Springtide Project Services
Associate Director - Mechanical
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Associate Director - Mechanical Engineering
At Springtide, we listen, understand, and lean into complex challenges to unlock new solutions and realize opportunities with our partners. Distinguished by our agility, creativity, expertise, and owner’s perspective, we deliver faster time-to-market and longer-lasting value, enabling you to do more. We are seeking an Associate Director - Mechanical for the UK.
Role Overview
The Associate Director – Mechanical Engineering supports the Technical Director – Mechanical Design with the utilisation, growth, and development of professionals within the Mechanical Engineering discipline across Springtide's European data centre portfolio. This includes Mechanical Engineers, HVAC Engineers, Public Health Engineers, Sustainability Engineers, Building Physics Engineers, and Mission-Critical Mechanical Subject Matter Experts.
The Associate Director provides technical leadership, governance, and oversight for all mechanical systems associated with mission-critical facilities, ensuring that designs achieve the highest standards of resilience, efficiency, maintainability, sustainability, and operational performance.
As the senior mechanical authority within the organisation, the Associate Director establishes discipline standards, provides strategic direction, ensures technical excellence, and supports project delivery across multiple clients, regions, and engineering teams.
Key Responsibilities
Discipline Leadership & Governance
- Coordinate with Regional Senior Directors, Technical Directors, Project Managers, and Proposal Managers to understand project scope, programme requirements, resource demands, and mechanical deliverables.
- Assign appropriate engineering resources to deliver cost-effective and technically robust solutions.
- Define mechanical engineering design standards, design philosophies, and discipline procedures.
- Utilise the outputs from engineering tools including computational fluid dynamics, transient flow network modelling, and thermal modelling in order to inform and deliver right-first-time mechanical designs and design standards.
- Collaborate with senior leadership to establish governance frameworks for mechanical engineering delivery.
- Ensure quality, consistency, compliance, and technical excellence across all mechanical engineering deliverables.
- Lead Mechanical Engineering Communities of Practice to drive continuous improvement and standardisation.
- Liaise with global discipline leaders to ensure consistency in engineering approaches, design methodologies, and technical standards.
Technical Leadership
Act as the technical lead for:
- Critical Cooling Systems
- HVAC Systems
- Chilled Water Systems
- Direct Expansion (DX) Systems
- Air Handling Systems
- Evaporative and Adiabatic Cooling Systems
- Thermal Energy Storage
- Public Health Systems
- Fuel Oil Systems
- Water Treatment Systems
- Heat Rejection Systems
- Sustainable Mechanical Infrastructure
Responsibilities include:
- Developing enterprise mechanical engineering standards for mission-critical facilities.
- Reviewing and approving mechanical concepts, calculations, thermal models, and engineering strategies.
- Establishing design criteria for resilience, maintainability, operational efficiency, redundancy, and sustainability.
- Supporting innovation and adoption of emerging cooling technologies.
Design Oversight
Provide expert review and approval for:
- Basis of Design (BOD) documents
- Mechanical Design Reports
- Cooling Plant Designs
- CFD and Thermal Modelling Studies
- Equipment Selection Reports
- Hydronic System Designs
- Mechanical Schematics and P&IDs
- Public Health Designs
- Sustainability Assessments
- Energy Efficiency Studies
Ensure coordinated integration between:
- Mechanical Systems
- Electrical Infrastructure
- Control Systems
- Fire Protection Systems
- Architectural Design
- Structural Design
- Digital Delivery Platforms
- Commissioning Programmes
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Sustainability & Innovation
Develop and implement strategic initiatives focused on:
- Low Carbon Design
- Net-Zero Data Centre Strategies
- Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE)
- Energy Usage Effectiveness (PUE)
- Heat Recovery Systems
- Alternative Cooling Technologies
- Sustainable Refrigerant Strategies
- AI-Assisted Energy Optimisation
Support the evaluation and deployment of innovative cooling technologies including:
- Liquid Cooling
- Immersion Cooling
- Rear Door Heat Exchangers
- Direct-to-Chip Cooling
- High Efficiency Cooling Architectures
Drive adoption of sustainable engineering solutions across the business.
Business Development
Support bids and proposals through technical leadership and strategic input. Estimate and continuously manage work-hours and resource requirements for mechanical engineering activities. Participate in client meetings, workshops, design reviews, and solution development. Support development of new service offerings related to sustainability, energy optimisation, and mechanical engineering consultancy. Act as a senior technical representative during business development activities.
Contractor, Vendor & Consultant Management
Provide technical oversight of mechanical contractors, consultants, and specialist vendors. Review vendor designs, calculations, equipment selections, and technical submissions. Support procurement activities through technical evaluations and vendor selection processes. Ensure consistency and compliance across projects and delivery partners. Provide technical leadership for outsourced engineering activities and specialist consultant engagement.
