Associate Director - Mechanical

Job Description

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.

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.

The Associate Director – Mechanical Engineering shall

• Be accountable for the Mechanical Engineering discipline.
• Ensure consistent, high-quality deliverables through QA/QC reviews, technical audits, and discipline governance.
• Support business development with technical input, proposal content, scope development, and work-hour estimating.
• Possess deep technical expertise in mission-critical cooling systems, HVAC infrastructure, public health systems, energy efficiency, sustainable design, and thermal resilience.
• Support strategic initiatives related to sustainability, energy optimisation, heat reuse, low-carbon design, and water conservation.
• Act as the technical authority for mechanical systems supporting hyperscale, colocation, enterprise, and critical infrastructure facilities.
• Ennsure alignment with international standards, local regulatory requirements, client standards, and industry best practices.________________________________________

Key ResponsibilitiesDiscipline 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 LeadershipAct 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 OversightProvide 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

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 ReadinessSupport 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 AssessmentsEnsure

• 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 ManagementEnsure 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 profes