Head of Data Centre

Hunter Philips Executive Search; Frankfurt; Hybrid; EUR 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Profit share

30 days holiday + Christmas Eve & New?

Flexitime

Training budget

Jobticket paid

Bike leasing

Health & wellbeing benefits

Job summary

Hunter Philips Executive Search is assisting a family-owned engineering and consulting group in Germany to establish and lead a new dedicated data centre business. You will define strategy, build the service line, and hire the team, with the freedom to shape operations and growth.

You will head the international Data Centre Competence Centre, extending influence beyond Germany while managing high-availability electrical power, grid integration, and regulatory compliance.

Qualifications

• Degree in Electrical/ Energy/ Building Services or related discipline.
• 8+ years in planning, design and delivery of data centre projects with leadership.
• Proven ability to drive complex data centre concepts to commissioning.
• In-depth data centre electrical infrastructure and high-availability power experience.
• Knowledge of EN 50600 and German regulatory requirements.
• Strong focus on energy efficiency and sustainable data centre design.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the data centre business in Germany, including strategy and growth.
• Hire and lead the Germany team and coordinate cross-border activities.
• Oversee high-availability power, grid integration, cooling and energy efficiency aspects.
• Manage projects from feasibility through commissioning across EPC/HOAI phases.
• Maintain cost, schedule, procurement, and stakeholder engagement with DSOs/TSOs.

Skills

Leadership experience

Data centre infra

Power systems

Stakeholder management

German language

English language

Education

Electrical Engineering degree

Job description

If you’ve been delivering data centres for a few years and keep thinking you could run the whole thing better yourself, this one’s worth a read.

Partnering family owned engineering and consulting group with around 3,700 people in more than 45 offices worldwide. Their background is energy and infrastructure: power, grid connections and big international projects. They’re now setting up a dedicated data centre business in Germany and want someone to build it from scratch and lead it.

If you’ve worked on a FLAP-D project recently, you’ll know why that makes sense. These days the hard part of most new builds is the power rather than the building. That means grid connection queues, MV/HV infrastructure, PPAs, BESS, backup generation and the heat reuse rules under the EnEfG. This business already does that work day in, day out. What they don’t have is a data centre specialist to lead it.

What’s in it for you

• It’s yours to build. The strategy, the services, who you hire and how the team’s set up are all your call.
• You’ll go from running projects to running a business: winning work, driving growth and having a real say in where it goes.
• You’ll also lead the group’s international Data Centre Competence Centre, so your remit doesn’t stop at the German border.
• You can be based in Frankfurt or Munich, and working hours and location are flexible. They care about results, not how many hours you spend at your desk.
• It’s family-owned, so there aren’t many layers between you and the people who sign things off.
• You get the freedom of a startup without worrying whether payroll clears.
• If the business grows, so does your role. Nobody’s putting a ceiling on it.
• The package: salary dependent on experience plus profit share, 30 days’ holiday plus Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve off, flexitime, a decent training budget, Jobticket paid, bike leasing and a choice of health and wellbeing benefits. 91% of their German staff rate it a Great Place to Work, which is more than most can say.

What you’d actually be doing

• Building the data centre business: market strategy, business development, bids, and relationships with hyperscale, colo and enterprise clients
• Hiring and leading the team in Germany
• Leading the technical side: high-availability power (MV/LV, UPS, 2N/N+1), grid integration, cooling, energy efficiency, EN 50600 and German regulations
• Taking overall responsibility for projects from feasibility and grid applications through to commissioning, across EPC and HOAI phases
• Keeping on top of cost, programme, procurement, subcontractors and stakeholders, including DSOs, TSOs and local authorities

What they’re looking for

• A degree in Electrical Engineering, Energy Engineering, Building Services (Versorgungs- oder Gebäudetechnik) or a related discipline
• At least 8 years’ experience in the planning, design and delivery of data centre projects, including a proven record in a leadership role
• Proven experience of taking complex data centre projects from concept through to commissioning
• In depth expertise in data centre electrical infrastructure and high-availability power systems (MV/LV, UPS, generation, 2N/N+1 redundancy)
• Sound knowledge of the relevant standards and regulations, including EN 50600 and German regulatory requirements
• A strong grasp of energy efficiency and sustainable data centre design (PUE, WUE, heat reuse, high-density cooling)
• Proven experience in risk analysis, value engineering and technical optimisation
• Strong skills in project control, technical documentation and organisational development
• Experience leading teams and managing senior stakeholders, including clients, authorities and grid operators
• Negotiation level German and English
• Experience setting up a new business unit, service line or market
• A background in grid connection, HV or renewable energy projects
• Experience working within the HOAI framework