Head of Electrical Engineering

Pearson Carter; Sydney; On-site; AUD 210,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Pearson Carter is seeking a Head of Electrical Engineering for AI Factory Development to own the electrical engineering function across multiple sites, including Australia and APAC. You will define how the reference electrical design is interpreted, adapted for local codes and site conditions, procured, constructed, and commissioned across every Client site.

The ideal candidate has 12+ years of progressive experience in hyperscale or mission-critical data centre developments, with deep expertise

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering (power systems preferred) with 12+ years in hyperscale or mission-critical projects.
• Experience leading distributed electrical engineering teams across countries and managing external consultants.
• Proven track record in design governance, commissioning readiness, and alignment to global standards.

Responsibilities

• Lead and scale a geographically distributed electrical engineering team across APAC and other Client sites.
• Own design governance, deviation management, and commissioning readiness throughout the project lifecycle.
• Collaborate with Build, Commissioning, and Operations to ensure safe, reliable energisation and alignment to reference design.

Skills

Electrical engineering

Power systems

MV/LV distribution

UPS systems

Site commissioning

Protection and coordination

Earthing and bonding

Arc flash safety

Power system modelling

Team leadership

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering (power systems preferred)

Tools

Basis of Design documents

Engineering templates

Change-control processes

Job description

What you will do

As Head of Electrical Engineering, AI Factory Development, you will own the electrical engineering function within the AI Factory Development group. You will define how the reference electrical design is interpreted, adapted for local codes and site conditions, procured, constructed, and commissioned across every Client site. You will set the technical bar for MV/LV distribution, UPS and standby generation, protection and coordination, earthing and bonding, power quality, and the electrical interfaces to liquid-cooled AI compute halls.

You will act as the engineering authority for electrical execution across the AI Factory portfolio — accountable for design governance in the field, deviation management, factory and site acceptance testing, commissioning readiness, and safe, reliable energisation. You will operate the change-control and design-review disciplines that keep every site aligned to the Client reference design, and you will be the escalation point when local realities require considered deviation or when the reference design itself needs to evolve.

You will not own the development of the reference electrical design, but you will be one of its most important customers and contributors. You will feed operational learnings, site constraints, vendor performance data, and commissioning findings back into the reference design owners, and you will co-develop the electrical standards, templates, and Basis of Design updates that keep Clients design ahead of the industry.

You will build, lead, and scale a geographically distributed electrical engineering team – site-based engineers embedded in Indonesia, Australia, and any additional geography where Client operates. You will set the operating rhythm across time zones, establish consistent engineering practice and quality standards across sites, develop the next generation of senior electrical engineers within Client, and represent electrical engineering in cross-functional Build, Commissioning, and Operations forums.

Skills & Experiences

You are, first and foremost, an accomplished electrical engineer for mission-critical, high-density digital infrastructure. You bring deep expertise in medium- and low-voltage distribution, UPS systems, standby and prime-power generation, static and rotary switching, protection and relay coordination, arc-flash and safety-in-design, earthing and bonding, and the specific electrical demands of dense GPU compute halls and liquid-cooled AI infrastructure. You understand power system modelling — load flow, short-circuit, motor starting, transient stability — and you have used it to make consequential design and operational decisions.

Across the delivery lifecycle, you are equally at home leading tender design reviews, consultant and contractor governance, factory acceptance testing, integrated systems testing, level-1 through level-5 commissioning, and handover to operations. You have authored or materially shaped Basis of Design documents, engineering templates, global minimum standards, and change-control processes at a hyperscale operator or equivalent. You are comfortable engaging utilities, regulators, and major equipment vendors, and you know how to drive value engineering, DfMA, and sustainability outcomes without compromising reliability.

Above all, you have the temperament of a senior technical leader operating across geographies: strong systems thinking, calm judgement under construction and commissioning pressure, the confidence to challenge design and vendor assumptions constructively, and the communication skill to carry a room of site engineers, a customer technical review, and an executive readout with equal clarity. You bring commercial awareness, comfort operating across cultures and time zones, and a genuine passion for building AI infrastructure that works reliably from day one.

The ideal candidate will bring a strong technical foundation in electrical power engineering, ideally with a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering (power systems preferred) recognised in at least one ofClient's operating jurisdictions, together with more than 12 years of progressive experience across hyperscale or mission-critical data centre developments, industrial power systems, or comparable high-availability infrastructure. They will have deep, hands-on expertise as an electrical subject-matter expert and design manager on multi-site programmes, and a proven track record leading design governance, quality assurance, and commissioning readiness across a portfolio of concurrent projects.

This experience should include leading distributed, site-based engineering teams across multiple countries, managing external consultants and EPC contractors to global standards, and working effectively across the build-to-run interface with Construction, Commissioning, and Operations. Experience authoring or contributing materially to global electrical Basis of Design, minimum standards, or reference architecture at a hyperscale, cloud, or specialist AI infrastructure operator is a strong differentiator, as is experience delivering into APAC markets — particularly Indonesia and Australia — under diverse regulatory, grid, and utility conditions.F