system topology, and performance envelope across all developments
• Ensuring all project designs delivered through VDC Design Partners are technically sound, permit-compliant, and aligned with product platform standards
• Leading engineering assurance through concept, design, and pre-construction phases
• Establishing and enforcing formal design freeze and performance control mechanisms
• Preventing degradation of engineering integrity through uncontrolled change or delivery pressures
• Embedding engineering consistency, repeatability, and platform discipline across all markets
• Supporting delivery and operations through structured technical authority at key intervention points
• Leading Centre of Excellence Teams responsible for driving technical OFCI EMEA product updates and improving on BCO and TCO targets
• Driving Value Engineering delivery, and operations through structured technical authority at key intervention points

Key Responsibilities

• Define and lead the mission-critical engineering strategy for EMEA, aligned with the CTO EMEA and global product direction
• Establish engineering as a strategic control point for performance, reliability, scalability, and product consistency
• Translate global product frameworks into executable regional engineering standards, reflecting local regulatory, environmental, and power constraints
• Ensure engineering decisions support long-term asset performance, customer requirements, and commercial outcomes
• Act as the senior engineering authority within EMEA leadership discussions and strategic decision-making

• Serve as the final technical authority for mission-critical engineering across EMEA
• Establish and enforce clear technical governance, decision rights, and escalation pathways
• Ensure all engineering decisions are made with appropriate rigour, cross-functional input, and documented justification
• Lead engineering assurance across all major design decisions, including topology selection, redundancy philosophy, and system integration
• Govern deviations, ensuring any departure from standards is controlled, justified, and approved at the appropriate level
• Maintain discipline in engineering reviews, approvals, and technical sign-off processes

• Own the engineering philosophy, system architecture, and performance criteria for all developments
• Define and validate:
• Electrical and mechanical topology
• Redundancy strategy
• Protection philosophy
• Cooling architecture
• Availability model
• Ensure all engineering designs are supported by robust modelling and analysis, including:
• Short circuit and fault level studies
• Harmonic analysis
• Availability modelling
• Thermal and CFD modelling
• Ensure designs are regulatorily defensible and aligned with planning, environmental, and permitting requirements
• Lead identification and mitigation of technical risks from early-stage development through design completion
• Challenge consultants and internal teams to ensure technical robustness and alignment with standards

• Own and enforce formal design intent freeze, ensuring that:
• Basis of Design is clearly defined and approved
• Performance criteria are locked
• Interfaces and system boundaries are understood
• Key vendor selections are technically validated
• Ensure that post-freeze changes are tightly controlled and assessed for impact on performance, compliance, and risk
• Prevent erosion of engineering integrity through uncontrolled value engineering or late-stage design changes
• Define escalation pathways for performance-impacting decisions

• Protect and enforce engineering alignment with the EMEA product platform and global product strategy
• Ensure engineering supports modular, repeatable, and scalable data centre solutions
• Drive standardisation across systems, components, and design approaches to improve consistency and delivery efficiency
• Manage the balance between standardisation and necessary regional adaptation
• Ensure engineering decisions support product integrity, cost efficiency, and delivery repeatability

• Ensure engineering is fully aligned with how projects are procured, packaged, and delivered
• Provide technical authority over key engineering decisions impacting:
• DfMA and prefabrication strategies
• Equipment selection and integration
• Constructability and sequencing
• Support validation of vendor technical solutions and ensure alignment with performance requirements
• Ensure engineering decisions do not compromise delivery efficiency, programme certainty, or buildability
• Act as the escalation point for performance-impacting issues arising during procurement or construction

• Provide targeted technical oversight during construction and commissioning phases
• Intervene at key stages, including:
• Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT)
• System integration milestones
• Commissioning readiness
• Major technical variations
• Ensure that delivered systems remain aligned with original engineering intent and performance expectations
• Approve or reject performance-impacting changes arising during construction

