Digital Realty · 9 hours ago
Design Director, Existing Facilities & Colocation
Ashburn, VA
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
10+ years expDigital Realty is a leading provider of data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions. The Director, Design Engineering – Existing Facilities & Colocation serves as the senior technical authority responsible for design strategy and governance for retrofit and expansion projects across the Americas, ensuring operational viability and compliance with engineering guidelines.
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Responsibilities
Provide strategic leadership, mentorship, and performance management for design managers supporting retrofit, expansion, and colocation programs across the region, balancing resources against commercial and delivery priorities
Serve as the senior technical authority for live-site and retrofit design, translating constraints in power, cooling, footprint, phasing, and operations into maximum deployable IT capacity for colocation customers
Lead technical coordination across internal teams (Colocation, Portfolio Management, Operations, Construction, and Global Design) and external partners including A/E firms, contractors, utilities, commissioning agents, vendors, and end-user customers
Ensure compliance with Global and Regional Design Engineering Guidelines while defining how standards are applied or adapted in constrained existing-facility environments
Oversee consultant engagement including RFPs, bid leveling, firm selection, scope demarcation, and design schedules aligned to customer and capital delivery milestones
Review and approve key retrofit and colocation design deliverables including Basis of Design, drawings, technical studies, phasing plans, outage strategies, commissioning plans, and OFCI equipment packages
Provide technical leadership through construction, energization, and commissioning, including live-site coordination, RFI resolution, outage planning, and Level 4/5 testing support
Manage technical inputs to project reporting, budgets, change control, capacity forecasting, and risk management for active retrofit and customer deployment programs
Support and lead design gating milestones, ensuring alignment between commercial commitments, capital planning, and buildable technical solutions
Drive continuous improvement through lessons learned, standards evolution, repeatable retrofit solutions, and adoption of tools and methods that increase speed, MW yield, and reliability in existing facilities
Qualification
Required
10+ years of mission-critical engineering or delivery experience, with significant exposure to operating data centers, retrofits, expansions, or colocation environments
Strong technical foundation in power, cooling, or integrated MEP systems, including how they perform and degrade in existing buildings
Demonstrated experience delivering capacity in live-site environments with complex phasing, outage, and constructability constraints
Proven ability to manage consultants, contractors, commissioning agents, utilities, and equipment vendors across fast-paced, multi-project portfolios
Experience working directly with Sales Engineering, Operations, and customers to assess feasibility, support commitments, and resolve delivery risk
Strong understanding of owner-operator development processes including gating, change control, scope management, and capital delivery
Ability to clearly explain, defend, and negotiate complex technical decisions with senior stakeholders and customers
Highly organized, process-driven, and comfortable operating in high-pressure, schedule-driven environments
Bachelor's degree in Engineering or Architecture required; professional registration (PE) strongly preferred
Preferred
Professional registration (PE) strongly preferred
Benefits
Health and Safety
Highly competitive compensation package
Excellent benefits
Environment that recognizes and rewards your contributions
Company
Digital Realty
Digital Realty is a data center platform, delivering customized data analysis solutions to businesses.
1001-5000 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$13.92B2025-11-12Post Ipo Debt· $1.62B
2025-06-17Post Ipo Debt· $983.24M
2025-01-07Post Ipo Debt· $882.98M
Leadership Team
Matt Mercier
Chief Financial Officer
J
Jordan Sadler
Senior Vice President, Public and Private Investor Relations
Recent News
2026-01-20
2026-01-20
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