Principal Manager, Design, Special Projects, AMERS

About Nscale

Nscale is the vertically integrated AI cloud engineered for AI. We own and operate the full stack — energy, data centers, GPU superclusters, orchestration, and AI services — delivering high-performance infrastructure to AI-native companies, enterprises, and governments across Europe and the US. We are deploying GPU capacity at hyperscale, operating some of the densest, most advanced AI infrastructure in the world.

At Nscale, our Design Management team turns new ideas, pilots, and critical site challenges into built, tested reality across our data center portfolio. We thrive on a culture of relentless innovation, ownership, and accountability, where every team member takes pride in their work and drives it with excellence and urgency. As an Nscaler, you'll build trust through openness and transparency, where everyone is inspired to do their best work. If you join our team, you'll be contributing to building the technology that powers the future.

About the Role

As Principal Design Manager, Special Projects, you will own the design of Nscale's special projects: the work that doesn't fit a standard data center delivery template. One quarter this might be a lab facility to test a new cooling approach. The next, it might be a portfolio-wide value engineering initiative, a fast-turn design to fix a critical utility or site problem, or a first-of-a-kind pilot of a modular building system. Each project is novel and important, and each needs an experienced design manager who can define the problem, build the right team, and deliver.

The core toolkit is the same as a Principal Design Manager on a production data center project: project-level AE and specialist procurement, internal stakeholder coordination, external partner integration, delivery of fully coordinated design packages, and leading Construction Administration. What differs is the ambiguity. Special projects often start without a defined scope, a precedent, or an obvious consultant, and this role is comfortable starting there.

You'll report to the Vice President, Design Management. This is an individual contributor role: you'll lead AE teams, specialist consultants, vendors, and internal stakeholders through influence and project authority rather than line management. The role is based in the United States and covers our full portfolio, with travel to campus sites, labs, and partner facilities as required.

You'll thrive here if you:
Turn a one-line problem statement into a brief, a team, and a schedule, and are energized rather than paralyzed by a blank page
Can find the one consultant in the country who has done this before, and build the process while delivering instead of waiting for a perfect one
Bring unconventional solutions, such as alternative systems, non-standard materials, repurposed equipment, creative phasing, and vendor partnerships
Know enough across disciplines to ask the question that exposes the gap, pull in the right expert, and hold them accountable for the answer
Apply the same design review and coordination discipline to a pilot as to a production building
Earn trust across Design Innovation, Design Technology, Construction, Operations, and external partners by adding value, not claiming territory
Know the difference between a promising concept and one that can actually be built, tested, and operated

What You'll be Doing

Special Projects Leadership
Serve as the single point of accountability for design on a changing portfolio of special projects, including innovation and pilot projects, lab and test facilities, value engineering initiatives, and critical site issue resolutions.
Define each project from the ground up when needed: problem statement, objectives, success criteria, scope, budget, schedule, risks, and the team required to deliver it.
Build and own the design schedule for each project, sequencing deliverables to support procurement, construction, and testing milestones.
Manage several concurrent special projects of very different type, scale, and urgency without losing visibility or control on any of them.
Drive design decisions with a clear hierarchy of priorities: safety first, then schedule, quality, cost, and sustainability.

Innovation, Pilot, and Lab Projects
Partner with Design Innovation to translate concepts and research questions into deliverable projects with a defined test plan and measurable outcomes.
Lead the design of lab, test, and validation facilities, including the unusual power, cooling, structural, instrumentation, and safety requirements they carry.
Lead first-of-a-kind pilots of modular and prefabricated systems, alternative cooling and power approaches, and new building form factors, working directly with fabricators and vendors.
Design pilots to produce usable data, with instrumentation, access, and flexibility built in from the start, and document results, performance, and cost so Nscale can make a clear scale-or-stop decision.

Value Engineering Initiatives
Scope and lead value engineering studies across the portfolio, targeting the systems, assemblies, details, and specifications with the highest cost or schedule leverage.
Run structured VE analysis with AE partners, cost consultants, vendors, and Construction, evaluating alternatives for cost, schedule, constructability, maintainability, and risk.
Validate VE proposals against Nscale's design standards, code requirements, and operational needs, then drive adopted outcomes into our standards, AE bench, and live projects and track the realized savings.

Critical Site Issue Resolution
Respond rapidly to critical design-related issues on live sites, such as utility constraints, unexpected site conditions, code and inspection problems, equipment or system failures, and operational constraints.
Mobilize the right AE, specialist consultants, and vendors quickly, define the problem precisely, and develop options with clear cost, schedule, and risk trade-offs.
Deliver coordinated, buildable design solutions on the timeline the site needs, including temporary and interim measures where appropriate, coordinating with Construction, Operations, and the site's Principal Design Manager so fixes integrate cleanly with production design.

AE and Specialist Procurement
Define scopes of services, deliverables, and schedules for AE firms, specialist consultants, research partners, and vendors, including novel scopes with no template.
Identify and qualify specialists outside Nscale's standard AE bench when a project needs expertise the bench doesn't have.
Prepare and issue RFPs, evaluate proposals, lead fee negotiations, and recommend award, then administer contracts and hold partners accountable to schedule, quality, and responsiveness.

