Director - Data Centers

NEI Electric Power Engineering, Inc.; Grand Rapids (MI); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

NEI Electric Power Engineering, Inc. seeks a Senior Director to lead the Data Center market strategy and delivery capability.

This executive will partner with MC&I leadership to drive growth, build client relationships, and expand the project pipeline while ensuring technical excellence and scalable delivery. The role focuses on developing people, recruiting top talent, and aligning staffing with market opportunities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s in engineering
• 10+ years of relevant engineering or field experience
• 5+ years of relevant business experience
• PE licensure preferred but not required
• Strong knowledge of electrical engineering in the Data Center industry
• Extensive experience producing and managing deliverables

Responsibilities

• Lead market strategy and go-to-market plans for the Data Center portfolio, setting revenue, margin, and client goals.
• Serve as engineering leadership point of contact for top Data Center accounts; develop strategic account plans and QBRs.
• Own workflow processes, QA/QC, and delivery standards to ensure on-time, quality outcomes.
• Own portfolio financial performance, forecast backlog, revenue, and gross margin; monitor KPIs and optimize cost.
• Recruit, onboard, and mentor leaders and engineers; build succession plans and foster a high-performance culture.

Skills

Electrical engineering

Data Center

Leadership

Project management

Client relationship management

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Job description

About the Position

Mission

Establish NEI as the preferred electrical power partner in the data center market for data center developers, owner/operators, IPPs, utilities, EPCs, and hyperscalers by delivering trusted early-phase guidance and reliable, scalable power delivery solutions from feasibility through energized assets.

The Director is a senior leadership position within MC&I responsible for growing and strengthening the company’s business providing solutions to the Data Center market. This role will collaborate on the strategy for the business line, develop key client relationships, expand the project pipeline, build technical capability, and drive strong financial and operational performance.

Primary metrics: Customer NPS and business EBITDA.

A central responsibility of the Director will be developing the people and organizational capacity needed to support sustainable growth. The Director will recruit highly technical talent, strengthen the onboarding and development of personnel, create clear technical progression pathways, and build leadership depth across the team. This leader will partner with technical subject matter experts to identify critical competencies, establish training priorities, support knowledge transfer, and ensure employees are prepared to perform increasingly complex work.

The Director will work closely with MC&I leadership, Business Development, Project Management, Talent Acquisition, and technical leaders to align market opportunities with staffing capacity and delivery capability. The ideal candidate is a commercially minded leader with strong industry expertise, the ability to attract and evaluate specialized technical professionals, and the leadership skills to grow both the business and the people responsible for delivering the work.

Salary Range: $130,000 - $180,000 / year

The salary range above is based upon the Denver, Colorado labor market.

Essential Responsibilities

Market & Strategy Leadership

• Collaborate on and execute a focused Data Center (Mission Critical) go to market plan aligned to company strategy; set clear revenue, margin, and client goals for the portfolio.
• Identify and launch new scopes and services as required to serve the Data Center market.
• Form, negotiate, and manage strategic partnerships that round out NEI’s offerings and scale delivery capacity.
• Drive NEI’s strategy for industrial involvement and thought leadership at key conferences, standards bodies, and trade organizations, leveraging panels, whitepapers, webinars, etc.

Client Leadership & Growth (Seller Doer)

• Serve as engineering leadership point of contact for top Data Center accounts; collaborate with Client Services on strategic account plans and QBRs.
• Drive pipeline health and order intake in partnership with Client Services; qualify pursuits with pricing discipline and risk awareness.
• Maintain superior Client NPS by ensuring proactive communication, responsive issue resolution, and measurable outcomes.
• Oversee staffing, scheduling, and prioritization across multiple teams; manage utilization and forecast workload against backlog.

Project Delivery & Quality

• Own workflow processes across multiple teams; enforce standards, checklists, and scalable delivery frameworks tuned for client needs.
• Oversee program QA/QC program and ensure compliance to quality requirements.
• Drive budget performance, first-pass quality, on-time delivery, and claim avoidance; maintain professional knowledge of applicable codes/standards and construction practices.

Financial & Operational Management

• Own Data Center portfolio financial performance (forecast, backlog, revenue, gross margin/Profit BBT, utilization).
• Support VP in building annual and quarterly business plans; monitor KPIs; correct courses early.
• Improve schedule and cost performance through automation, standard templates, and lessons learned.

People Leadership

• Recruit, onboard, and mentor Team Leads, Technical Leaders, Engineers, and Designers; build a bench and clear succession plans.
• Set crisp expectations, provide ongoing feedback, and cultivate a high-performance culture that balances freedom and accountability.

Must Have

• Education: Bachelor’s in engineering from an accredited institution
• Experience: 10+ years of relevant engineering or field experience
• Business Experience: 5+ years of relevant business experience
• Licensure: PE is preferred but not required
• Strong knowledge and familiarity with electrical engineering in the Data Center industry.
• Extensive experience producing and managing deliv