Data Center Design Governance Lead

About the role

The Data Center Design Governance Lead will own the design‑review and quality‑gate process for mission‑critical data centre projects in the Middle East. Based in Damascus, this full‑time on‑site position ensures every design meets the required Uptime Institute tier, standards and client specifications before procurement.

Key responsibilities

• Manage the design‑review and quality‑gate workflow, guiding each High‑Level Design (HLD) through structured checkpoints.
• Verify traceability of designs to the requirements document and reject non‑conforming proposals.
• Maintain independence from design production while reviewing internal and external design teams.
• Assess resilience through single‑line diagrams, redundancy topology, concurrent maintainability and single‑point‑of‑failure analysis.
• Review critical power (AC/DC) and cooling concepts, including heat‑rejection redundancy, equipment selection and Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE).
• Confirm compliance with client‑targeted Tier III/IV, TIA‑942, EN 50600 and ASHRAE thermal guidelines.
• Issue design comments and Non‑Conformance Reports (NCR) and track them to closure.
• Provide design‑assurance input for technical specifications, RFP packages and bid evaluations.
• Chair the design‑change and deviation board, analysing all change requests.
• Define acceptance criteria for commissioning levels L1‑L5, culminating in Integrated Systems Test (IST).

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.
• 4‑5 years in design review, design assurance or owner‑engineer roles, with at least one Tier III+ project delivered from concept to commissioning.
• Proven track record of managing formal stage‑gate processes and enforcing quality standards.

Required skills

• Uptime Institute tier topology knowledge.
• TIA‑942 standard.
• EN 50600 standard.
• ASHRAE thermal guidelines.
• Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) analysis.
• High‑Level Design (HLD) review.
• Design‑assurance and non‑conformance reporting.
• Electrical and mechanical engineering principles for data‑center power and cooling.