Mechanical Technical Director – Mission Critical; Data Centres

Who we are

With over 14,000 professionals globally, GHD is a leading multidisciplinary professional services company delivering engineering, design, and advisory solutions across water, energy, resources, environment, property & buildings, and transportation sectors.

We are seeking an experienced Mechanical Technical Director to join our Global Data Centre Design Team (Mission Critical), based in our UAE offices. This is a senior leadership role for a highly accomplished engineer with extensive experience in the design, technical leadership, and delivery of hyperscale, AI, and mission‑critical data centre facilities.

You will provide technical leadership across a portfolio of complex data centre projects, guiding multidisciplinary teams through all stages of delivery while shaping the future direction of mechanical engineering within our global data centre practice.

This role offers the opportunity to influence some of the world's most advanced AI and hyperscale data centre developments. You will act as a trusted advisor to clients, support business development initiatives, help secure new opportunities, drive innovation, and ensure the consistent delivery of technically excellent, resilient, sustainable, and commercially successful solutions.

In addition to project leadership, you will play a key role in developing engineering capability across the business, mentoring senior engineers, promoting technical excellence, and contributing to the growth of our rapidly expanding mission critical sector.

• Provide technical leadership and governance across multiple mission critical and data centre projects globally.
• Define and oversee mechanical engineering strategies for hyperscale, colocation, enterprise, and AI‑driven data centre developments.
• Lead the development and review of cooling architectures, including chilled water systems, liquid cooling solutions, direct‑to‑chip cooling, CDUs, heat rejection systems, and high‑density thermal management strategies.
• Drive technical excellence through peer reviews, design assurance processes, and the development of engineering standards, best practices, and quality procedures.
• Act as the senior technical authority for mechanical engineering matters, providing guidance and support to project teams throughout all project phases.
• Support the development, adaptation, and optimisation of global standard reference designs, modular data centre solutions, and bespoke engineering approaches.
• Interface directly with clients, operators, contractors, technology providers, and other stakeholders, acting as a trusted technical advisor and subject matter expert.
• Lead technical workshops, value engineering exercises, feasibility studies, master planning activities, and technical due diligence assignments.
• Ensure designs achieve the required performance, resilience, maintainability, energy efficiency, sustainability, and operational objectives.
• Support project delivery teams in managing technical risks, programme requirements, budgets, and quality objectives.
• Maintain strong client relationships and proactively identify opportunities for repeat business and long‑term partnerships.
• Support business development activities, client engagement, and strategic growth initiatives across the Mission Critical sector.
• Lead and support pursuits, proposals, bids, interviews, and technical presentations to help secure new project opportunities.
• Collaborate with regional and global leadership teams to develop and execute growth strategies for the Data Centres and Mission Critical business.
• Monitor emerging technologies, market trends, and client requirements to ensure GHD remains at the forefront of data centre engineering.
• Mentor and develop Lead Engineers and other team members, fostering a culture of technical excellence, collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning.

• Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering or Building Services Engineering.
• Chartered Engineer status (CEng, PE, RPEQ, or equivalent) preferred.
• Minimum 15 years of relevant engineering experience, including significant experience within mission critical and data centre…