Principal MEP Advisor - Design Authority

IS3 Solutions; United States; Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

IS3 Solutions is seeking a Principal MEP Advisor to lead data center facility design reviews and assurance across strategic AI infrastructure engagements. You will translate high-performance architecture requirements into actionable facility decisions, while maintaining executive relationships and delivering on global engagements.

You will guide MEP design reviews, oversee delivery partners, and help build the practice's methodologies and playbooks.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in data center / mission-critical facilities
• Liquid cooling expertise in high-density environments
• Experience advising senior stakeholders in consulting/owner-side roles
• Experience overseeing trade partners (GCs, MEP subcontractors, commissioning agents)
• Working knowledge of high-density AI/HPC facility requirements
• US/APAC/intl code jurisdiction familiarity
• Leadership in building teams, practice IP, and engagement playbooks

Responsibilities

• Review and red-line client and partner MEP designs for risks and conflicts before field execution.
• Architect integrated facility solutions with IT, AI, networking, and infrastructure teams.
• Evaluate and oversee delivery partners to ensure design intent, schedule and quality.
• Lead facility readiness assessments, design reviews, and executive workshops.
• Help interview and mentor discipline reviewers; support pursuit teams and proposals.

Skills

Data center design

Executive communication

Project leadership

M&E systems design

Technical review

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Professional Engineer license

Tools

BIM

MEP design software

NVIDIA rack-scale platforms

Job description

50-75% Travel Nation-wide at Data Center Build Client Sites. MUST be open to travel with a remote home-base. Technical design and review authority for data center facilities on strategic AI infrastructure engagements. This is a design-and-assurance role, not a self-perform or engineer-of-record role, carrying director-level expectations for technical judgment, executive presence, and influence. This role is accountable for:

• Reviewing and red-lining client and partner MEP designs — power, cooling, floor planning, and fire suppression — to find risks and conflicts before they reach the field, across greenfield and retrofit-for-AI-density builds.
• Evaluating, qualifying, and technically overseeing delivery partners — MEP engineering firms, commissioning agents, cabling and cooling specialists — to ensure buildouts meet design intent, schedule, and quality standards.
• Founding and growing the practice's review methodology, deliverable standards, and playbooks, and helping vet the discipline reviewers hired within the first year.

The Principal MEP Advisor operates at the intersection of construction and computing — translating high-performance architecture requirements into facility realities, and facility constraints into architecture decisions — while building the trusted executive relationships that anchor long-term client partnerships. You will step into multiple active global engagements from day one.

Key Responsibilities

Client Leadership

• Serve as trusted facilities advisor to client executives (CIO, CTO, COO, heads of infrastructure and real estate), translating ambiguous requirements into actionable facility roadmaps.
• Lead facility readiness assessments, design reviews, and executive workshops; own recommendations and their outcomes.
• Act as executive sponsor for facilities workstreams on strategic engagements. Design & Review Authority
• Review and red-line client and partner MEP designs — power, cooling, floor planning, and fire suppression — identifying risks, gaps, and conflicts before they reach the field.
• Architect integrated facility solutions in partnership with AI, networking, and infrastructure teams — bridging IT loads to facility capabilities.
• Serve as the technical backbone of the teams independent assurance — validating that what was designed was built and will perform.
• Maintain currency with AI-density reference architectures, NVIDIA rack-scale platforms, and facility OEM ecosystems. Partner Orchestration & Oversight
• Evaluate, qualify, and oversee general contractors, MEP subcontractors, engineering firms, and commissioning agents on client buildouts.
• Review partner deliverables and progress; drive corrective action when work drifts from intent; hold partners and OEMs to their commitments.
• Identify risks, gaps, and quality concerns and proactively drive corrective actions.
• Build co-delivery relationships with facility OEMs and A&E and commissioning partners. Practice Building & Talent
• Develop FIT methodology, deliverable standards, and engagement playbooks; contribute practice IP and accelerators.
• Support pursuit teams: scope engagements, shape proposals, and price advisory work.
• Help interview and mentor the discipline reviewers who extend your capacity; represent the client in industry forums.

Required

• Significant experience (typically 12+ years) in data center / mission-critical facilities, including direct accountability for major phases of new-build data center projects (design review, construction oversight, or commissioning). Data center-specific experience is required; general commercial construction alone does not qualify.
• Deep expertise in liquid cooling for high-density environments — direct-to-chip and rear-door, CDUs, and coolant distribution — with working fluency across electrical/power, floor planning, and fire suppression.
• Experience advising senior stakeholders in a consulting, advisory, owner's-representative, or owner-side leadership capacity.
• Experience qualifying and overseeing trade partners (GCs, MEP subcontractors, commissioning agents).
• Working knowledge of high-density AI/HPC facility requirements, including liquid cooling and high-density power distribution.
• Bachelor's degree in engineering or a related field, or equivalent professional, military, or trade experience. Preferred
• Depth in electrical/power as a second discipline, alongside cooling.
• Recent, direct experience on liquid-cooled, high-density (60kW+ rack) designs.
• Experience across multiple international code jurisdictions (US and APAC - Australia, Singapore, Malaysia a plus).
• Demonstrated success standing up a team, practice, program, or office.
• Credentials such as PE license, Uptime Institute ATD/ATS, DCEP, CDCDP, or ASHRAE participation.
• Familiarity with commissioning levels (L1-L5) and construction-lifecycle quality assurance. Leadership & Interpersonal
• Executive presence with the ability to engage, influence, and build lasting relationships at the senior-most client levels.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to synthesize complex facility trade-offs into clear executive narratives.
• Collaborative working style across engineering, sales, and delivery teams.

Travel:

Up to 50%, including international.

Differentiating Competencies

Candidates who thrive in this role typically demonstrate the following beyond baseline qualifications:

• Bilingual Builders — Fluent in both construction documents and compute architectures; equally credible on an active construction site and in a boardroom.
• Founding Contributors — Energized by blank-canvas mandates; build methodology, pipeline, and team simultaneously.
• Risk Spotters — Can walk a site or a one-line diagram and identify what's wrong before it becomes a change order.
• Accountability Anchors — Hold trade partners, OEMs, and themselves to commitments; clients remember them as the person who caught it.
• Ecosystem Connectors — Bring working relationships across OEMs, A&E firms, GCs, and commissioning agents.
• Global Collaborators — Effective across regions, codes, and cultures.