Commissioning & Operational Readiness
Support commissioning activities including:
- Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT)
- Site Acceptance Testing (SAT)
- Integrated Systems Testing (IST)
- Functional Performance Testing (FPT)
- Reliability Validation Testing
- Seasonal Commissioning Reviews
- Operational Readiness Assessments
Ensure:
- Systems perform reliably under normal and failure conditions.
- Cooling resilience and redundancy objectives are achieved.
- Client operational requirements are fully met.
- Effective transition from design through construction, commissioning, and live operations.
Quality, Compliance & Risk Management
Ensure compliance with:
- ASHRAE Guidelines
- CIBSE Standards
- EN Standards
- ISO Standards
- Building Regulations
- Local European Authority Requirements
- Uptime Institute Methodologies
- Client Design Standards
Responsibilities include:
- Leading discipline QA/QC reviews.
- Conducting technical audits.
- Establishing lessons learned procedures.
- Driving continual improvement initiatives.
- Supporting engineering risk management and resilience assessments.
Talent Development & Leadership
Lead and manage a team of Principal Engineers, Senior Engineers, and Engineers. Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performance engineering culture. Promote professional accreditations and continuing professional development. Conduct capability assessments and identify training needs. Support recruitment, succession planning, and talent development initiatives. Mentor future technical leaders within the business.
Strategic Planning
Support the Senior Director of Design in developing long-term discipline growth plans. Identify emerging technologies, market trends, and client requirements. Support organisational transformation and innovation programmes. Drive growth of the Mechanical Engineering discipline across Europe. Develop strategic recruitment and capability development plans.
Other Responsibilities
- Travel throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, and internationally as required.
- Promote company vision, values, and technical excellence.
- Support organisational growth initiatives.
- Drive continuous improvement across mechanical engineering delivery.
Line of Report
The Associate Director – Mechanical Engineering reports to the Technical Director – Mechanical Design. The Technical Director – Mechanical Design reports to the Senior Director of Design, who reports to the Global CEO.
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The following roles report functionally to the Associate Director – Mechanical Engineering:
- Principal Mechanical Engineers
- Senior Mechanical Engineers
- Mechanical Engineers
- Graduate Mechanical Engineers
The Associate Director works closely with:
- Associate Director – Electrical Engineering
- Associate Director – Control Systems
- Associate Director – Commissioning
- Digital Delivery Director
- Construction Leadership Teams
- Operations and Client Stakeholders
Qualifications & Requirements
- Minimum 10+ years' experience in mission-critical mechanical engineering, data centres, or critical infrastructure projects.
- Proven experience leading design and delivery of large-scale cooling and HVAC systems for data centres.
- Strong knowledge of:
- Chilled Water Systems
- Air-Cooled Systems
- Adiabatic Cooling Systems
- Liquid Cooling Technologies
- Thermal Modelling
- Public Health Systems
- Fuel Systems
- Sustainable Design
- Energy Optimisation Strategies
- Mission-Critical Resilience Principles
- Strong understanding of ASHRAE Thermal Guidelines and data centre cooling design.
- Proven ability to plan, organise, supervise, and coordinate multidisciplinary engineering activities.
- Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
- Bachelor's Degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Building Services Engineering, or related discipline.
- Chartered Engineer status (CEng) preferred or actively working towards equivalent professional accreditation.
- Experience developing engineering standards, governance frameworks, and discipline strategies.
Preferred Requirements
- Experience delivering hyperscale data centre developments throughout Europe.
- Experience working with major hyperscale operators including Microsoft, Google, AWS, or Meta.
- Familiarity with liquid cooling and next-generation high-density computing environments.
- Experience in energy efficiency, sustainability, and net-zero design strategies.
- Additional European language capability (German, French, Dutch, Spanish, or Italian) is advantageous.
- Relevant professional memberships such as CIBSE, IMechE, ASHRAE, or equivalent.
About Us
Springtide Project Services is a full-service technical consultancy providing Architectural, Engineering, Construction, Project and Program Management, and Commissioning services to advanced technology industries, including the semiconductor, mission-critical data center, renewable energy, electric vehicle, and display sectors. We bring deep subject matter expertise as well as proven, reliable execution experience to bear on complex projects. The name Springtide represents our culture and values as an agile organization providing fresh, dynamic, and innovative solutions to help our clients optimize their project outcomes. We are energetic, driven, and curious, and take a sophisticated approach to every client project, enabling a critical scope to be executed; we walk in our clients’ shoes, we listen, we are curious, and we excel in a thriving collaborative culture, proactively leaning into challenges with a solutions mindset. We focus on collaborative engagement, alignment, and optimized execution, enabling our clients to do more and to achieve their business success. Springtide is a division of IPS-Integrated Project Services, LLC.
Specialties
Architecture, Engineering, Construction Management, Project Management, Program Management, LEAN Project Delivery, Strategic Master Planning, Energy Conservation Management, Project Controls, Program/Project Management, Operations/Logistics Strategy and Planning, EPCM, and augmented resourcing services.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment at Springtide without regard to race, creed, color, religion, national origin, sex
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