Senior Design Manager

Headquartered in the Greater Washington area, American Real Estate Partners (AREP) is a US-based leading institutional fund manager and real estate partner with over $13 billion deployed across key U.S. markets. Specializing in data center, residential, industrial, and office assets, AREP has acquired more than 34 million square feet of Class A real estate and currently manages over 25 million square feet.

Power House Data Centers, a wholly owned division of AREP, is a developer and owner of next-generation data centers and provides technical real estate solutions for hyperscalers across the country. Backed by strategic joint venture partnerships, Power House leverages its proven leadership and best-in-class technical expertise to deliver innovative real estate solutions.

The Senior Design Manager is primarily responsible for leading multidisciplinary design delivery across multiple data center developments, serving as the day-to-day design authority for assigned projects from early planning through construction and commissioning. This position is critical to providing coordinated, buildable, cost- and schedule-certain designs that translate the Power House Data Centers standard design platform and tenant requirements into delivered projects.

A defining part of the role is ownership of early-stage design products, including conceptual designs, elevations, and tenant test fits, with clear capacity, density, and cost-impact summaries that support early tenant decisions and deal timelines.

This role directs external A/E consultants, balances standardization against tenant customization, and enforces discipline around standards compliance, cost, schedule, and change management. The role also provides targeted leadership in architectural and facade standards, partners with preconstruction during RFP processes, and integrates operations and sustainability input to support long-term performance.

The Senior Design Manager reports to the Design Director and has a McLean, VA-based or remote schedule, with approximately 25% travel to project sites, consultants, and tenant meetings.

• Lead design delivery across multiple concurrent projects and all disciplines (architectural, structural, civil/site, MEP, FP, and security/IT/AV), serving as the day-to-day design authority from early planning through construction and commissioning.
• Own and design tenant test fits for prospective and existing hyperscale tenants, developing white space and gray space layouts that test rack types, air/liquid cooling splits, row and hall configurations, power and cooling capacity, and support-space needs against site constraints, and manage consultant iteration on compressed timelines.
• Own conceptual designs and elevations for prospective and existing developments, establishing a clear design baseline early in the project lifecycle and ensuring alignment with Power House standards and facade BOD.
• Produce capacity, density, sound, PUE, WUE, and cost-impact summaries that support early tenant decisions and deal timelines, and coordinate with the OFCI/CFCI procurement team to develop BOMs for estimating.
• Lead the strategic adaptation and execution of the Power House standard design, maintaining consistency and repeatability across the portfolio and aligning base building, turnkey, and tenant-specific requirements.
• Direct external A/E consultants to produce fully integrated, coordinated, and constructible design packages (construction documents, narratives, and sequences of operation), and drive resolution of cross-disciplinary coordination issues across structural, electrical, mechanical, and architectural systems.
• Serve as senior design liaison between internal teams and tenant engineering…