• Provide engineering leadership into DC power and energy strategy across EMEA
• Ensure engineering solutions align with grid constraints, utility strategies, and power availability realities
• Support engineering input into site selection, capacity planning, and resilience strategy
• Ensure designs are aligned with evolving power density requirements, including high-density and AI-driven loads
• Contribute to development of energy-aware engineering solutions that balance performance, resilience, and efficiency

• Own engineering-related risk identification, mitigation, and control across the portfolio
• Ensure compliance with all relevant engineering codes, standards, and regulatory requirements
• Maintain control over technical risks associated with design decisions, system integration, and performance outcomes
• Ensure lessons learned from incidents, operational performance, and project delivery are embedded into standards and future designs
• Prevent systemic risks arising from design inconsistency or uncontrolled change

• Act as the senior engineering interface with internal and external stakeholders
• Provide CTO approved technical support to:
• Customer Solutions Engineering
• Sales
• Development
• Product
• Design Management
• Procurement
• Energy
• Delivery
• Operations
• Support customer engagement, technical reviews, and strategic discussions where engineering credibility is required
• Ensure alignment between engineering decisions and broader business objectives

• Lead and develop a high-performing, multidisciplinary engineering organisation across EMEA
• Build strong technical capability across mechanical, electrical, fire, ICT, and security engineering disciplines
• Establish clear roles, responsibilities, and accountability within the MCE function
• Develop succession planning and leadership capability within the engineering team
• Foster a culture of technical excellence, accountability, and disciplined decision-making

Required Experience and Qualifications

• Extensive senior leadership experience in mission-critical engineering, data centres, or comparable critical infrastructure environments (nominal 10+ years)
• Proven experience acting as technical authority across multidisciplinary engineering systems
• Deep expertise in electrical and mechanical systems, with strong understanding of fire, ICT, and security engineering
• Demonstrated experience in engineering governance, design assurance, and performance validation
• Experience working across multiple countries and regulatory environments within EMEA
• Strong understanding of engineering modelling, system integration, and performance validation methodologies
• Experience supporting large-scale capital projects and complex infrastructure delivery
• Ability to operate effectively within a matrix organisation and influence across functions
• Strong commercial awareness and ability to balance technical integrity with business objectives
• Degree-qualified in either Mechanical or Electrical Engineering or a related field; chartered status essential.

The successful candidate will demonstrate:

• Clear and decisive technical judgement
• Strong ownership of engineering outcomes and accountability
• Ability to operate at both strategic and detailed technical levels
• A disciplined, structured approach to decision-making and governance
• The ability to challenge constructively and maintain engineering integrity under pressure
• Strong collaboration across engineering, product, delivery, and operations

Success in this role will be demonstrated through:

• Consistent, high-quality engineering standards across all EMEA projects
• Strong control of design integrity and reduction of late-stage engineering issues
• Effective design freeze and change control discipline
• Improved alignment between engineering, product, and delivery
• Reduced technical risk and increased reliability across the portfolio
• Improved repeatability and scalability of engineering solutions
• Strong leadership capability and development within the engineering team

This role is a key member of the EMEA CTO leadership team and plays a central role in shaping the engineering foundation of the organisation’s product platform, delivery model, and long-term infrastructure strategy.

Vantage Data Centers does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firm agencies. Fees will not be paid in the event a candidate submitted by a recruiter without an agreement in place is hired; such resumes will be deemed the sole property of Vantage Data Centers.

We operate with No Ego and No Arrogance. We work to build each other up and support one another, appreciating each other’s strengths and respecting each other’s weaknesses. We find joy in our work and each other, actively seeking opportunities to inject fun into what we do. Our hard and efficient work is rewarded with an above market total compensation package. We offer a comprehensive suite of health and welfare, retirement, and paid leave benefits exceeding local expectations.

Throughout the year, the advantage of being part of the Vantage team is evident with an array of benefits, recognition, training and development, and the knowledge that your contribution adds value to the company and our community.

Don't meet all the requirements? Please still apply if you think you are the right person for the position. We are always keen to speak to people who connect with our mission and values.

Vantage Data Centers is an Equal Opportunity Employer.