Design Manager (Mechanical / Electrical Engineer) | Data Centres (MCF) - (ENG-L7.144)

• We're seeking a high-performing professional with a passion for excellence, innovation, and collaboration. You're someone who thrives in fast-paced environments, leads with purpose, and brings deep technical expertise to complex challenges. You think differently, connect meaningfully, and leave a legacy through your work.
• We have an exciting opportunity for a Design Manager to join our Data Centre team to be located in our Cape Town or Tshwane offices.
• As part of our Data Centre team, you will be a key member of the delivery team virtually designing and constructing a wide range of projects. Your experience, ability to see the greater picture, accuracy, drive for standardisation and eye for detail will assist our team to co-create an engineered impact on our clients.
• Your Design Management experience will see you heading leading dynamic project teams to co-create engineering solutions digitally.

You will bridge the gap between the various design and execution teams, ensuring that our designs are:

• Holistically delivered at high quality
• Feasible
• Within budget
• Meet client requirements

Key Role Responsibilities

End‑to‑End Design Delivery Ownership

• Own the full design lifecycle from concept to IFC, ensuring complete, coordinated, compliant, and construction‑ready outputs.
• Maintain scope clarity, design intent continuity, decision tracking, and disciplined change control.
• Drive design progress, issue resolution, and information flow to protect delivery velocity and programme certainty.
• Ensure all design packages align with client performance requirements, commercial assumptions, and procurement strategy.

Multi‑Disciplinary Integration & Technical Assurance

• Lead technical and design-side integration across Architectural, Structural, Mechanical, Electrical, CSA, OEM and specialist disciplines, ensuring system-level alignment and coherent engineering outcomes.
• Resolve technical interfaces, sequencing issues, and engineering dependencies early, ensuring functional alignment between cooling, power, structural, fire/life-safety, and architectural systems.
• Provide technical assurance by reviewing engineering assumptions, design narratives, basis of design inputs, and discipline deliverables for completeness, correctness, and alignment with project requirements.
• Collaborate with BIM Manager and BIM Coordinator on digital/model coordination activities, ensuring that BIM outputs support design intent while not performing BIM model QA, clash detection, or CDE administration.
• Programme, Cost, Scope & Risk Control:
• Own the design schedule, deliverable sequencing, and milestone readiness to maintain programme certainty under fast‑track conditions.
• Control design scope, fee alignment, and change management, escalating commercial or design risks early with recommended actions.
• Evaluate design decisions and changes for cost, programme, risk, constructability, and operability impacts, maintaining clear decision logs.
• Maintain a live risk register and drive proactive mitigation actions to safeguard delivery, quality, budget, and reliability outcomes.
• Ensure all material technical, programme, and cost risks are escalated in line with the Data Centres escalation framework, irrespective of Business Unit or project pressures.

Client & Stakeholder Leadership

• Act as the primary design interface for clients, OEMs, consultants, authorities, and contractors, securing timely decisions and approvals.
• Facilitate workshops and technical reviews, translating complex requirements and risks into clear design direction and options for decision-making.
• Communicate technical implications, trade-offs, and risks concisely, ensuring full client understanding and sustained confidence.
• Build strong working relationships that support repeat business, bid positioning, and long-term pipeline stability.
• Protect Data Centres sector reputation and client confidence by ensuring technical positions are consistent, defensible, and aligned with enterprise DC standards.

​​​​​​​ Quality, Constructability, Sustainability & Innovation

• Own engineering quality assurance for design deliverables, ensuring all technical documents drawings, reports, specifications, schedules meet accuracy, compliance, integration, and performance requirements.
• Drive constructability and maintainability within the design, ensuring safe access, replacement routes, serviceability, installation feasibility, and operational resilience in line with data centre best practice.
• Promote sustainable, energy efficient, scalable and modular solutions, ensuring mechanical/electrical resilience philosophies align with client performance objectives.
• Coordinate with BIM roles for digital QA/QC, ensuring BIM outputs reflect design decisions — without performing BIM coordination tasks, digital audits, or clash management responsibilities.

​​​​​​​ Design Authority & Governance

• Act as the appointed technical authority for Data Centre projects.
• Confirm and lock technical assumptions, scope dependencies, and standards compliance at bid and pre‑award stages.
• Exercise mandatory escalation where deviations from approved DC standards, contracted assumptions, or agreed risk thresholds occur.
• Support the Lead: Data Centres by surfacing systemic design, capability, or delivery risks impacting sector performance, margin, or reputation.
• Operate within the defined DC decision authority and escalation model, inclusive of Business Unit reporting lines.

Minimum Requirements

Qualifications

• BEng/BSc Eng in in Engineering Mechanical, Electrical, Mechatronic, Industrial, or other relevant engineering discipline
• Professional registration: Pr.Eng with ECSA
• Postgraduate qualification in Mechanical/Electrical Engineering / Building Services / Project Management would be advantageous.
• Continued professional development in cooling technologies, data centre engineering, energy efficiency, or related specialisations.
• Uptime Institute Accredited Tier Designer ATD certification would be advantageous.

​​​​​​​ Experience

• Minimum of 6 years of engineering experience, with substantial exposure to multidisciplinary building services or complex engineered systems.
• Minimum of 3 years in design management, senior design coordination, or technical leadership roles within consulting, EPC/EPCM, or developer environments.
• Proven experience delivering mission critical or high complexity projects data centres, industrial plants, hospitals, labs, clean rooms, or equivalent
• Demonstrated track record managing multidisciplinary design across Architectural, Structural, Mechanical, Electrical, Fire/Life Safety, CSA, OEM and specialist vendors.
• Experience managing design risk, scope, programme dependencies, change control, and deliverable sequencing under fast‑track conditions.
• Experience leading or supporting client technical interactions, design workshops, approvals, and decision‑making processes.
• Exposure to design governance frameworks stage‑gates, QA/QC, risk logs, design sign‑off processes.

​​​​​​​ Skills

• Strong engineering foundation with the ability to understand, interrogate, and integrate mechanical, electrical, structural, architectural, and vendor inputs in a mission‑critical context.
• Skilled in design planning, design sequencing, deliverable management, and structured design governance stage‑gates, design reviews, risk and decision logs.
• Strong cross‑disciplinary interface management ability - aligning cooling, power, structure, architecture, fire strategy, CSA, and site constraints into a unified, buildable solution.
• Excellent programme management capability - critical path control, early escalation, design bottleneck resolution, and maintaining delivery velocity.
• High commercial awareness - understanding the impact of design decisions on cost, risk, procurement, operability, and programme.
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills - presenting opti