Stakeholder and Partner Coordination
Run a disciplined requirements capture and freeze process with every internal stakeholder, including Design Innovation, Design Technology, Construction, Operations, Commissioning, Security, Network, Procurement, EHS, and Finance.
Coordinate external partners, including equipment vendors, modular and prefab fabricators, utilities, research and academic partners, and commissioning agents, and integrate their inputs into the AE's coordinated documents.
Chair coordination meetings with clear agendas, documented decisions, and tracked actions, and manage change discipline by securing a decision on late requests before the AE proceeds.

Design Coordination and Quality
Drive structured design reviews at defined milestones, holding internal SMEs accountable for completing reviews and closing out comments, scaled to the project but never skipped.
Require the AE to run and document model-based coordination and clash detection so architectural, structural, MEP, fire protection, and civil designs are genuinely coordinated before issue.
Review constructability, maintainability, testability, and operational access with Construction and Operations, and deliver complete, coordinated construction document sets for every project.

Construction Administration
Lead Construction Administration for each special project as the design authority to the construction team and the owner's interface to the AE.
Hold the AE accountable for RFI and submittal turnaround, prioritizing critical-path and long-lead items, and drive field design issues to fast, documented resolution.
Conduct regular site visits and support commissioning, start-up, and testing, including the test programs that pilots and labs exist to run.
Close out the design side of every project, delivering as-builts, record models, O&M documentation, and test results to Operations and Design Innovation.

Knowledge Transfer and Standards
Capture lessons learned, performance data, costs, and design details from every special project in a form the production program can use.
Partner with Engineering and Design Innovation to update Nscale's design standards, details, and global form factor catalog, and brief Design Managers and the AE bench on adopted innovations and VE outcomes.
Report special project status, results, risks, and decisions clearly to the Vice President, Design Management and senior leadership.

About You

12+ years of experience in the design and construction industry, in design management, technical program management, architecture, engineering, or construction.
Experience as the design lead on projects delivered from problem definition or concept through construction documents and Construction Administration.
Experience delivering at least one of the following: a lab, test, or research facility; a first-of-a-kind pilot or prototype building system; a significant value engineering program; or a rapid-response design fix on a live site.
Direct experience scoping, procuring, negotiating, and administering AE, specialist consultant, and vendor contracts, including for non-standard scopes.
Enough technical grounding across architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, and civil disciplines to ask the right questions, recognize when a specialist is needed, and hold consultants accountable for the answer.
Proven Construction Administration experience, including RFIs, submittals, field issue resolution, and close-out, on a fast-paced construction program.
Strong design technology literacy, and comfort working directly in BIM environments, coordination tools, and document management platforms.
A track record of defining a problem from a vague starting point, building a plan, assembling a team, and delivering.
A disciplined organizer and communicator who can run meetings, document decisions, track actions, and keep many parties aligned on a tight schedule.
A strong cross-functional collaborator who works well with Design Innovation, Construction, Operations, vendors, and research partners without needing to control every decision.
Bachelor's degree in Architecture, Civil, Structural, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineering, Construction Management, or a related discipline.

Nice to Have

Direct experience in data center or hyperscale AI infrastructure design and delivery, including data center electrical, mechanical, and fire protection systems.
Hands-on experience with modular, prefabricated, or offsite construction on a completed project.
Experience with liquid cooling, alternative or on-site power systems, or other emerging data center technologies.
Experience working with research, academic, or vendor R&D partners on built pilots or test programs.
Formal value engineering or cost engineering experience.
Familiarity with commissioning and test protocols for mission-critical facilities.
Existing relationships with specialist consultants and vendors in the US data center and advanced-facility market.
Master's degree in Architecture, Engineering, Construction Management, or a related field.

Why this role matters

Nscale's ambition to design and build data centers differently creates a steady stream of pilots, labs, value engineering studies, and urgent site problems. Without a dedicated design lead, good ideas stall at the concept stage and production design managers get pulled off their projects to fight fires. This role is how the design function turns ideas into built reality. Success means every special project has a defined scope and an accountable team within weeks, pilots produce clear data that leads to a scale-or-stop decision, VE savings are real and embedded in our standards, critical site issues are fixed fast, and every project makes the whole portfolio smarter, faster, or cheaper.

What We Can Offer You

At Nscale, you'll find a collaborative, supportive, and innovative environment where your contributions spark real impact. We're building something extraordinary, and we want you at the core.

Highly competitive package, including base salary and equity, with reviews every 12 months.
Join one of the fastest-growing tech startups: your chance to push boundaries, collaborate with brilliant minds, and make your mark on cutting-edge AI.
Expect a dynamic progression plan tailored to your ambitions. Grow by trying new things, leading, challenging the status quo, and owning your impact, always with our full support.
Human-first flexibility. We treat you as humans first. Our flexible workplace trusts Nscalers to deliver, giving you the autonomy to shape your day around life's moments.
Join our thriving remote-first team. Geography is no barrier to impact or connection. We build seamless virtual collaboration, empowering you wherever you work.

Equal Opportunities Statement

At Nscale, we are committed to fostering an inclusive, diverse, and equitable workplace. We believe that a variety of perspectives enrich our work environment, and we encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds, experiences, and abilities. We strongly encourage applications from people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, parents, carers, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

If there's anything we can do to accommodate your specific situation, please let us know.