Head of Project Engineering in London

The Head of Project Engineering owns the technical engineering function behind Volta’s AI Factory build-outs — the design, review, and delivery oversight that takes a site from powered land to live, operational compute. You will lead the engineering discipline across civil, electrical, and mechanical scope, working closely with EPC contractors, architects, and equipment vendors to make sure every site is engineered to Volta’s standards and delivered on time. This is a senior technical leadership role at the centre of Volta’s build programme: you will set engineering standards that apply consistently across the fleet, own technical risk through design and construction, and build the team and processes that let Volta scale site delivery without compromising quality or safety.

What You Will Be Doing

• Own technical engineering oversight for Volta’s data centre and AI Factory build-outs, across civil, electrical, mechanical, and controls scope.
• Lead design review and approval processes, ensuring engineering deliverables from architects, EPC contractors, and vendors meet Volta’s technical standards.
• Define and maintain fleet-wide engineering standards and reference designs, applied consistently across sites and jurisdictions.
• Manage technical risk through the project lifecycle — from concept design through construction, commissioning, and handover to operations.
• Lead, develop and grow a team of project engineers embedded across active build sites.
• Partner with delivery, procurement, and site leadership to align engineering decisions with cost, schedule, and capacity targets.
• Own technical due diligence and value engineering input during site selection and early design phases.
• Coordinate with equipment vendors (power, cooling, GPU infrastructure) to ensure design compatibility and performance requirements are met.
• Lead root-cause investigation for technical issues arising during construction or commissioning, and drive fixes back into standards.
• Ensure designs and construction meet applicable codes, safety requirements, and permitting conditions across jurisdictions.

What You Bring

• Significant experience in project or design engineering for large-scale infrastructure, data centre, or industrial/energy projects.
• Track record leading engineering teams through the full project lifecycle — design, construction, and commissioning.
• Strong technical grounding across civil, electrical, and/or mechanical engineering disciplines relevant to critical infrastructure or data centre facilities.
• Experience managing EPC contractors, architects, and equipment vendors, including technical review and approval processes.
• Comfortable owning engineering standards and technical risk across multiple concurrent, fast-moving projects.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, able to align engineering decisions with commercial and schedule priorities.
• Chartered engineer status or equivalent professional qualification is an advantage.

Nice to Have

• Experience specifically in data centre or mission-critical facility design and delivery.
• Familiarity with high-density power and cooling requirements for GPU/AI compute infrastructure.
• Background working across multiple jurisdictions (UK, US, Nordics, or similar).
• Experience building or scaling a project engineering function from an early stage.