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VP Engineering, Europe
Company Profile nLighten is a European platform of distributed edge data centers, designed to meet the growing demand for AI, 5G, and hybrid cloud deployments. As a rapidly expanding provider, we offer scalable colocation hubs and best-in-class energy solutions across Europe. Our innovative and sustainable approach to digital infrastructure ensures reliability, efficiency, and future-ready solutions for our clients. nLighten’s current footprint is 34 data centers in 7 European countries, with the ambition to grow to 100 sites during the next 3-4 years. Learn more about us: www.nlighten.com
About the Role We are seeking a VP Engineering, Europe, to lead nLighten’s engineering capability across its European data center portfolio. Reporting to the CTO, this role will provide single-point leadership for Engineering across master planning, design, engineering development, prefabrication, infrastructure, controls, commissioning and technical delivery support. The role will ensure that engineering activity is joined up across regions, commercially focused, technically robust and aligned to nLighten’s growth ambitions. This is a senior leadership role for someone who can move confidently between strategy and delivery. The successful candidate will need to bring technical credibility, strong judgement, commercial discipline and the ability to lead experienced engineering specialists across multiple countries. The role builds on the current Engineering Design and Engineering Development requirements, including the need to turn masterplans into construction-ready designs, drive repeatable design standards, manage external consultants, oversee technical governance and ensure engineering solutions are cost-optimised, scalable and operationally fit for purpose. It also incorporates the broader master planning requirement to support capital project inception, standardized modular design, cost-effective scalability and portfolio expansion across Europe.
Key Responsibilities
Engineering Leadership
- Lead the Engineering function across Europe, providing clear direction, priorities and standards for all engineering-related activity.
- Create a single, joined-up Engineering leadership model across design, development, prefabrication, infrastructure, controls and commissioning.
- Act as the senior Engineering interface for the CTO, ExCo, regional leadership teams, commercial teams, operations, external consultants and delivery partners.
- Ensure Engineering plays a central role in enabling nLighten’s growth strategy, including capacity expansion, site optimization, customer delivery, operational efficiency and investment decision-making.
Engineering Strategy and Roadmap
- Develop and maintain a clear Engineering roadmap for the European portfolio, aligned to business growth, capital investment, customer demand and operational priorities.
- Translate business requirements into practical engineering priorities, ensuring the organization understands what needs to be delivered, by when, and why.
- Support the CTO in prioritizing engineering investment, resolving trade-offs and making clear recommendations on cost, risk, quality and speed.
- Ensure Engineering activity supports nLighten’s ambition to scale efficiently, with greater standardization, repeatability and control across markets.
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Design, Development and Technical Governance
- Oversee the development of masterplans into construction-ready designs for data center projects.
- Ensure robust technical governance across all engineering design and development activity, including design reviews, technical approvals, change control and resolution of technical queries.
- Drive consistency and repeatability across engineering standards, specifications, reference designs and design principles.
- Ensure engineering outputs are technically complete, cost-optimised, commercially useful and aligned to operational requirements.
- Provide senior oversight across multidisciplinary engineering areas, including electrical, mechanical, civil, architectural, controls, cooling and infrastructure systems.
Master Planning and Portfolio Expansion
- Ensure Engineering provides strong technical input into master planning, portfolio expansion and site optimization activity.
- Oversee the engineering approach to short-form and long-form masterplans, including capacity potential, utility requirements, phasing, spatial efficiency, design principles and cost implications.
- Ensure expansion plans are realistic, commercially grounded and technically deliverable.
- Work closely with Asset Management, Energy & Sustainability, Commercial, Operations and Finance to ensure engineering plans support investment decisions and customer demand.
Regional Engineering Delivery
- Lead the regional Engineering Development teams across Northern Europe, Southern Europe and UK & Ireland.
- Ensure regional engineering teams are aligned to common standards while retaining enough local flexibility to manage permitting, regulation, supplier markets and delivery requirements.
- Support engineering teams in resolving complex delivery challenges, removing blockers and improving pace of execution.
- Ensure lessons learned from regional delivery are captured and fed back into future design standards and engineering practice.
Prefabrication, Standardization and Efficiency
- Lead the continued development of prefabrication and modular engineering solutions across the portfolio.
- Drive standardization where it improves cost, speed, quality, procurement leverage and operational consistency.
- Identify opportunities to reduce design variation, simplify delivery and improve engineering productivity.
- Ensure engineering choices support lower unit cost, faster deployment and better operational performance.
Consultant, Contractor and Partner Management
- Oversee the appointment, management and performance of external design consultants, engineers, technical advisors and specialist partners.
- Ensure external partners are properly briefed, commercially managed and held accountable for quality, cost and programme outcomes.
- Work with Procurement to support best-value sourcing of engineering and design services.
- Ensure the organization has the right blend of internal capability and external expertise to deliver the engineering roadmap.
Cost, Risk and Performance
- Bring stronger commercial discipline to Engineering decision-making, including cost per kW, design efficiency, procurement implications, program risk and lifecycle impact.
- Ensure engineering risks are visible, understood and actively managed.
- Support capital planning, budgeting and investment approvals with clear technical input and practical recommendations.
- Track engineering performance through meaningful measures, including design delivery, standardization, technical quality, cost efficiency, program adherence and operational readiness.
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People Leadership
- Lead, coach and develop a senior team of Engineering leaders and specialists.
- Create clarity of role, accountability and decision rights across the Engineering function.
- Build a culture of ownership, pace, technical excellence and practical problem solving.
- Strengthen capability across the function, identifying where skills, capacity or structure need to evolve as the business scales.
What We’re Looking For
- Significant senior engineering leadership experience in data centers, digital infrastructure, mission-critical environments, construction, utilities or complex technical infrastructure.
- Strong technical understanding across multidisciplinary engineering, including electrical, mechanical, cooling, controls, infrastructure and architectural interfaces.
- Experience leading engineering design, development or delivery across multiple sites, regions or countries.
- Proven ability to lead senior technical specialists and external consultants in a fast-paced, growth environment.
- Strong commercial judgement, with experience balancing cost, quality, risk, speed and long-term operational performance.
- Experience developing standards, governance, reference designs, technical approval processes and repeatable engineering models.
- Ability to operate at senior leadership level while staying close enough to the detail to challenge assumptions and resolve complex issues.
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work effectively with CTO, ExCo, commercial, operations, finance, procurement and regional teams.
- Experience in European permitting, regulatory environments and construction delivery would be highly valuable.
- Degree-level qualification in Engineering, Architecture or a related technical discipline. Chartered Engineer status or equivalent would be advantageous.
- Fluent English required. German, French or other European language skills would be beneficial.
Why Join Us? This is an opportunity to take on a senior Engineering leadership role at a pivotal point in nLighten’s growth. You will help shape the engineering platform for a fast-scaling European data centre business, creating the standards, capability and delivery model needed to support growth across multiple markets. The role offers direct influence with the CTO and senior leadership team, exposure to major portfolio decisions, and the opportunity to build a stronger, more scalable Engineering function for the future.
Background Check & Screening All selected candidates will undergo a background check to ensure a safe workplace, protect company assets and comply with regulations.
Diversity & Inclusion Statement nLighten is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace and encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds. Even if you do not meet every requirement listed, we welcome your application. We particularly encourage women and individuals from underrepresented groups to apply.
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