Design Manager - Italy

DATA4'S MISSION DATA4 creates Smart & Scalable digital facilities for our customers. Our network of highly connected, resilient and sustainable data center campuses underpins our customers’ digital growth in Europe.

DATA4 Group finances, designs, constructs and operates its own data centers. Delivered through our data center campus model, we provide our customers with secure, scalable and high-performance data hosting solutions.

DATA4 VALUES At DATA4 we are driven by our values. These are the core of everything we do – from the proactivity we show in delivering great outcomes for our clients, to the responsibility we show as a key contributor to the digital economy. Our three values are:

To be entrepreneurial – we are teams of doers who make things happen - with autonomy, energy and a sense of responsibility

To always take responsibility – for our impact on the people we work with, the society we are part of, and the environment in which we operate

To constantly be adaptable – our business is designed to adapt, answering not only today’s challenges, but also anticipating what’s coming next.

ABOUT THE ROLE The Design Manager is accountable for the end-to-end design of data centres and campus infrastructure projects, ensuring solutions meet Data4’s design standards, customer requirements, programme constraints, and Data4 quality and performance standards. The role owns the campus design delivery. The role owns the cross organizational design quality, acting as the technical authority across key disciplines (CSA, MEP, controls, networks, and power substation), and drives design decisions that balance technical performance, economics, schedule, and supply chain availability.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Lead design delivery: Own high-level, low-level, and campus master planning design.

Act as technical authority: Provide product implementation expertise across CSA, MEP, controls, networks, and power substations.

Client: Interface with the Client during the sales cycle and during the delivery of the data centre.

Authorities: Lead the design permitting process, interfacing with local permitting bodies ensuring permitting constraints are met, and ultimately ensuring permits for construction are granted.

Ensure design quality & performance:

Guarantee Max IT capacity and SLA compliance

Deliver efficiency targets (PUE, WUE)

Deliver a design which meets permitting requirements

Develop a design which is optimized to meet the Data4 and Client’s SLA performance requirements

Define and optimise technical solutions:

Set equipment requirements with programme, delivery, and supply chain

Optimise design to target cost metrics

Drive modular / prefabricated design approaches

Select and validate vendors:

Support vendor selection

Validate technical specifications

Support constructability:

Define construction methods

Ensure design is buildable and aligned with delivery constraints

Coordinate commissioning readiness: Interface with commissioning requirements to Define, review, and validate commissioning protocols are included for execution

Engage with customers & stakeholders:

Support technical discussions, engineering reviews and the prospecting and contract negotiation stage

Provide SME input for utility and permitting topics

Lead technical validation with the Client during the execution phase

Drive project alignment: Work with project controls and delivery to ensure schedule and cost adherence

RESPONSIBILITIES IN TERMS OF IMS CERTIFICATIONS Respect and enforce certification policies in terms of:

H&S: Respect and enforce health and safety rules.

Environment: Respect and enforce environmental policies.

Information security: Respect and enforce information security policies

Energy: Respect and enforce the policy of reducing energy consumption.

REQUIREMENTS Education and experience

Technical Design Engineering experience (E.g. Electrical, Mechanical, Architectural, ICT, Civil/Structural Engineering)

Exposure to data centers (3-5 years)

Proven experience leading multi-discipline design scopes across campus and data hall infrastructure (masterplanning through detailed design).

Technical skills

Data centre engineering and delivery constraints: CSA / MEP design integration, Controls, networks (as relevant to DC infrastructure), and power substation interfaces

Ability to make technical decisions based on Data4 product, Clients and site specific requirements. Coordination with SME’s as needed for specific deviations and high level expertise.

Commissioning concepts, protocol definition and execution readiness

Ability to define and validate equipment technical requirements, specifications and vendor submittals.

Understanding of balanced commercial objectives of a data centre masterplanning - Ability to optimise designs against performance metrics (including PUE/WUE), MaxIT capacity, risk and speed.

Demonstrated ability to combine technical and business skills to propose the right balance between technical specifications, cost, , speed SLAs and supply chain availability / delivery lead time.

Cross functional management experience with a mid-size team

Behavioral skills

Good communication skills

Strong stakeholder management, negotiation and conflict-resolution skills

Structured problem-solving

Makes and owns decisions

Rigour, and a quality-first mindset

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