Director, Data Hall Design

nscaleoperationsukltd; United States; On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Nscale is seeking a Director-level professional to lead its data hall design practice for AI infrastructure. You will translate complex GPU, networking, storage, power, and cooling requirements into precise, buildable data hall design packages for global deployments.

You will establish standards, templates, and quality processes, and build a scalable team of data hall designers as the portfolio grows. This hands-on senior role requires leadership and deep technical expertise.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in data hall design or data center infrastructure design.
• Experience designing physical infrastructure for high-density compute environments.
• Strong knowledge of GPU cluster physical design and networking topology.

Responsibilities

• Own data hall layout design from concept to construction-ready packages.
• Design rack layouts for GPU clusters, cooling, power, cable management, access.
• Translate network architecture into physical design for spine-leaf, fat-tree, GPU fabrics.
• Produce data hall deliverables: layout plans, rack elevations, cable layouts, BOMs.
• Develop and maintain reusable data hall design standards and templates.

Skills

Data center design

GPU/HPC infra

Rack layouts

DCIM

Leadership

Stakeholder collaboration

Tools

CAD tools

DCIM tools

BOM tooling

Job description

About Nscale

Nscale is the vertically integrated AI cloud engineered for AI. We own and operate the full stack - energy, data centers, GPU superclusters, orchestration, and AI services - delivering high-performance infrastructure to AI-native companies, enterprises, and governments across Europe and the US. We are deploying GPU capacity at hyperscale, operating some of the densest, most advanced AI infrastructure in the world. At Nscale, our Data Center Design team plays a critical role in turning AI infrastructure requirements into buildable, scalable facilities across our global portfolio. We thrive on a culture of relentless innovation, ownership, and accountability, where every team member takes pride in their work and drives it with excellence and urgency. As an Nscaler, you'll build trust through openness and transparency, where everyone is inspired to do their best work. If you join our team, you'll be contributing to building the technology that powers the future.

About the Role

As Director, Data Hall Design, you will build and lead Nscale's data hall design practice, the specialist function responsible for the physical design of AI infrastructure inside the data hall. This includes GPU rack layouts, high-speed network and storage topology, structured cabling, fiber tray routing, patch matrices, rack-level power distribution, and bill of materials development.

The role sits at the intersection of AI infrastructure architecture, physical data center design, construction delivery, and operations. You will translate complex GPU, networking, storage, power, and cooling requirements into precise, buildable design packages that construction, installation, procurement, and operations teams can execute with clarity.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role at launch. You will establish standards, templates, and quality processes, and build a scalable team of data hall designers as Nscale's global portfolio grows.

What You'll be Doing

• Own data hall layout design across Nscale's AI data center portfolio, from early concept layouts through construction-ready drawing packages.
• Design rack layouts that optimize for GPU cluster topology, compute density, cooling strategy, power distribution, cable management, and operational access.
• Translate network architecture into physical design for spine-leaf, fat-tree, rail-optimized GPU fabric, InfiniBand, Ethernet, storage, and management networks.
• Produce clear data hall design deliverables, including layout plans, rack elevations, cable management plans, fiber tray layouts, patch matrices, topology diagrams, power distribution plans, BOMs, and asset documentation.
• Design structured cabling systems for high-density AI environments, including fiber type, connector type, polarity, bend radius, slack management, labeling, color coding, and documentation standards.
• Integrate thermal and power requirements into data hall layouts, including hot/cold aisle containment, rear-door heat exchangers, direct liquid cooling, immersion cooling, rack loads, power feeds, and cable pathway requirements.
• Develop accurate bills of materials for data hall equipment, cabling, hardware, accessories, and procurement packages, from early budget estimates through construction-ready packages.
• Establish DCIM and asset documentation standards covering rack positions, device assignments, port mappings, power connections, IP addressing, as-built records, and operational handover.
• Partner closely with network engineering, IT architecture, MEP engineering, construction, procurement, operations, commissioning, and design technology teams.
• Develop and maintain reusable data hall design standards, templates, reference layouts, quality review processes, and delivery cadences.
• Stay current on AI hardware evolution, including new GPU generations, switch architectures, optical interconnects, liquid and immersion cooling, and increasing rack power densities.
• Build and lead a team of data hall designers as the portfolio scales, setting expectations for technical quality, documentation, delivery pace, and cross-functional collaboration.

About You

• 10+ years of experience in data hall design, data center infrastructure design, IT infrastructure planning, structured cabling engineering, or a closely related technical field.
• Deep experience designing physical infrastructure for high-density compute environments, including rack layout, power distribution, cooling integration, and structured cabling.
• Strong knowledge of GPU cluster physical design, ideally including NVIDIA DGX/HGX systems, SuperPOD-scale environments, or comparable AI/HPC infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of high-speed networking physical design, including InfiniBand, 100G/400G/800G Ethernet, spine-leaf and fat-tree topologies, and GPU fabric architectures.
• Expertise in structured cabling and fiber infrastructure, including OS2, OM3/OM4/OM5, LC, MPO/MTP, polarity schemes, loss budgets, and high-densit