Lead Telecommunications Designer (Mission Critical/Data Center)

WSP in the U.S.; Herndon (VA); Hybrid; USD 131,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

KW Mission Critical Engineering, a WSP USA company, seeks a Lead Telecommunications Designer for hyperscale data centers. You will guide telecom design from planning to turnover, lead technical reviews, and mentor junior designers.

Hybrid or remote work options exist; candidates must understand owner-controlled environments and deliver scalable, constructible solutions across campuses.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of telecommunications or ICT design experience with leadership.
• Experience leading data center telecom packages and Revit drawings.
• Ability to produce coordinated telecom construction documents in Revit.
• Strong knowledge of structured cabling, pathways, and grounding.
• Experience interpreting owner standards and coordinating deviations.

Responsibilities

• Design data center telecom infrastructure, cabling, spaces, pathways, fiber/copper layouts.
• Lead telecommunications design delivery from planning through construction.
• Evaluate design options for capacity, redundancy, and maintainability.
• Interpret client standards and coordinate changes across deliverables.
• Coordinate interfaces with building, network, operations, and commissioning teams.
• Develop Revit drawings and basis-of-design narratives; ensure QA before issue.

Skills

Telecommunications design leadership

Project leadership

Coordination across teams

Verbal & written communication

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Engineering or related field

BICSI RCDD certification

Tools

Revit

Division 27 specifications

BIM coordination

Job description

Job Description

Building ICT & Structured Cabling | Hyperscale Data Center Projects

kW Mission Critical Engineering, a WSP USA company, is currently initiating a search for aLead Telecommunications Designer- Building ICT & Structured Cabling for Hyperscale Data Center Projects to work a hybrid schedule out of one of our kW offices (Troy NY, New York City, Atlanta GA, Herndon VA, Milwaukee WI, Tempe AZ, Houston TX, or Dallas TX) or fully remote.

Job Description

Great people. Great places. Great projects. WSP is a high-performance, fast-paced consulting engineering firm designing data centers and mission critical environments across the globe. We hire smart, responsive team players to work in collaborative, mentoring settings. Our mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, controls, telecommunications, and security building system designs keep many of the world’s top Fortune 100 financial, technology, enterprise, hyperscale, and colocation companies up and running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

We work on innovative, award-winning, large-scale projects. We travel to construction sites to see our designs being built. As part of WSP, wecanoffer our employees increased professional development and career opportunities in addition to our office culture, which is consistently recognized as one of the “Best Places to Work.” Join our great people at our great places designing great projects.

This Opportunity

WSP is seeking a Lead Telecommunications Designer to join our Mission Critical / Data Center Building Technology Systems (BTS) team supporting hyperscale data center and mission-critical facilities. This role provides technical leadership and design authority for telecommunications and structured cabling systems, supporting projects from early planning through construction, commissioning, and turnover.

The successful candidate will serve as a technical leader for large-scale telecommunications infrastructure programs, translating owner requirements into scalable, repeatable, and constructible solutions while supporting some of the world's most advanced hyperscale and mission-critical facilities. The position requires experience operating within owner-controlled design environments where standards, governance processes, prototypes, and quality expectations are applied consistently across multiple projects, campuses, and geographic regions

Your Impact

• Design data center building and campus telecommunications infrastructure, including structured cabling, telecommunications spaces, inside- and outside-plant pathways, fiber and copper distribution, wireless access point layouts, and associated underground infrastructure.
• Serve as the Division 27 technical lead for assigned projects, independently directing telecommunications design delivery from planning through construction, commissioning support, and turnover. Exercise delegated project approval authority and elevate significant scope, fee, schedule, or liability concerns to project and portfolio leadership.
• Evaluate data center telecommunications design alternatives for capacity, redundancy, physical-path diversity, failure-domain separation, maintainability, phased deployment, and commissioning readiness. Document recommendations through calculations, capacity studies, risk and constructability reviews, and basis-of-design narratives.
• Interpret and apply client telecommunications standards, identify gaps or conflicts, and develop coordinated resolutions. Document decisions, project-specific requirements, and approved deviations; coordinate changes across deliverables and process out issues outside delegated authority.
• Coordinate telecommunications interfaces with building-design, network, operations, construction, and commissioning teams. Lead design reviews and clearly communicate technical decisions, recommendations, risks, and project status to clients and project leadership.
• Develop coordinated Revit drawings, including plans, room layouts, risers, details, elevations, and schedules, together with Division 27 specifications and basis-of-design narratives. Align deliverables with client requirements, applicable codes and industry standards, authority having jurisdiction requirements, and WSP practices.

• Use coordinated Revit models to validate equipment layouts and pathways, resolve multidisciplinary clashes, and assess constructability while following project BIM execution plans, content standards, and quality procedures.
• Perform quality reviews of your own and others' telecommunications deliverables, checking coordination among drawings, specifications, schedules, and calculations. Resolve review comments and verify conformance with project requirements and established quality procedures before issue.

