Spencer Ogden Hiring! Full Time Senior Mechanical Design Manager in - Ricebowl

Senior Manager, Mechanical Design - Data Centres

Location: Singapore (APAC travel)

Employment type: Full time

About the role

Lead the mechanical engineering design for a growing APAC data centre portfolio across the full project lifecycle, from due diligence and concept through detailed design, construction, commissioning and operations. Act as owner-side mechanical design authority, set the mechanical basis of design, govern external design consultants and ensure as-built performance meets design intent.

Key responsibilities

• Own mechanical basis of design for chilled water plants, CRAC/CRAH and fan wall units, direct liquid cooling and CDUs, heat rejection, ventilation and mechanical plant.
• Support site due diligence and selection, assessing cooling feasibility, water availability, climate constraints and district cooling opportunities.
• Lead and govern external mechanical design consultants at concept, schematic, detailed design and IFC stages to protect design quality, redundancy and cost.
• Define cooling architecture and redundancy strategy (N+1, 2N, concurrently maintainable) to satisfy Uptime Tier III / Tier IV targets and customer SLAs, including high-density and AI-ready deployments.
• Produce and review mechanical calculations and studies: cooling load, hydraulic and airflow modelling, CFD reviews, PUE / WUE energy modelling and thermal storage sizing.
• Drive value engineering across mechanical scope to optimise capital cost, PUE, WUE and constructability while maintaining resilience.
• Set and enforce BIM standards for mechanical discipline, coordinate multi-discipline models and lead design reviews with electrical, civil, structural, controls and operations teams.
• Interface with construction and commissioning to close design queries, review shop drawings and equipment submittals, witness factory and integrated systems testing, and manage site-driven design changes.
• Support operations post-handover with seasonal tuning, capacity assessments, performance root cause analysis and retrofit design to maintain design PUE.
• Ensure compliance with Singapore and regional codes and standards and track consultant performance, programme and budget.

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or related discipline.
• Professional registration (PEB Singapore, CEng, CIBSE, HKIE or equivalent).
• Minimum 10 years’ mechanical engineering experience spanning design, consulting and construction, with demonstrable data centre or mission-critical facility experience.
• Deep knowledge of data centre cooling systems: chilled water, CRAC/CRAH, fan walls, liquid cooling, cooling towers / dry coolers and thermal storage.
• Proven experience delivering or governing mechanical design to Uptime Institute Tier III / Tier IV standards; Uptime ATD advantageous.
• Hands-on experience with cooling load calculations, hydraulic and airflow analysis and PUE / WUE modelling.
• Experience designing for high-density and AI compute (liquid-to-chip, rear-door heat exchangers) is a strong advantage.
• Strong BIM skills and multi-discipline coordination experience.
• Excellent communication skills in English and willingness to travel across APAC.

What we offer

• Owner-side design leadership on a fast-scaling APAC data centre platform.
• Opportunity to shape cooling and sustainability standards across multiple markets.
• Cross-border career growth and work with industry experts in mission-critical infrastructure.
• Inclusive, agile culture that values ideas and technical leadership.