Data Centre Construction Director

Harry Maxwell; Darwin; On-site; AUD 350,000 - 550,000; Full time

Job summary

Project ARES seeks a senior delivery leader to own end-to-end data centre construction in a remote Australian site. You will manage Tier III modular data halls, closed-loop cooling and MEP infrastructure, integrating power and connectivity to achieve a PUE of 1.051.

You will lead EPC contracts, coordinate with the project leadership team, and drive phased commissioning to meet a 500MW ramp to 1GW. This role requires relocation to the Northern Territory with site rotations and extensive

Qualifications

• Degree in mechanical, electrical or building services engineering.
• 15+ years delivering hyperscale or large scale data centre facilities, with DLC and Tier III design experience.

Responsibilities

• Full data centre delivery including Tier III halls, DLC, power and connectivity to a designed PUE of 1.051.
• EPC contractor leadership across building, cooling and connectivity packages.
• Tenant interface to delineate owner and tenant scopes, commercially and technically.
• Phased commissioning strategy and sequencing to meet IT load ramps.
• Power-to-load integration from grid to IT load alongside the power generation delivery team.
• Forming and leading a delivery organisation to migrate from early works to main construction.

Skills

Cross-discipline delivery

EPC contract management

Direct liquid cooling (DLC) knowledge

Tier III design experience

Education

Degree in mechanical, electrical or building services engineering

15+ years hyperscale data centre delivery experience

Job description

Tier III. Direct liquid cooling. Built from nothing, 700 kilometres from Darwin.

Project ARES is a 1GW hyperscale renewable data and energy hub in the Northern Territory, scaling toward 5GW and beyond, positioned as Australia's answer to the AI infrastructure gap sweeping the Asia Pacific. The data centre is the product. Tier III modular data halls, closed loop direct liquid cooling, effectively zero operational water and a design PUE of 1.051, built on a remote greenfield site behind the meter with no grid connection. Backed by a delivery team carrying more than 200 years of combined mega project experience across BHP, Woodside, Chevron, Fortescue and Rio Tinto.

We are not looking for someone who has only ever fitted out a hall inside someone else's shell. We are looking for someone who will build the shell too.

You will not be doing it alone. You report directly to the Delivery Manager, with visibility to the Project Director throughout, and the project leadership team is beside you on every major call.

What you will own

• Full data centre delivery. The complete scope: Tier III modular data halls, cooling and MEP infrastructure, power integration and connectivity, to a design PUE of 1.051.
• EPC contractor leadership. Contractor selection, contract management and performance oversight across the building, cooling and connectivity packages.
• Tenant interface. The ORv3 manifold battery limit [BL-2], ensuring owner scope and tenant supplied scope are correctly delineated, commercially and technically.
• Phased commissioning. The commissioning strategy and sequencing to meet a phased IT load ramp, from 500MW at Phase 1 to 1GW at full build.
• Power to load integration. Integrated power to IT load commissioning and grid to chip power delivery design, alongside the power generation delivery team.
• A delivery organisation. Absorbing early works capability into an integrated team as the project moves from early works into main construction.

What you bring

• Degree in mechanical, electrical or building services engineering.
• 15+ years delivering hyperscale or large scale data centre facilities, ideally including direct liquid cooling [DLC] and Tier III design and construction experience.
• Accountability for base build, not fit out within a shell delivered by someone else. This is the one that matters most.
• Cross discipline delivery across building and superstructure, cooling and MEP, power integration and connectivity, held together inside one delivery organisation.
• Deep technical understanding of closed loop dry cooler and DLC architecture, and of Tier III concurrent maintainability.
• Commercially astute EPC contract management for a first of a kind design in a remote location.
• Based in Perth or willing to relocate, with rotation to site in the Northern Territory as construction ramps.

International experience on hyperscale data center programmes is equally welcome.

Why this one is different

• A blank canvas with real delivery authority. The systems, contracts and team you build are yours to define, not inherited from a predecessor.
• Ownership of one of the first hyperscale, direct liquid cooled data centre builds of this scale in Australia, start to finish.
• A first of a kind problem set. No grid connection, no point of common coupling, no playbook, and the hard calls made at topology level rather than retrofitted around someone else's network.
• Backed by a delivery team with a genuine 200 year mega project track record behind every design and commissioning call you make.