• Plan, assign, and monitor telecommunications work across concurrent project activities to meet agreed scope, schedule, and fee. Communicate resource needs, changes, and delivery risks to project and portfolio leadership.
• Evaluate existing and field conditions, review contractor submittals, respond to RFIs, and resolve telecommunications design issues for new data centers and phased expansions or renovations of operating facilities within delegated project authority.
• Guide junior designers by assigning appropriate work, reviewing deliverables, providing technical feedback, and supporting progressively greater independence and professional development.

Who You Are

You are an experienced telecommunications professional with strong technical depth, leadership capability, and a commitment to quality. You have successfully delivered telecommunications infrastructure within hyperscale or mission-critical environments and understand how ICT systems support reliability, scalability, operations, security, commissioning, and long-term facility performance.

You are comfortable operating within highly structured owner environments where standards, governance processes, prototype designs, and technical reviews drive project delivery. You possess the judgment to make sound technical decisions, communicate effectively with executive and technical stakeholders, and provide leadership to both project teams and developing designers.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of progressively responsible telecommunications or ICT design experience, including demonstrated technical leadership of telecommunications design delivery for hyperscale, cloud, colocation, or enterprise data centers.
• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Engineering Technology, Telecommunications, Information Technology, or a related field; equivalent relevant experience may be substituted.
• Demonstrated responsibility for leading coordinated data center telecommunications design packages, including Revit drawings, Division 27 specifications, multidisciplinary coordination, and construction-phase technical support.
• Demonstrated ability to produce coordinated telecommunications construction documents in Revit, direct and review junior designers' production, and independently complete production tasks when project staffing requires.
• Strong technical knowledge of structured cabling, telecommunications spaces, building and campus pathways, fiber and copper distribution, rack and equipment layouts, grounding and bonding, firestopping, labeling, and installation-testing requirements.
• Demonstrated application of data center telecommunications topology, redundancy, physical-path diversity, failure-domain separation, capacity planning, maintainability, and phased deployment, including coordination with building systems and operations teams.
• Experience interpreting and applying owner-controlled data center telecommunications standards and design templates, resolving review comments, and coordinating approved requirement changes and deviations across project deliverables.
• BICSI RCDD certification
• Working knowledge of BICSI, TIA, NEC, IEEE, applicable building and fire codes, AHJ requirements, and telecommunications industry best practices.
• Excellent verbal, written, organizational, and interpersonal communication skills, including the ability to interface directly with owner engineering, construction, operations, commissioning, and network stakeholders.
• Ability to undertake occasional, limited travel for site surveys, client meetings, and construction or commissioning coordination.
• Demonstrated commitment to workplace safety and compliance with company policies and procedures.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading telecommunications design for hyperscale campuses or repeatable data center designs across multiple sites.
• Experience with high-count or ultra-high-count fiber systems and large campus telecommunications infrastructure.
• Experience developing or improving telecommunications design standards, specifications, standard details, review checklists, or lessons learned for reuse across projects.
• Additional industry certifications such as DCDC, OSP, RTPM, PMP, or other telecommunications, data center, mission-critical, or project delivery credentials.
• Experience supporting telecommunications installation verification, acceptance testing, commissioning, and construction issue resolution in operating data center environments.

Why Join WSP

You will have the opportunity to contribute to some of the industry's most challenging and technically advanced hyperscale data center programs while working alongside multidisciplinary experts in mission-critical design. This role offers significant opportunities for technical leadership, professional growth, client engagement, and participation in the development of next-generation ICT infrastructure supporting global technology leaders.

WSP Benefits:

WSP provides a comprehensive suite of benefits focused on a providing health and financial stability throughout the employee’s career. These benefits include coverage related to medical, dental, vision, disability, and life; retirement savings; paid sick leave; paid vacation (or other personal time); paid parental leave; and paid time off for purposes of bereavement, voting, and/or attendance at naturalization proceedings.

Compensation:

Expected Salary (all locations): $131,000 - $180,000

WSP USA is providing the compensation range that the company in good faith believes it might pay and offer for this position, based on the successful applicant’s education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities in addition to internal equity and specific geographic location. WSP USA reserves the right to ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and offer additional benefits and other compensation, depending on circumstances not related to an applicant’s sex or other status protected by local, state, and/or federal law.

About WSP

ABOUT US

WSP USA is the U.S. operating company of WSP, one of the world's leading engineering and professional services firms. Dedicated to serving local communities, we are engineers, planners, technical experts, strategic advisors and construction management professionals. WSP USA designs lasting solutions in the buildings, transportation, energy, water and environment markets. With more than 15,000 employees in over 300 offices across the U.S., we partner with our clients to help communities prosper.

www.wsp.com

WSP provides a flexible and agile workplace model while meeting client needs. Employees are also afforded a comprehensive suite of benefits including medical, dental, vision, disability, life, and retirement savings focused on providing health and financial stability throughout the employee’s career.

At WSP, we want to give our employees the challenges they seek to grow their careers and knowledge base. Your daily contributions to your team will be essential in meeting client objectives, goals and challenges. Are you ready to get started?

WSP USA (and all of its U.S. companies) is an Equal Opportunity Employer Race/Age/Color/Religion/Sex/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity/National Origin/Disability or Protected Veteran Status.

The selected candidate must be authorized to work in the United States.