Data Center Design Governance Lead

About the role

The Data Center Design Governance Lead based in Damascus will own the design‑review and quality‑gate process for mission‑critical data centre projects. The role ensures every design is independently checked against client requirements, the target Uptime Institute tier and applicable standards before procurement, acting as the design authority and final technical signatory through the EPC stage.

Key responsibilities

• Manage the design‑review and quality‑gate process, guiding each High‑Level Design (HLD) through structured checkpoints.
• Verify that designs trace cleanly to the requirements document and reject non‑conforming proposals.
• Maintain documented independence from design production while reviewing internal and external design teams.
• Validate resilience through single‑line diagrams, redundancy topology, concurrent maintainability and single‑point‑of‑failure analysis.
• Review critical power (AC/DC) and cooling concepts, heat‑rejection redundancy, equipment selection and Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE).
• Confirm compliance with client‑designated tier (Tier III or Tier IV) and standards such as TIA‑942, EN 50600 and ASHRAE guidelines.
• Issue design comments and Non‑Conformance Reports (NCR) and track them to closure.
• Provide design‑assurance input for technical specifications and RFP packages, supporting bid evaluation.
• Review EPC detailed design and Issued‑for‑Construction (IFC) submittals against approved intent.
• Chair the design‑change and deviation board, analysing and dispositioning change requests.
• Establish acceptance criteria for commissioning levels L1‑L5, culminating in Integrated Systems Test (IST).
• Provide technical leadership and guidance to design and review teams throughout the lifecycle.

Required profile

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering (Master’s degree is a plus).
• 10‑12 years of experience in data‑center or mission‑critical facility design, including 4‑5 years in design review, design assurance or owner‑engineer roles.
• Proven track record delivering at least one Tier III or higher facility from concept through commissioning.
• Experience managing formal stage‑gate processes and enforcing quality standards.

Required skills

• Uptime Institute tier methodology
• TIA‑942 standard
• EN 50600 standard
• ASHRAE thermal design guidelines
• Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) analysis
• High‑Level Design (HLD) review
• Single‑line diagram analysis
• Redundancy topology assessment
• EPC detailed design review